Commissioner lobbies for RESTORE Act

RESTORE the Gulf Coast Act is still making its way through the committees in Washington, D.C., as local supporters urge the bill along.

Santa Rosa County Commissioner Lane Lynchard told fellow commissioners Feb. 9 that he and other elected officials from the region made a trip to the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 6 to talk to congressmen about the act.

The piece of legislation would allocate the anticipated $10 billion to $20 billion in BP fine money to the five coastal states negatively impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. RESTORE stands for “The Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourism Opportunities and Revived Economy.”

Lynchard said the act as currently written would take 80 percent on the fine money to allocate toward environmental and economic restoration projects in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. He said funding also would be allocated to create “centers of excellence,” or research groups in the five states that would “study our oceans on a grander scale.”

For more on this story, see the Feb. 16 issue of Navarre Press or subscribe online.