| jay [wwl.blog.today@blogger.com] has sent you an article from wwltv.com. Story: La. looks to get major influx of funds to fix eroding coast
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La. looks to get major influx of funds to fix eroding coast09:17 PM CST on Thursday, December 7, 2006The U.S. House delayed a Thursday night vote on a bill that would deliver a major shot in the arm for Louisiana's quest to shore up its sinking and frayed coast, the home of shrimp fishermen and this below-sea-level city.
 Associated Press File Photo House GOP leaders exiting power did not immediately say why the vote was postponed. In the Senate, GOP leaders were experiencing lingering unhappiness with the bill from several GOP senators, especially over extending trade benefits for textile exports from Haiti.
If the bill passes, Louisiana could begin to see tens of millions of dollars in federal royalty payments on natural gas and oil production in the Gulf of Mexico as soon as next year.
Initially, Louisiana would receive about $100 million a year, but that amount is expected to increase to more than $650 million a year by 2017.
That money now goes into the federal treasury, but Congress has become more open to sharing the royalties with the Gulf states that allow drilling off their shores.
The Senate would still need to approve the bill, but U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu was upbeat about the upper chamber giving it the nod. Both the House and Senate attached the drilling legislation to a package of popular tax measures.
Under the bill, a vast area in the eastern Gulf, 125 miles south of Florida's panhandle, would also be opened up to drilling.
The money would increase an already growing pool of funds for the state's coast. Last year, Louisiana got about $540 million in the energy bill; and since 1990 the state has had at its disposal about $50 million a year from a federal tax on outboard motors. In addition, Congress appropriated more than $3 billion to fix the New Orleans region's flood defenses in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Louisiana's delegation has sought a greater share of offshore royalties for years, arguing that coastal states are entitled to the money to repair damage the industry does to the coastline. By comparison, interior oil-producing states have long received half of federal royalties.
The new money, though, would st ill fall short of fulfilling the state's needs. Scientists e! stimate that it would cost more than $20 billion to re-engineer the Mississippi River and build levees to better protect the lower parts of Louisiana vulnerable to catastrophic flooding.
Offshore money "was viewed as the brass ring for so long before Katrina and Rita," said Rex Caffey, director of the Center for Natural Resource Economics and Policy at Louisiana State University.
But since the storms, it has become obvious that the state's needs outweigh even what this new source of money would be able to finance, he said.
"It's going to be a never-ending process. If someone thinks we're going to get a lump sum of money to solve our problems, they need to look at it more closely," said Mark Ford, the deputy director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. "Unfortunately, the coast is always deteriorating."
While Louisiana's congressional delegation was jubilant and self-congratulatory about the prospect of getting the funds, many questions remain about how the money will be spent and whether efforts to use the funds for coastal restoration and hurricane protection will ultimately be successful.
For years the state has been embroiled in a debate on how to fix south Louisiana's problems. For the past century, the state has lost more than 2,000 square miles of coast, an area roughly the size of Delaware; meanwhile, levees are sinking, barrier islands are eroding and scientists worry that sea level rise will swamp many low-lying areas.
The land loss stems mostly from human activities like oil drilling, logging and the alteration of water patterns in this swampy delta.
For the past 20 years efforts have gotten under way to reverse the land loss trends, but the state continues to lose the battle with the Gulf and scientists expect more than 700 square miles of land will be lost by 2050, roughly an area the size of the greater Wa shington, D.C., area.
"If we continue to l! ook at t his as little projects, instead of a programmatic approach, it's going to be a problem," said Kerry St. Pe, director of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program. "We need to spend it wisely."
The state has set up some mechanisms to ensure that offshore money is spent on coastal restoration. For example, voters passed a constitutional amendment on Sept. 30 that forces the funds to go into a special fund dedicated to wetlands and coastal preservation.
U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-La., said Louisiana needs to show that it can spend the money in a fashion that inspires confidence in the rest of the nation that Louisiana can be trusted.
"We have to keep our eyes on what happens in Baton Rouge," Jindal said. "We cannot afford to allow this money to go to political slush funds."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) |
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