EPA Chief Lisa Jackson Returns to Holy Cross, Focus on Gulf Restoration

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, a Global Green friend, paid a return visit yesterday to the Holy Cross Neighborhood to meet with community and environmental leaders to discuss setting up the new Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force. Ms. Jackson’s organizing meeting, held at the Greater Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church only a few blocks from the Holy Cross Project, was reported by the Times-Picayune’s Mark Schleifstein in “Gulf restoration plan should be home-grown, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says”:

“The president has made clear that he believes these restoration plans, in order to be successful, have to come from the Gulf to Washington and not be imposed from Washington onto the Gulf community,” Jackson said Tuesday during a morning meeting at Greater Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church in the Lower 9th Ward.

“We’re counting on the people who know these areas best, the people who work these areas, who work these issues, who know what it takes to build a coalition of support around something the Gulf Coast has never had.”

 

via globalgreen.org

In Wake of Gulf Spill, Louisiana Moves on Renewable Energy

Clean energy bills and a coming renewable portfolio standard may shake up the state's energy picture

By Dave Levitan

In the six weeks since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up and began spilling untold amounts of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, calls for fast action on clean energy have increased sharply from some politicians in Washington, including President Obama. 

Now, that national clamor is beginning to reverberate at the state level. Perhaps the most notable example is Louisiana, the ground zero of the oil spill and its disastrous effects.

The state has long been among the darlings of the oil and gas industries, placing fourth in terms of oil production. That ranking rises to first if the offshore rigs in federal waters are included.

But with several bills now working their way through the state legislature in Baton Rouge — and progress being made on a renewable energy portfolio standard — clean energy advocates say they could see at least a glimmer of good coming from the gooey mess infiltrating Louisiana's coastlines and marshes. READ MORE >>

via solveclimatenews.com