{"id":3963,"date":"2015-07-31T17:59:52","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T17:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=3963"},"modified":"2015-07-31T17:59:52","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T17:59:52","slug":"gulf-coast-voters-want-bp-money-to-fund-ecosystem-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=3963","title":{"rendered":"Gulf Coast Voters Want BP Money to Fund Ecosystem Restoration"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Eric Galatas\/TNS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"A

A new poll shows Gulf Coast voters still are concerned about the impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill and a majority support using BP settlement funds on Gulf restoration and conservation projects. Photo: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.<\/p><\/div>\n

AUSTIN, Texas – Voters along the Gulf Coast still are worried about the long-term impacts of the BP oil spill, and a majority want BP settlement money to pay for restoration and conservation projects, according to a new poll from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and The Nature Conservancy.<\/p>\n

Chris Macaluso, director of the partnership\u2019s Center for Marine Fisheries, said Republicans surveyed were even more likely than Democrats to prioritize restoring the ecosystem over construction projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a bipartisan issue,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople across the Gulf are very concerned about the habitat quality. They want to see good access to quality fishing and wildlife opportunities. They want to see good healthy beaches and marshes and bays and barrier islands.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than a third of the residents surveyed said they had purchased a license to hunt or fish in the last three years. The poll found these sportsmen and women also were more likely to back conservation efforts over building convention centers and roads.<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, recreational fishing in Texas is a $1.5 billion-a-year industry. Macaluso said the poll\u2019s findings show voters realize investing in the Gulf\u2019s fisheries, wildlife, beaches and waters does not have to be a choice between the ecosystem and the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an opportunity to make a large investment financially in getting good-quality ecosystems in the Gulf,\u201d he said, \u201cand they don\u2019t want to see this opportunity squandered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three weeks ago, BP agreed to an $18.7 billion settlement. The money will be distributed to five Gulf states affected; Texas\u2019 portion is $788-million. The agreement comes slightly more than five years after the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded, killing 11 workers\u00a0and releasing almost 4 billion barrels of oil.<\/p>\n

The poll results are online at trcp.org. The Commerce Department report is at st.nmfs.noaa.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Eric Galatas\/TNS AUSTIN, Texas – Voters along the Gulf Coast still are worried about the long-term impacts of the BP oil spill, and a majority want BP settlement money to pay for restoration and conservation projects, according to a new poll from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and The Nature Conservancy. Chris Macaluso, director […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3965,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions\/3965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}