On November 4, 2019 Restore the Mississippi River Delta partners along with Coast Builders Coalition sent letters to Louisiana’s gubernatorial candidates asking for their responses to several questions regarding how Louisiana funds its coastal restoration and protection efforts.
The letter stated, “As governor, your actions to protect coastal funds will be critical. In that context, we are asking that you provide your positions and plans on specific fiscal issues related to the state’s coastal restoration and protection efforts. Louisiana’s ongoing land loss crisis threatens 2 million people who live in coastal areas, globally-significant infrastructure and industries, as well as critical fish and wildlife habitat that makes our state a ‘Sportsman’s Paradise.’ These funding questions come at a pivotal time for our state and its coastal program. On an annual basis for the next 12 years, Louisiana will receive payments from its portion of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement. These payments will be applied to allowable projects and programs from the Coastal Master Plan to address damages from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. When these $8 Billion in funds have been spent, Louisiana will lose a significant, recurring stream of revenue to fund its coastal program and the projects needed to protect 2 million coastal citizens, industries and wildlife from the worst effects of ongoing land loss and flooding.”
We asked the candidates to submit a response to our letter by November 11 and indicated that we would share their responses publicly.
Read our letters to the candidates in their entirety here:
John Bel Edwards
Eddie Rispone
To date, we have received a response from Governor Edwards, which we have made available below:
Unfortunately, we have yet to receive a response from Mr. Rispone. We will update this page with a response from his campaign should we receive one.