Surviving the Next Gulf Oil Spill - NYTimes.com

link to photo at Weeks Bay Foundation

Op-Ed in the New York Times from Ben Raines, now the executive director of the Weeks Bay Foundation, a nonprofit promoting the protection ecologically-invaluable land along Mobile Bay.

Link: Surviving the Next Gulf Oil Spill - NYTimes.com

Excerpt: "The money will mostly be split among the states and a new entity, the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, composed of state and federal officials. There are already plenty of ideas among the states for spending the cash, including constructing a sea wall around the city jail in Mobile, Ala., and deepening shipping channels. Biloxi, Miss., is using money already given to the state by BP to build a baseball stadium.

Here’s another idea: the states and the council should require that a nickel of every dollar they control be used to buy and protect coastal marshes and wetlands. It is the most important thing they can do to help the gulf survive the next oil spill."