U.S. Sen. David Vitter applauded an agreement announced today that will direct BP to pay $1 billion for coastal resource restoration. Garrett Graves, chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, has cited Vitter's Natural Resources Restoration Act as a vital bargaining chip in the negotiations.
"I am pleased that BP is fulfilling their responsibility to negotiate in good faith and allow Gulf Coast states to begin projects to restore our natural resources. I'm particularly thankful for Garret's work in bringing BP to the negotiating table to secure this deal," Vitter said. "This is a positive first step, but I will continue pushing my legislation to make BP immediately set aside a down payment for restoration projects of resources damaged by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill."
"Waiting years to begin restoring the Gulf from the oil spill impacts is simply not an option. The Natural Resources Restoration Act authored by Senator Vitter added significant leverage to negotiations, and I still support its passage to further front-load restoration work," said Graves.
Vitter's bill would expedite payments through the Natural Resources Damage Assessment payment process so that work to repair and restore fisheries, oyster beds and marshland could start immediately.
Currently through the NRDA process, Louisiana could wait ten years or longer for payment.
BP could owe as much as $10 billion through the NRDA process to determine how much the company should pay for damaging natural resources during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Landry has authored a companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.