An effort to pass the Restore Act by Louisiana lawmakers failed Wednesday in the House. The act would send 80 percent of fines from the Clean Water Act from the 2010 BP oil spill to Gulf Coast states affected by the spill.
The Restore Act is part of the $109 billion Senate transportation bill which funds highway, bridge and transit projects. It expires March 31. The Senate passed the bill 74-22.
According to the Times-Picayune, the House will take up a 90-day extension of the current transportation bill. Apparently, House Speaker John Boehner apparently went for the extension because he cannot get the votes for a GOP $260 billion, five-year transportation bill.
Some conservative Tea Party members say the bill is too expensive. They cite a decline in federal gas taxes because Americans have cutback on driving and are purchasing more fuel efficient vehicles because of high gas prices.Democrats have issues with provisions that would fund some of the spending through an increase for inland and offshore oil and gas development.
"House Republicans continue to show that they value ideology instead of job creation and coastal restoration," says Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce not only backs the bill with environmental and business groups, but it also questions why existing law "does not allow for allocation of any of the funds collected to be directed towards the environmental or economic recovery of the impact areas," as K. Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs at the Chamber, wrote to Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson. "The RESTORE Act would remedy this inequity by creating the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund to be funded by redirecting 80 percent of the civil penalties collected by the Environmental Protection Agency."
In the meantime, Jill Mastrototaro, Gulf Coast campaign director of the Sierra Club, sent out a petition via email today getting on the EPA about the reportedly hundreds of dead dolphins, whales and sea turtles that have been washing up on the Gulf's shores since the 2010 spill, as well as the inexplicable illnesses suffered by coast residents.
Mastrototaro wants the EPA to let the public know what exactly was in the dispersant chemicals dumped into the Gulf to breakdown the oil that gushed forth after the April 20, 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon that killed 11 and injured 17 others.
The petition states: "Two years after the BP oil spill, the public can only know the brand name of the chemicals used, but not what's in them. The EPA needs to decide what is more important - company secrets or the health of the public and our environment.
"Until we find out what's going on, we can't protect the dolphins or ourselves. Make sure the EPA stands up for the Gulf. Tell EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to protect public health and the environment - we need to know what's in our waters!
"This year, communities across the Gulf Coast have been pushing for better EPA regulation of oil dispersants and full disclosure of the ingredients in these toxic chemicals."
To see the petition, go here.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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