BATON ROUGE The petrochemical industry has long battled with the river pilots who help steer ships up and down the Mississippi River, mostly over the large fees the pilots charge industrial firms for their services.
Most of the skirmishing has played out in obscure regulatory meetings, with occasional faceoffs in court. Now, for the first time in years, the battle will move to the Louisiana Legislature.
House Bill 650 pushed by the chemical and energy industries and sponsored by Rep. Thomas Pressly, R- Shreveport, would make sweeping changes to the regulatory boards and rules for pilots. It would add industry members to their oversight panel and require the notoriously nepotistic groups to make an annual report of pilots, including a list of how many are related to other pilots or public officials. The bill was scheduled for a committee hearing Monday.
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