Governor Edwards plans to spend a billion dollars a year building and restoring the coast over the next four years, according to his recently released second term coastal plan.
Restore the Mississippi River Delta Director Steve Cochran says with this plan in place, if the world can begin reducing it’s greenhouse gas emissions we could begin reversing the effects of coastal land loss.
“Emissions are driving sea-level rise, and we can square everything away as far as what we can do, but if we can’t keep the sea from continuing to rise then we will run out of time,” says Cochran.
The state will also establish a Climate Initiatives Taskforce aimed at finding ways to curb in-state carbon emissions.
The Governor also announced 115 million dollars from last year’s surplus will help bolster those efforts. Cochran says not only is that money flexible, but it shows we mean business.
“Using some of that money for coastal also says not just to the state but to people in the federal government that the state is putting it’s money where it’s mouth is,” Cochran.
The billion dollars a year will fund a web of projects, highlighted by massive sediment diversions that will redirect river sediment into the wetlands.
Cochran says the billion dollars a year in coastal spending is the highest in the state’s history.
