Brassy Louisiana official wins fans in spill fight

BELLE CHASSE, Louisiana (Reuters) - Earlier this month the U.S. government told Billy Nungesser to stop dredging barrier berms off the Louisiana coast, so the head of Plaquemines Parish appealed to President Barack Obama.

Nungesser said in a note transmitted to the White House that if didn't get a reply within three hours he would go on national television. The White House got back to him before the cameras were even turned on.

"I'm so sick and tired of experts telling me what we can and can't do," Nungesser, who has been president of the parish, or county, about an hour south of New Orleans, since 2007, said in an interview. "They need to come out here and see the damage."

That a man of a relatively low political position would elicit a quick response from Obama is a testament to Nungesser's crusade for Louisiana's way of life and against what he sees as bureaucratic incompetence as BP's oil leak, the worst in U.S. history, cripples his state.

Plaquemines Parish, which supplies a large portion of the nation's seafood and oil, took a hard hit from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Now, the oil took its first swipe at the parish, coating its marshes and putting residents out of work.

"The president cares," said Nungesser, wildly popular in the parish of about 23,000 people. "But when he leaves town, that passion leaves on Air Force One."

He routinely lambastes Coast Guard officials, saying that Admiral Thad Allen lacks a "sense of urgency" about the leak.

He says it is "criminal" that BP is still running the cleanup operation. "If the same guy writing the check to the fishermen is fighting the oil, we're in trouble."

And he bristles -- loudly -- when anyone suggests his plan to build up the barrier islands by adding sand dredged from the surrounding water won't stop the approaching crude. The government wants the operation to move 2 miles further out, an idea Nungesser says is folly.

"Billy doesn't back down. He fights tooth and nail," said Randy Palmer, who runs a farmers market in Belle Chasse, La. "He cares a lot about this parish. His heart is here."

A NATIVE SON

Up for re-election in October, Nungesser, 51, is a self-made millionaire who owns catering and jambalaya mix businesses, and before Hurricane Katrina hit, raised elk and ran a horse farm for disabled children.

After dropping out of Louisiana State University in 1991, he started building self-contained sleeping quarters and selling them to oil firms. He sold the business 10 years ago to Oil States International Co, walking away with millions.

"I have more money than anyone could spend in a lifetime," he said. "I don't owe nobody a penny."

A portly man with a booming voice and probing eyes, he can usually be found in wrinkled pants and an open-collared shirt.

Nungesser received a heap of criticism recently when it was revealed a blind trust holding part of his money owns a local marina where the parish and BP are operating.

"It don't look good, but there's nothing illegal about it," said Jerry Hodnett, a member of the Plaquemines Parish Council and like Nungesser, a Republican.

Earlier this month, a state auditor found that Nungesser may have violated the parish's charter when he entered into three hurricane recovery contracts in 2007 without the parish council's permission.

Still, residents are effusive. Bumper stickers reading, "Support Billy's Barrier Island Plan" and "Dredge Baby, Dredge" are commonplace here.

Rumors here in southeastern Louisiana have been swirling that Nungesser will run for lieutenant governor this fall. Nungesser says he is interested because the position would give him control over the state's tourism marketing budget and would let him tout Plaquemines Parish to the world.

"I'm worried, though, that a lot of people would say, 'Billy deserted us,'" Nungesser said.

NOT HOLDING BACK

Just after Nungesser was told to stop dredging last week, he went on a tirade against Obama, saying the president needs to "get off his ass." Then the parish president threw salt in an open wound, bringing up the recent firing of Afghanistan commander General Stanley McChrystal.

"It's never right to criticize your commander in chief, but the president better take a step back," Nungesser said. "McChrystal may have done the president a favor. This country is losing the war out here and over there."

For Nungesser the statements were born out of frustration as acres of marshland, hundreds of species of sea life, and thousands of his residents are under siege from the oil.

"I don't hold nothing back," he said, smiling.

(Editing by Anna Driver and Cynthia Osterman)