By Laura DeKoven Waxman
July 19, 2010

Following-up on an issue much discussed during the Conference’s June 21 Emergency Meeting on the BP Oil Disaster, the Conference is urging quick passage of legislation that would accelerate the sharing of offshore oil and gas drilling revenues with Louisiana as one of the Gulf Coast’s energy-producing states. In a July 2 letter to the President and Congressional leaders, Conference of Mayors President Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth B. Kautz and Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran called for immediate enactment of The Restoring Ecosystem Sustainability and Protection on the Delta (RESPOND) Act, which is sponsored by Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu.

Current legislation, the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006, shares revenues from certain portions of new drilling acreage seaward of Alabama and Florida, but does not authorize revenue sharing from the new leases directly off Louisiana’s coast until 2017. The RESPOND Act would share revenues with Louisiana immediately, providing significant additional revenues that Louisiana needs to combat the catastrophic and historic assault now underway on its shores and its way of life.

“In the face of the worst manmade environmental disaster in this nation’s history – one that already has dealt a staggering blow to the people and the economy of the Gulf region – Louisiana needs all the help it can get to protect and restore the natural resources on which its people and economy depend,” Kautz and Cochran said in their letters.

These letters and other information relating to the BP Oil Disaster are available on a new page, USCM Response to the Oil Disaster, on the Conference of Mayors Web site, www.usmayors.org.