In mid-June, U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, and other members of the Louisiana delegation wrote to President Barack Obama and asked for a meeting about the deepwater exploration and drilling moratorium.

As you surely must know by now, the Obama administration imposed the moratorium not long after the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. Oil was pouring into the Gulf. No one was sure there was any possible remedy except relief wells that would take several more weeks to complete. Economic forecasts were saying the moratorium could cost Lafayette alone 4,000 jobs and half a billion in wages.

This week, more than two months after the letter, Boustany told us at an editorial board meeting that he has never received a reply from the Obama administration about the meeting, let alone about the prospects for a quick end to the moratorium. When he has talked with administration officials, including Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, he isn’t getting much out of it.

“They’re certainly very dug in on this,” Boustany told us. “They’re not coming up with factual information, and that’s frustrating.”

Maybe the moratorium will be lifted early, as some officials seem to suggest, whether through voluntary action by the administration or through some sort of court action. Maybe the moratorium will last until its scheduled expiration Nov. 30 — exactly as long as hurricane season, but with a greater certainty of inflicting damage. Either way, Acadiana residents who fear for their jobs deserve more information than they’re getting from administration about the need to continue the moratorium.

As Associated Press business writer Alan Sayre noted last week, the most drastic of the predicted effects haven’t materialized. Two of the 33 deepwater platforms have moved from the Gulf, but there’s no apparent among the other 31. Statewide, fewer than 600 unemployment claims were linked to the energy industry in June and July. Chastened by the oil crunch, companies may hang on to skilled workers out of fear they won’t be able to replace them.

Yet we’re also beginning to hear anecdotal accounts of economic pain being felt not just by Acadiana companies that serve the energy industry, but the vendors that rely on those companies.

Louisiana’s federal lawmakers have put forward sensible proposals for expedited inspections and safety reviews that could put deepwater platforms safely back in the exploration business. Yet we hear only silence.

Even if there was no risk of damaging the nation’s energy production capacity, and no risk of increasing our reliance on foreign oil, the simple fact that we’re citizens gives us the right to more answers than we’re getting from the administration. It’s past time for the government to provide those answers.