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Gov. John Bel Edwards speaks at the Summit on the National Significance of the Master Plan on Thursday. Former Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu is at far right.
Manship School News Service/Ian McCusker

Governor vows support for effort to restore coast

BATON ROUGE – Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards pledged to a coastal erosion summit Thursday he would not reduce the state’s commitment to its coastline even as the state finds itself in dire financial straits.

“There will be no cuts to coastal funding to address the fiscal shortfall,” Edwards told a day-long summit on the National Significance of the Master Plan at LSU.

Edwards focused on the merits of restoring wetlands and revitalizing industry along the Louisiana coast, but also put it into the broader context of the state’s budget deficit, emphasizing the safety of money reserved for coastal projects.

Edwards said the Master Plan would be presented to the 2017 Legislature’s regular session that starts in April. The summit, jointly hosted by Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and
America’s Wetland Foundation followed two leadership forums held last October to make the plan operational and find funding.

The plan is not his alone or the CPRA’s, Edwards said, but the best plan for the future based on science.

“That does not mean there is 100 percent consensus, but if we wait for that day nothing will ever get done.”

Edwards stressed that any plan must be responsible about where it finds and how it allocates money. A benefit of the current plan is its installment structure, said Edwards. The master plan pays for projects as they are completed and based on success.

Among the needs the governor said future plans must address is a streamlining of the review process of the work. A review based on standards for a coal factory, said Edwards, ought not be applicable to building marshland, for instance. Edwards also said that wildlife in the immediate area of a restoration project should not overshadow the project’s necessity.

Edwards also explained the need for a comprehensive national plan within the framework of state solutions. The need to protect the Louisiana coast is a national issue as is the need to protect coastline in other regions around the country, he said.

Those comments echoed a panel that included former Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, who was quick to respond to a remark by Don Boesch, the president of the Center for Environmental Sciences. Boesch had mentioned the reality that a plan may find appeal in Lafayette but not necessarily in Washington D.C.

“They wouldn’t know what to do with a shrimp boat if they saw one,” said Landrieu of Washington legislators, adding, “they sure eat a lot of it, though.”

Landrieu said taking pride in Louisiana’s culture was necessary because those who live and work in the state are subject to a “sting of prejudice” by outsiders who view them as lesser people. Everyone in the state must be invested in the coast, she said.

While she acknowledged the state had made mistakes in the past, Landrieu explained the problem along the coast is thought of as a problem Louisiana itself caused and with which Louisiana alone must deal.

The river serves an entire continent,” Landrieu said in disagreement. “If an enemy had attacked and destroyed this land, we would be at war,” she added, referring to lost wetlands.

Landrieu argued significant funds could be directed to the master plan from profits by the offshore oil and gas industry, which provides billions in revenue for the federal government and has been used to help the Everglades and Chesapeake but does not reach Louisiana.

The summit was partially funded by Entergy, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Ducks Unlimited and SeaGrant Louisiaina.

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