§548.  Exercise of powers

The assistant secretary of conservation shall exercise his powers so as to provide, under the priorities hereinafter set forth, to the maximum extent practicable, for:

(1)  Protection of public health, safety, and welfare (including maintenance of hospitals, juvenile and adult correctional institutions, nursing homes, dormitories, hotels, motels, and residential heating, such as individual homes, apartments, and similar occupied dwelling units);

(2)  Maintenance of agricultural operations, and the processing of agricultural products, including farming, ranching, dairy, water conservation and commercial fishing activities, and services directly related thereto, and maintenance of food processing plants, businesses and facilities processing products for human consumption;

(3)  Operations and encouragement of exploration, production, processing, and refining efforts to attain maximum production or extraction of oil, intrastate natural gas and other hydrocarbons;

(4)  Maintenance of all public services (including facilities and services provided by municipal, cooperative, or investor owned utilities or by any state or local government or authority, and including transportation facilities and services which serve the public at large);

(5)  Maintenance of commercial and industrial, business, plant and facility operations, particularly to minimize economic dislocation of business, and industry, and employment therein;

(6)  Preservation of an economically sound and competitive petroleum, petro-chemical and chemical industry;

(7)  Assistance to private industry in obtaining the most efficient and safe transportation of intrastate natural gas from the sources of supply and reserves to the different parts of the state through intrastate pipelines, regardless of the ownership of the intrastate pipelines, to obtain maximum utilization of all existing intrastate pipelines within the state of Louisiana, the intent of this Chapter being to encourage, direct, mandate and enforce the use of excess capacity of intrastate pipelines to foster the movement of intrastate gas about the state of Louisiana.

Added by Acts 1973, Ex.Sess., No. 16, §1, emerg. eff. Dec. 8, 1973, at 9:55 A.M.  Amended by Acts 1974, No. 501, §2; Acts 1977, No. 547, §1, eff. July 15, 1977.