In a stop that was part campaign stump and part oil industry prophecy, former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards exhorted those at the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale Summit to keep working to develop the area’s oil and natural gas resources.

“Before long, this area — from St. Francisville to all of southwest Mississippi — will begin to bloom,” Edwards said. “We are moving from (energy) dependence to independence. You will see the time when we will be exporting oil and natural gas.

“It is a hard fight. I know everyone here shudders every time the (Environmental Protection Agency) or (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) knocks on your door, but you have got to hang in there and not stop trying. Keep it up.

“While it is good to talk about wind power and sun power and other sources of energy, right now we depend on hydrocarbons.”

Edwards was the keynote speaker at the summit, which is dedicated to exploring the industrial potential and impact of the development of the TMS, a marine-deposited shale formation that has been the source bed for the Tuscaloosa sand sections that have been drilled in Mississippi for many years. Until recently, technological limitations have kept oil producers from tapping directly into the shale, but development of the shale play is starting to develop.

The shale is located under — though not limited to — Amite, Wilkinson and Adams counties and Concordia Parish.

Edwards served as Louisiana’s governor for four terms, from 1972-1980, 1984-1988 and from 1992-1996.

In 2001, he was convicted of racketeering and eventually served eight years in federal prison, a fact he jokingly alluded to several times Monday.

Edwards officially announced last month he would run for Congress in Louisiana’s Sixth District.

Edwards said he felt like running for Congress, even though he is 86, because he wants to be in a place where he can do things for people.

“If you’re wondering what the devil I will do in Congress, well, I tell you I can’t make it any worse,” he said.

“Since I got out of prison — yeah, I went to prison — I haven’t heard five people say they are happy with the government in Louisiana.

“I might be a small voice, but it is a big microphone (in Washington, D.C.). I am the kind of brother who tells it like it is.”

Edwards said he knows the oil industry, the state he would represent and the United States.

“I believe the fact that if this country is going to be economically safe and sound and we are to save ourselves, we are going to have to do it by production of goods and services, and that includes oil and gas,” he said.

In particular, Edwards said the Keystone Pipeline — which is proposed to run from Canada to the southern United States — is five years behind where it needs to be.

“The Canadians have oil, which we badly need,” he said. “We in Texas, Louisiana and some parts of Oklahoma have the refinery capacity.

“If we don’t buy it, the Chinese will buy it. They will take it to China and convert it into Mardi gras beads and electronics and things we don’t need, and we will buy the oil back at an increased price.”

Using Louisiana and Mississippi contractors, the pipeline could be built in two years time, Edwards said.

The former governor also called for a domestic policy that takes some money currently being funneled to Afghanistan and spending it in the U.S.

“We need to take the billions we are spending there and spend it here in this country,” he said. “There are a lot of roads that need to be repaired, bridges that need to be repaired. There are hundreds of unsafe bridges here.

“We are not doing the world a favor if we bankrupt ourselves in giving away what we are borrowing.”

The TMS summit will continue today, and will include discussions of environmental issues facing the TMS, energy for Mississippi and oil storage.