News Roundup › BP Oil Disaster

On January 12, 2012 Louisiana state officials released a $50 billion, 50-year master plan to rebuild land lost due to erosion and protect coastal communities from future storm surges. The 50-year strategy is outlined in the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority’s plan update. Ambitious in scope, the plan takes into account funds that “the state is reasonably sure it will receive.” Although a monumental undertaking, restoring lost coastal wetlands and marshes is integral to maintaining a healthy coastline and community.

Source: The Times-Picayune | Archived Copy

Louisiana State University and Tulane University are among four Gulf Coast universities to share a $25.2 million, five-year federal grant to study various health effects from the 2010 oil spill and subsequent cleanup, with a focus on women and children.

Source: The Times Picayune | Archived Copy

“This is the most productive ecosystem in North America, on this continent, right here in the Gulf of Mexico,” he said. “The repercussions of this oil spill, the repercussions of this hurricane, the statistics prove, the facts prove there are national and international repercussions. Every taxpayer in this country is paying for the loss and the degradation of this ecosystem.”

“We haven’t had any oil released since the 15th of July and we continue to respond to these pockets of oil,” Zukunft told reporters. “They’re basically job sites where we still have residual oil in 600 miles of coastline that are still affected.”

He said about 22,000 workers are still involved in the cleanup in remote wetland locations.

“When people think coastline, you normally think the straight coastline of the Florida panhandle,” he said. “But when you get over here in Louisiana, it’s back in the marshes and estuaries in very remote locations.

“So the logistics are a challenge. There’s still quite a bit of work remaining,” he said.

Source: The Times-Picayune | Archived Copy

Eness is very worried that the fanfare will fade and the media attention will move on. The effects of the BP oil spill will remain long after the bottom kill has been performed on the well (at an as yet intederminate date, but likely this month).

Source: examiner.com | Archived Copy

“I don’t want to create any undo encouragement, ” Allen said on Fox, referring to the 10,000-barrel capture rate. “We need to be on task and get this thing done. We need to underpromise and overdeliver.”

Source: The Times-Picayune | Archived Copy