Today the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released a federal interagency roadmap focused on improving restoration efforts in coastal Louisiana and Mississippi.
View the White House press release: http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/Press_Releases/March_4_2010
The federal interagency working group was formulated over 6 months ago in response to the combined requests by Senator Mary Landrieu, the State of the Louisiana and a broad coalition of environmental organizations that urged the Obama administration to take a more coordinated approach to restoring and protecting coastal Louisiana.
The interagency working group, co-led by the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Office of Management and Budget and comprised of senior‐level officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Departments of the Army, Homeland Security, the Interior, and Transportation, visited the Gulf Coast region several times in 2009 and early 2010 and met with a number of stakeholders to identify obstacles and solicit solutions to the continued loss of wetlands in the region.
Still reeling from the impacts of 4 hurricanes in 5 years, previous state and federal efforts to advance significant restoration projects have clearly stalled in a tangled net of inadequate funding, murky policies and cumbersome bureaucracy.
“For decades we’ve tried to draw widespread federal attention to coastal Louisiana. We succeeded early on with the CWPPRA program, but that was 20 years ago and the problem has outpaced that program,” said Steven Peyronnin with the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. “Since then, the federal response to coastal Louisiana has been sporadic and uncoordinated at best. When you look at what this roadmap calls for, the agencies that are part of the proposed effort and you combine it with the President’s budget request for actually building restoration projects – we believe the federal government is serious about making progress on our coast.”
The interagency work plan adopts the Multiple Lines of Defense concept pioneered by the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation and the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana and calls for a strategic approach on the following objectives:
1. Work with Federal and State Partners to Articulate a Shared Long-Term
Vision
2. Promoting Science-based Decisions
3. Resolve Policy and Process Obstacles Impeding Progress
It also lays out 6 near term areas of focus over the next 18 months:
1. Develop an integrated State-Federal long-term Vision for the future of
the Louisiana and Mississippi coastline and recommend a governance
structure or other State-Federal entity needed to execute the Vision.
2. Identify near-term interim projects and the actions needed to expedite
implementation.
3. Improve science, analytical, and data management efforts.
4. Improve sediment management.
5. Improve the effectiveness of mitigation policies in support of the
long-term Vision for the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts.
6. Recommend modifications/improvements to existing Federal funding
programs or funding streams to facilitate an improved Federal
investment strategy for the coast.
“The interagency work plan is a remarkable step forward for coastal Louisiana. The plan correctly identifies some of the most challenging issues plaguing restoration efforts, but more importantly it outlines a strong and coordinated federal response consistent with the President’s budget recommendations for the region,” said Peyronnin.
The full roadmap can be viewed here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ceq/100303-gulf-coast-roadmap.pdf
Click here to read comments from Governor Bobby Jindal and Executive Assistant on Coastal Activities Garret Graves
Read Senator Mary Landrieu’s Comments
Read the press release from environmental organizations
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