I'd like to see how that study was done, as there is absolutely no indication is supports the conclusion you draw from it. Does it include Florida's Atlantic coast in the "Gulf" economy? How much of that oil industry is in Mexico? It seems like very skewed numbers to me, and there is not enough information to be determinative of anything.
Not that it really matters, even if oil is the largest industry in the US Gulf economy (which there is no evidence for, and it seems likely that this is not the case, but even assuming for the sake of argument that it is true), it doesn't matter. The moratorium on new drilling isn't hurting our oil industry as much as another oil spill would hurt our tourism, period. But the voice of the segment of the economy that benefits from tourism is not as unified as the oil industry, whose shills are very vocal indeed and adept at distorting facts. But when we cut through the BS, it's obvious to anybody that there is enough potential harm that could come from another oil spill, and enough public relations damage-control that needs to be done to combat the effects of the BP spill, that the moratorium is justified.
