The ambitious effort may find the Obama administration in a political morass over how best to manage the lower Mississippi River, an issue that has stymied generations of political figures.By Julie Cart and Jim Tankersley, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington —
President Obama's announcement of an ambitious plan to restore Louisiana's wetlands promises to ensnare the administration in a long-standing political morass over how best to manage the lower Mississippi River.
The size, scope and details of the restoration plan Obama announced Tuesday are still taking shape under the guidance of Navy Secretary and former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus, White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said. Obama asked Mabus to assess the gulf needs and complete his restoration plan to address them "as soon as possible," aides said.
It appears likely that the environmental component of that plan will go far beyond cleaning up beaches and marshlands tainted by spilled oil, to rebuilding and restoring coastal areas that have suffered for decades from erosion, the impacts of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, commercial activities and other ills.
"Beyond compensating the people of the gulf in the short term, it's also clear we need a long-term plan to restore the unique beauty and bounty of this region," Obama said in a nationally televised address. "The oil spill represents just the latest blow to a place that has already suffered multiple economic disasters and decades of environmental degradation that has led to disappearing wetlands and habitats."
White House aides said the environmental restoration effort would be informed by the work of a federal interagency task force on Gulf Coast restoration, which in March released a "Roadmap for Restoring Ecosystem Resiliency and Sustainability" in Louisiana and Mississippi.
The roadmap calls for "bold and decisive action … to curtail the rate of wetland loss and barrier island erosion in the area" and to restore ecosystems.
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