Louisiana’s Lt. Gov. Scott Angelle Tuesday announced that he has switched his party affiliation to Republican from Democrat — a decision that was largely motivated by what he sees as the Democrats’ dislike of the oil and natural gas industry in general, and the imposition of the blanket moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico specifically.

During the past five month as lieutenant governor, “I’ve been in the federal courts, court of appeals. I’ve listened to the arguments from both sides of the issue. I’ve read the reports from the bipartisan commission. I’ve heard the excuses from the Department of Interior, the White House staff, [and] the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy.

“I’m convinced that national Democrats see oil and gas companies as bad for America. I am convinced there’s a bias against the oil and gas industry that does not exist against other industries, like the automobile industry,” Angelle said at the Republican Leadership Summit in Baton Rouge, LA.

This “leads me today to be Louisiana’s newest member of the Louisiana Republican party,” said Angelle, who also has served as Gov. Bobby Jindal’s Department of Natural Resources secretary and chief liaison to the legislature.

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