Hurricanes & Oil Spills

Show your #LOVE for the gulf: RESTORE Act online week of action starts Monday

Show your #LOVE for the gulf: RESTORE Act online week of action starts Monday

By Ryan Rastegar, Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign Coordinator Starting Monday Feb. 13 and continuing throughout the week, the Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign will be sending some Valentine’s Day love to the gulf! We’ll be tweeting and Facebooking specific members of Congress, urging them to send BP oil spill fines back to the gulf by passing the RESTORE Act. It has been almost two years since the devastating BP gulf oil spill of 2010, and Congress has yet to act to ensure that …

Predictive models form scientific backbone of Louisiana Coastal Master Plan

By Alisha A. Renfro, Ph.D., National Wildlife Federation Louisiana’s Draft 2012 Coastal Master Plan is a bold, ecosystem-scale restoration strategy that outlines a 50-year plan to combat the land loss epidemic in the Mississippi River Delta. The plan puts forth solutions to addressing the destructive impacts of sea-level rise, subsidence, increased storm intensity, marsh collapse and other factors on Louisiana’s disappearing coastline. The plan is a science-based approach that, at its core, uses a suite of linked models to predict …

Researchers examine Gulf oil spill’s effects on southeastern Louisiana salt marsh

By Alisha Renfro, Ph.D., National Wildlife Federation The BP oil disaster introduced more than 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, just off the southeastern Louisiana coast. An extensive effort is currently underway to assess the full damage of this catastrophic event on the rich and complex Gulf ecosystem. A study lead by Deepak Mishra, Ph.D. and published in Remote Sensing of Environment (vol. 118) is the first look at short-term impacts the oil spill had on …

Show your love (for the Gulf): NRDA public comment period ends Feb. 14

By Whit Remer, Environmental Defense Fund Valentine’s Day is an opportunity to tell loved ones how much they are cherished. For residents of the Gulf Coast, Feb. 14 is the last day to tell the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) trustees how much meaningful restoration in the Gulf means to you. On Dec. 14, 2011, the trustees released a Draft Phase I Early Restoration Plan/Environmental Assessment that proposes two restoration projects in Louisiana. The public comment period opened Dec. 14 …

A new year brings new opportunities for RESTORE Act

By Whit Remer, Environmental Defense Fund There is one unanswered wish many residents along the Gulf Coast are still hoping for this New Year: passage of the RESTORE Act. As Congress wrapped up 2011, there was talk all along the Gulf Coast and Washington, D.C. about the bill. And the buzz is resounding. Thanks to the efforts of citizens and organizations working to restore the Gulf Coast, members of Congress from across the region are returning to Washington determined to …

Scientists suggest evaluating ecosystem services to better understand Gulf oil spill impacts

By Alisha Renfro, Ph.D., National Wildlife Federation On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon platform exploded, resulting in a spill of 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Under the U.S. Oil Pollution Act of 1990, this oil spill triggered the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process, which determines the extent and severity of the injury to natural resources. The complexity of the GoM ecosystem—coupled with the scale of the event—poses a serious challenge to …

Trustees Take First Step Towards Gulf Restoration in Release of Draft Early Restoration Plan

By Whit Remer, Environmental Defense Fund On Wednesday (Dec. 14), the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Trustees released a draft restoration plan laying out the first phase of early projects funded under BP’s $1 billion dollar down payment to restore the Gulf. The draft plan (known as DERP/EA or “Draft Early Restoration Plan/Environmental Assessment) includes a total of eight projects that will be built across four states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The public will have 60 days …

Join today's RESTORE Act Facebook Day of Action!

Today is our RESTORE Act Facebook Day of Action!  Thank you to everyone who participated in yesterday’s RESTORE Act Twitter Day of Action, it was very successful! Anyone with a Facebook account can participate in today’s Day of Action, urging Senators Reid and McConnell to make the RESTORE Act a priority.  All you have to do is share THIS PHOTO with  your friends. You can write your own message, or you can use one of the following messages: Using money from …

84% of Florida Voters Support Bill to Spend BP Fines on Gulf Restoration

75% of State Voters More Likely to Support Candidates Who Back Bill (Tallahassee, Fla.—Dec. 12, 2011) Eighty-four percent of Florida voters and 92 percent of Panhandle voters support a bill approved by a Senate committee that would ensure the BP oil spill fines are spent on Gulf restoration, according to a new poll released today at news conferences in Tallahassee and Pensacola. The poll also showed 75 percent of Florida voters and 82 percent of Panhandle voters are more likely …

Join the RESTORE Act Social Media Days of Action!

By Elizabeth Skree, Environmental Defense Fund Today and tomorrow, we are asking everyone to participate in Twitter (today) and Facebook (tomorrow) Social Media Days of Action around the RESTORE Act, urging Congress to make the bill a priority this year. The RESTORE Act will ensure that 80 percent of the Gulf oil spill Clean Water Act penalties that BP and other responsible parties will have to pay will be returned the Gulf States that deserve it. We need Congress to …

House Committee Holds Hearing to Advance RESTORE Act

By Whit Remer, Environmental Defense Fund On Wednesday, the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee held a hearing on the RESTORE Act (H.R. 3096), a bill that would ensure that fines paid by BP and the other parties responsible for last year’s Gulf oil spill are used to support both environmental and economic restoration in the region. Rep. John Mica (R-FL) Chairman of the T&I Committee held the hearing to “hear everyone out in an open forum.” Rep. Mica said …

House Committee Praised for Holding Hearing on Gulf Restoration

Hearing follows two new reports recommending Congress use oil spill fines to restore Gulf (Washington, D.C.—Dec. 7, 2011) Groups supporting restoration of the Gulf Coast today thanked House leaders on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for drawing attention to the benefits of the RESTORE Gulf Coast States Act of 2011 by holding a committee hearing on the bill today at 10am. The RESTORE Act would ensure that fines paid by BP and the other parties responsible for last year’s Gulf …

Task Force Restoration Strategy is a Vital Next Step Toward Whole Gulf Recovery

By Elizabeth Skree and Whit Remer, Environmental Defense Fund Today, the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force released their final Ecosystem Restoration Strategy for the Gulf Coast.  After the BP oil disaster, the President established the Task Force through an executive order and charged the group with developing a restoration plan for the Gulf Coast.  You can download the strategy document here. This restoration strategy is a vital step in fulfilling the promises President Obama made in his first oval …

RESTORE Act Fines Could Provide Job Opportunities in Gulf Coast, 32 Other States

Economic Study Released 2 Days Before House Hearing on RESTORE Act  (Tallahassee, FL–December 5, 2011) The Clean Water Act penalties from last year’s BP oil disaster could kick start the launch of a long-term investment in ecosystem restoration and create jobs that would benefit at least 140 businesses with nearly 400 employee locations in 37 states, including more than 260 in the Gulf Coast and nearly 60 in Florida, according to a new Duke University study. The report—“RESTORING THE GULF …

Louisiana Seafood Reveals New Look and Marketing Strategy to Boost Brand Post-Oil Spill

By Chris Pulaski, National Wildlife Federation Louisiana seafood is getting a whole new look. On November 16, the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board (Louisiana Seafood) held a stakeholder summit in Houma, LA to update the region’s producers, distributors and retailers on the state of Louisiana seafood 18 months after the BP oil spill. Representatives introduced Louisiana Seafood’s new branding and marketing strategy—developed as part of BP’s $30 million payment for the promotion of Gulf seafood—as well as the new …