Latest news: January 13, 2012
States picks winners and losers in new coastal plan
By John Snell, WVUE-TV, New Orleans. January 12, 2012.
“New Orleans, LA– The State of Louisiana launched the most detailed, and in some ways, most ambitious plan yet to rebuild its coastline…”
Bold plan proposed to save coastal Louisiana
By Cain Burdeau, Associated Press. January 12, 2012.
“NEW ORLEANS—A $50 billion, 50-year proposal aspires to stop coastal land loss in Louisiana, build new levee systems to protect cities and even begin to slowly reverse the trend of eroding marsh that has turned the entire southern portion of the state into one of the nation’s most vulnerable regions to sea level rise…”
La. coastal restoration plan has fishermen concerned
By Evan Anderson, WVUE-TV, New Orleans. January 12, 2012.
“Since the state laid out an elaborate new plan aimed at rebuilding the state’s coastline, it has raised red flags for many people in the fishing industry…”
Updated coastal master plan released to public
By The Houma Courier. January 12, 2012.
“The state has released a $50 billion, 50-year strategy to help protect some coastal residents from worsening storm surges and severe land loss that threatens to swallow communities…”
Gulf of Mexico oil spill environmental data drives damage assessment
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune. January 12, 2012.
“BP’s chief environmental scientist assigned to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on Thursday said the company, working with state and federal trustees, remains on a fast pace aimed at restoring resources damaged during the 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Briefing reporters by phone in advance of a month-long series of hearings on proposed “early restoration projects” along the Gulf Coast, Robin Bullock said the formal Natural Resource Damage Assessment process required under federal law has developed “the largest set of environmental data at one point in time associated with an oil spill incident within the Gulf of Mexico…”
Cameron Parish at the Center of Domestic Energy Exploration
By Ashely Guidroz, KATC, Lafayette. January 12, 2012.
“Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Secretary Scott Angelle said today Cameron parish is the current focal point for a new frontier in domestic energy exploration, as operators proceed with two onshore drilling projects in the parish targeting inland depths not permitted before in the state. One of those exploration wells, in the Johnson’s Bayou area in western Cameron parish, has been drilling for more than a year and has reached 25,500 feet – deeper than any previous well in the state. No well on record has produced at a depth below surface of 24,000 or deeper…”