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Energy Bill Gets Senate OK Measure Includes $540 Million for La. To Fight Erosion

Posted on: Monday, 1 August 2005, 12:00 CDT

WASHINGTON - Louisiana cleared its final hurdle Friday to receive $540 million to fight coastal erosion when the U.S. Senate passed the federal energy bill.

The Senate approved the bill, 74-26. Despite his opposition to providing oil and gas royalties to coastal states, President Bush has said he will sign the measure into law.

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., introduced the funding measure that was co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La. After the vote, Landrieu called obtaining the first-ever major infusion of cash from the federal government for coastal restoration "a fabulous victory."

"I can say for Louisiana that that money will be used to save America's wetlands, not just Louisiana's wetlands," Landrieu said. "That money will be put to good use."

The funding will be spread over four years beginning in 2007. About 35 percent of the money will go directly to the state's 19 coastal parishes.

Coastal restoration advocates on Friday said that the state will now need to show the rest of the nation that it can use the money wisely.

"It's a huge responsibility," said Mark Davis, executive director for the Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana. "This is a down payment we have to make use of."

Louisiana loses about 25 square miles of coastline each year. The price tag for repairing the erosion has been estimated at $14 billion.

"It's an important step in the adventure we're on," Davis said of the funding. "It's up to all of us in Louisiana to prove it's a smart investment."

Another provision that would have given the state $1 billion a year beginning in 2016 was struck from the bill. The state needed to get as much money as soon as possible for as long as it could, Landrieu said.

"We know four years isn't enough," she said. "It's better than what we had before, which was zero."

Getting an energy bill approved by Congress was seen as a major victory for President Bush, who has been calling for the measure since 2001.

A similar bill went down in defeat during the last Congress because of a provision that would have allowed drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge and a measure that would have erased liability for the maker of a gasoline additive known to pollute community water supplies. Both of those measures were taken out of this bill.

"It's been a long damn time," said U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R- N.M., who sits as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and guided both pieces of legislation.

After Friday's vote, Domenici acknowledged that the energy bill won't result in an immediate drop in the price of oil, which stands near $60 a barrel, or gas prices, now well over $2 a gallon.

"This bill will create more jobs and cleaner energy over the next five to 20 years," he said.

The 1,725-page bill would provide $14.5 billion in energy tax breaks, much of it to traditional energy companies producing petroleum, electric and coal. It also provides money for promoting renewable energy sources and new energy technologies and measures to revitalize the nuclear power industry.

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

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