A recent proposal by President Obama would divert funds intended for coastal restoration in Louisiana. The Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA) was created in 2006 to allow Gulf states to receive a portion of federal oil revenue from offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The first GOMESA payments were to begin next year, but the President is proposing that Congress repeal GOMESA. Louisiana businesses and conservation organizations are currently gathering signatures on a letter to oppose this plan.

Under GOMESA, the Gulf states would have received an estimated $3.7 billion over the next decade as an offset to habitat and infrastructure damages. The State of Louisiana and coastal parish governments were expecting to receive $176 million next year to pay for projects in the Coastal Master Plan. We are asking Louisiana businesses and organizations to join us on a letter to President Obama requesting that he cease his attempts to repeal GOMESA.

Please review the letter to President Obama and contact browne@nwf.org if you are interested in signing on the letter with the Vanishing Paradise program and the Restore the Mississippi River Delta Coalition (National Wildlife Federation, National Audubon Society, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation and Environmental Defense Fund).

The deadline to sign on is March 2nd.