Latest news: October 12, 2011

EDITORIAL: Oil spill fines back to Gulf Coast

By Editorial staff, The American Press (Lake Charles, La.). October 11, 2011.

“Louisiana’s plea to dedicate the lion share of BP penalties paid because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to the Gulf States for Coastal Ecosystem Restoration appears to be gaining momentum and supporters…”

Working to reverse damage to Gulf of Mexico

By Editorial staff, The St. Petersburg Times (Tampa Bay, Fl.). October 12, 2011.

“Last year’s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the worst environmental disaster in this nation’s history. But the gulf’s health has deteriorated for decades. The restoration plan the Obama administration and the gulf states put forward this month marks an opportunity to begin reversing the ecological and economic damage to a vital national ecosystem…”

Gulf RESTORE Act introduced

By U.S. Congressman Jo Bonner, Atmore News (Atmore, Al.). October 12, 2011.

“More than a year after the tragic and deadly Deepwater Horizon explosion, thankfully, most of the visible oil has been removed from our beaches and tourists have returned to the Alabama Gulf Coast in record numbers. For all the progress that has been made, there is still a lot to be done to fully heal the scars and to ensure that future threats to our region will be minimized…”

Program converts oil platforms into artificial reefs

By Joshua Bergeron, The Daily Reveille (Baton Rouge, La.). October 12, 2011.

“On the surface, an abandoned Gulf oil rig is a massive steel structure that helps to maintain our quality of life. Below the surface, it’s a structure that supports an entirely different population — fish…”

Environmental groups to sue Taylor Energy Co., others over leaking oil well in Gulf

By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, La.). October 12, 2011.

“A group of Gulf Coast environmental organizations filed notice with the companies that bought New Orleans-based Taylor Energy Co. that they will file a lawsuit against them for allowing a Taylor well in the Gulf to continue to leak oil years after it was damaged by a hurricane. The groups say one or more wells at a Taylor platform 11 miles off the Louisiana coast have been leaking between 100 gallons and 400 gallons of oil a day since at least October 2006…”