Advocate.comWhere is bi former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema now?
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/news/where-is-kyrsten-sinema-now
The Current‘It’s a tragedy’: Current, former state officials spar over scuttled coastal project
The chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, Gordon “Gordy” Dove, found himself in the hot seat during a panel discussion on recovery, restoration and the path toward resilience post-Hurricane Katrina at UL Lafayette on Tuesday over the state’s decision to cancel the mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project.
“It’s a tragedy,” Sidney Coffee, who served as chair of the authority during Hurricane Katrina, said of the state’s decision to scrap the landmark project. Former U.S. Rep. Garret Graves and Chip Kline, another former authority chairman backed Coffee.
While acknowledging that it was well within the rights and responsibilities of Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration to review the cost-effectiveness of the $3 billion project, Graves didn’t mince words when it came to anyone questioning the scientific base of the project by considering it an “experiment.”
“You are an idiot if you think that’s the case,” Graves said.
Dove defended the decision to cancel the costly project, which was primarily funded by funds from the BP oil spill settlement, pointing instead to a slate of other coastal restoration and hurricane protection projects, including in Iberia and St. Mary parishes. “We’re moving expeditiously,” Dove said of those projects.
While Dove did not name specific projects, both parishes have been allocated CPRA funds under the previous administration of Gov. John Bel Edwards in the state’s 2023 Coastal Master Plans for river diversion, risk reduction and coastal restoration projects.
DoomsdaysCW#Louisiana cancels $3 billion #coastal #restoration project funded by #OilSpill settlement
By JACK BROOK
Updated 9:17 PM EDT, July 17, 2025
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — "Louisiana on Thursday canceled a $3 billion repair of disappearing Gulf coastline, funded by the 2010 #DeepwaterHorizon oil spill settlement, scrapping what #conservationists called an urgent response to #ClimateChange but Gov. #JeffLandry viewed as a threat to the state’s way of life. [??!!! Like pollution from BP isn't a threat?!!!]
"Despite years of studies and reviews, the project at the center of Louisiana’s coastal protection plans grew increasingly imperiled after Landry, a Republican, took office last year. Its collapse means that the state could lose out on more than $1.5 billion in unspent funds and may even have to repay the $618 million it already used to begin building.
"The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group, a mix of federal agencies overseeing the settlement funds, said that 'unused project funds will be available for future Deepwater Horizon restoration activities' but would require review and approval.
"The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project aimed to rebuild upward of 20 square miles (32 kilometers) of land over a 50-year period in southeast Louisiana to combat sea level rise and erosion on the Gulf Coast. When construction stalled last year because of lawsuits, trustees warned that the state would have to return the hundreds of millions of dollars it had already spent if the project did not move forward.
"Former Louisiana Rep. #GarretGraves, a Republican who once led the state’s coastal restoration agency, said that killing the project was 'a boneheaded decision' not rooted in science.
" 'It is going to result in one of the largest setbacks for our coast and the protection of our communities in decades,' Graves said. 'I don’t know what chiropractor or palm reader they got advice from on this, but — baffling that someone thought this was a good idea.'
"Project supporters stressed that it would have provided a data-driven, large-scale solution to mitigate the worst effects of an eroding coastline in a state where a football field of land is lost every 100 minutes and more than 2,000 square miles (5,180 square kilometers) of land have vanished over the past century, according to the U.S. Geological Survey."
#UltraDeepwater #WaterIsLife #CoastalRestoration #BPIsNotSorry #GulfCoast #GulfStates #DeepwaterHorizonOilSpill #Stupidity #ClimateCatastrophe
Louisiana cancels $3 billion coastal restoration project
Louisiana is officially canceling a $3 billion coastal restoration project funded by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project aimed to rebuild over 20 square miles of land in southeast Louisiana to combat erosion and sea level rise. Conservation groups supported the project as a science-based solution to climate change. However, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry opposed it, citing harm to local oystermen and the fishing industry. On Thursday, a coalition of federal agencies overseeing the settlement funds declared the project "no longer viable" because of litigation and a suspended federal permit after the state halted work.
Steve Dustcircle 🌹#Louisiana #Republican #GarretGraves says he won't seek re-election after #SupremeCourt ruling on #redistricting;
The House lawmaker and ally of former #HouseSpeaker #KevinMcCarthy cited redistricting in a statement about his decision.
