The Times-Picayune of New Orleans Friday had a direct message for President Barack Obama, who is visting the Louisiana coast today to assess the latest effects of the Gulf oil leak. In a rare Page One editorial, the newspaper urges the president to give the state more of its share of energy-related revenue now, not in a few years as federal legislation requires.

Noting the damage of the oil leak on its shores, which is the subject of a second editorial inside the paper demanding better response, the front page piece seeks a quicker road to revenue for Louisiana.

“Today President Obama has the chance to personally witness how millions of gallons of crude pouring from BP's sundered pipes are befouling the Gulf of Mexico and our fragile estuaries,” the editorial states. “The nation benefits from the oil extracted by BP and others off our coast. But we are the state that bears the brunt of the oil industry's collateral damage. Thanks in large measure to the industry's crisscrossing pipeline canals, we're losing a football field of wetlands every 30 minutes and are more vulnerable than ever to hurricanes. Twice in the past five years, Louisiana has been knocked to its knees by disasters rooted in the quest for oil.”

See the entire front page HERE.