Tuesday night the Covington City Council approved a resolution asking President Barack Obama to rescind the moratorium on offshore deepwater drilling.

The resolution was written by the Louisiana Municipal Association and the Covington Counvil voted to endorse it by a 5-1 vote with Frances Dunn casting the dissenting vote.

She did not support the resolution because, she said, “ I think the President is on top of this.” The resolution states the “federally mandated embargo on offshore deepwater drilling could bring significant harm to Louisiana’s energy service industry and imperil the financial stability of the many coastal communities already suffering tremendously from the environment and economic impacts of the oil spill.”

The resolution also states the impact could result in the loss of up to 6,000 jobs within three weeks and more than 20,000 Louisiana jobs over the next 18 months. It also addresses the loss of income and employee layoffs and terminations for support businesses.

The loss of the rigs themselves was also mentioned in the resolution, “idle rigs in the Gulf of Mexico will likely be contracted overseas for work in others locations such as Africa and Brazil and may not return to the Gulf region for several years, greatly extending the state’s economic crisis cause by the oil spill.”

The resolution also cites the Department of the Interior’s May 2, “Increased Safety Measures for Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf.” It states the safety measures can be implemented quickly, in the next 30 days.

The resolution asks to reduce the moratorium to no more than 30 days and tasks the Department of the Interior, through the Minerals Management Service, to “conduct thorough inspections of all deepwater drilling facilities in the Gulf as well as implement strict safety measures and initiate actions to ensure compliance with safety mandates in order to minimize risks, ensure a safer working environment for employees and contractors, and greatly reduce job loss and adverse economic impacts on our region.”

The Council stated in their resolution that they “do hereby fully support the Resolution conveyed to President Barack H. Obama, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana Congressional Delegation, the 305 incorporated municipalities of Louisiana and the National League of Cities.”