Spotlight
Delta Dispatches: Cook-off for the Coast & Friends of Bayou Lafourche
On today’s episode, Simone and Jacques welcome back National Wildlife Federation Outreach Manager Samantha Carter to discuss the fourth annual Cook-off for the Coast. Although this year’s cook-off will be virtual, Sam highlights how it will still feature great content, including music from the Michot’s Melody Makers with special guest Leyla McCalla, a virtual coastal flyover, cooking demonstrations with celebrity chefs, as well as a recipe and artwork contest. On the second half of the show, Friends of Bayou Lafourche Executive Director Ryan Perque joins to discuss exciting progress on the bayou, including a new partnership with Nicholls State University, improvements along the waterway, as well as upcoming events and opportunities to get involved.
Earned Media
Louisiana officials defend oil and gas industry, criticize President Biden's order pausing offshore drilling - Louisiana Illuminator
Kimberly Davis Reyher, executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, said in an email Wednesday that she stayed away from the chamber because of COVID-19 concerns but that she wished that her written statement had been read aloud.
Reyher wrote, “CRCL believes that Louisiana should receive its fair share of (Outer Continental Shelf) revenues derived from our coastal waters and that those revenues should be used to construct coastal projects to restore and protect our state”; that “oil and gas production has experienced a dramatic downturn in the past few years”; and that her nonprofit “recognizes the importance of the state and its industries contemplating development of other forms of energy production.” She writes that the new administration’s expressed priorities of focusing on environmental justice, holding polluters accountable and reducing greenhouse emissions “are important for coastal communities in Louisiana and should be considered by the state Legislature.”
News
CPEX planner: Louisiana has more to gain from the coming energy revolution
There are plentiful opportunities to diversify our economy while increasing sustainability. For example, our history with maritime manufacturing has produced a wealth of transferable skills of enormous value — did you know that the only offshore wind farm in the U.S. is in Rhode Island and was built by workers in Louisiana? Or that Galliano-based shipbuilder Edison Chouest has signed an agreement to design, build and operate a $280 million, 260-foot vessel to service wind farms off the New England coast?
We can harness wind energy in the Gulf; clean up thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells; build solar farms; and utilize natural systems for carbon sequestration. And this is just a small picture of what’s possible with our strong skill base and existing infrastructure.
Our state can no longer rely on what used to be. GM has pledged to eliminate gas-fueled cars by 2035, and recently NextEra (the world’s largest producer of wind and solar energy) saw their market capitalization surpass ExxonMobil’s.
Oil company files plan to build tanks, pipeline over historic slave cemeteries
The Port Commission is comprised of the nine elected parish council members. The commission’s chairman, Richie Blink, said he first learned about the cemeteries in December, when a member of the public sent him the archaeological reports.
In an email to Blink after the Jan. 28 meeting, Sanders asked Blink to share his copies of the archaeological reports.
“We would appreciate everyone having the same information regarding this matter,” Sanders wrote.
When Blink said a member of the public had provided him with the records, Sanders questioned how because he believed it was “privileged information.”
Blink said he’s baffled by the air of secrecy surrounding the project. Sanders sent an email to PLT officials in December suggesting they hold two separate meetings with port commissioners to update them on the PLT project "so as not to bump into more than 4 commissioners together at one time."
Raise Your Glass to Coastal Restoration–Glass Half Full Turns Glass Garbage Into Coast | Where Y'at
In February of last year, while the world was heading into lockdown, two college students at Tulane University, Franziska Trautmann of Lafayette and Max Steitz of New York, were hunkering down to hatch their latest project promoting sustainability and restoration: Glass Half Full. Their prior project, Plant the Peace, has succeeded in planting over 88,000 trees in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2021, Glass Half Full hopes to create new land in coastal Louisiana through an innovative glass-recycling program accessible to people throughout New Orleans.