{"id":5899,"date":"2014-08-22T14:35:20","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T14:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/?p=5899"},"modified":"2021-05-19T01:04:11","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T01:04:11","slug":"ee-council-issues-long-awaited-call-for-restoration-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/2014\/08\/22\/ee-council-issues-long-awaited-call-for-restoration-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"E&E: Council issues long-awaited call for restoration projects"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Annie Snider, E&E reporter
\nPublished: Thursday, August 21, 2014<\/i><\/div>\n
\nThe federal-state panel tasked with spending fines linked to the 2010
\nGulf of Mexico oil spill put out a call this afternoon for ecosystem
\nrestoration projects — a critical step in what has been a
\nfrustratingly slow process for many involved.<\/p>\n

The guidelines released today by the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration
\nCouncil will be used to select projects for a “Funded Priorities List”
\nthat will be eligible for money from the first tranche of civil fines
\nrelated to the spill — roughly $150 million from Transocean Deepwater
\nInc. The total amount of money available to the council remains up in
\nthe air as the federal government’s case against BP PLC over Clean
\nWater Act liability remains ongoing.<\/p>\n

The initial selection round will focus on projects targeting habitat
\nand water quality improvements. It will also emphasize projects that
\nare aimed at addressing significant ecosystem issues, that are
\nsustainable over time, that are likely to succeed and that will benefit
\nthe human community, the council said in its guidelines.<\/p>\n

“We are excited to announce the start of the project selection process
\nand look forward to receiving excellent proposals from our Council
\nmembers in the coming months,” Justin Ehrenwerth, the council’s
\nexecutive director, said in a statement. “The Council adopted a merit-
\nbased process to evaluate and select projects which will put the
\nCouncil members in a strong position to move forward with project
\nimplementation.”<\/p>\n

The RESTORE Act, passed by Congress more than two years ago, sends 80
\npercent of civil fines related to the 2010 spill back to the five Gulf
\nstates — Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. That
\nmoney is divided into three main pots, one of which, holding 30 percent
\nof the total funds, is to be managed by the council for Gulfwide
\necosystem restoration.<\/p>\n

The initial comprehensive plan approved by the council last year was
\nsupposed to include the Funded Priorities List and a 10-year spending
\nplan, but the council said it was hamstrung without a long-stalled
\nregulation from the Treasury Department laying out how the spill money
\ncould be spent.<\/p>\n

Treasury last week broke the logjam, approving an interim rule (E&ENews
\nPM, Aug. 13).<\/p>\n

The submission guidelines released today add detail to a fact sheet on
\nsubmission released by the council ahead of a Senate hearing last month
\n(E&E Daily, July 30). Language from the fact sheet that had raised
\neyebrows from environmentalists about projects benefiting human
\ncommunities at the point of implementation does not appear in the new
\nguidelines.<\/p>\n

Project submissions must also include a list of all applicable
\nenvironmental compliance requirements such as permits, an issue that
\nrestoration advocates are keeping a close eye on.<\/p>\n

“Getting the project selection process right is so important to
\ncomprehensive Gulf restoration. If we do it correctly, we can create
\njobs, conserve fish and wildlife habitat, and save the way of life
\nwe’re privileged to enjoy on the coast,” Bob Bendick, director of the
\nNature Conservancy’s Gulf of Mexico program, said in a statement.
\n“While this is just the beginning of the process, we hope the
\nprocedures announced today will enable the implementation of projects
\nthat allow the Gulf to remain the special place it is and something
\nwe’ll be proud to hand down to our children.”<\/p>\n

Only council members — representatives of the five states and the
\nfederal agencies — can submit a project to be considered by the<\/p><\/div>\n

council.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Annie Snider, E&E reporter Published: Thursday, August 21, 2014 The federal-state panel tasked with spending fines linked to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill put out a call this afternoon for ecosystem restoration projects — a critical step in what has been a frustratingly slow process for many involved. The guidelines released today … Continue reading E&E: Council issues long-awaited call for restoration projects<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19,12,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bp-spill","category-gulf-of-mexico-clean-up","category-gulf-restoration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5899"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6094,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5899\/revisions\/6094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}