The Seas Are Rising and So Are Community Voices: Coastal Resilience and Climate Justice Through Public Participation After the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

• Author: David Roche
• Pages: 205-231

205

The Seas Are Rising and

So Are Community Voices:

Coastal Resilience and

Climate Justice Through

Public Participation After the

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

David Roche

Introduction: Climate, Communities, and the Spill .....................................206

I. Coastal Resilience in the Gulf of Mexico ..............................................208

A. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 .............................................................208

B. Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010 ...............................................210

C. Oil Spill Restoration and Climate Justice ........................................210

II. Gulf Restoration Overview ...................................................................211

A. Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) .............................212

B. National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) .............................. 215

C. RESTORE Act ...............................................................................216

III. Climate Justice in Gulf Restoration ......................................................219

A. NRDA Success Stories .................................................................... 220

B. NFWF Success Stories ....................................................................222

C. RESTORE Act Success Stories........................................................222

IV. Integrating Climate Justice Into Gulf Restoration.................................224

A. Governance Institutions and Funding Entities ................................224

1. Climate Justice rough NRDA Trustees ..................................224

2. Climate Justice rough NFWF ...............................................225

3. Climate Justice rough the RESTORE Act .............................226

B. Nongovernmental Organizations and the Public ............................. 227

1. Litigation ..................................................................................228

2. Policy Advocacy ........................................................................228

3. Transparency and Accountability ..............................................229

Conclusion: Fast-Tracking Climate Justice ...................................................230

Chapter 8

206 Climate Justice

Introduction: Climate, Communities, and the Spill

Climate change and sea-level rise are reshaping the coastline a long the Gulf

of Mexico.1 La nd is being lost at an alarming rate, especially in Louisiana,

where subsidence is c ompounding t he eects of sea-level rise.2 Across the

Gulf Coast, communities are increasing ly vulnerable as the seas rise, land

subsides, saltwater intrudes, a nd marshes retreat.3 In the face of such monu-

mental change, it is essential for communities to plan and adapt.

Another major challenge for t he Gulf of Mexico region is how to achieve

restoration in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.4 Billions of dollars

will support projects and programs stemming from the spill and these funds

should be spent in ways that appropriately consider climate projections—

something that may not be occurring in the early phases of restoration.5

Following the oil spill, multiple processes were established to address restora-

tion and recovery from environmental disaster.6 rough three of these pro-

cesses—the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA), the National

Fish and Wildlife Fund’s (NFW F’s) grant programs, and the Resources and

Ecosystem Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of

the Gulf Coast States Act (R ESTORE Act) —$16.7 billion will be available

to fund restoration projects.7 As of t his writing, just over $1 billion worth

1. Cindy A. atcher et al., Economic Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise Along the Northern U.S. Gulf Coast,

63. J. C R. 234, 234 (2013).

2. See id. at 235.

3. Id. at 241–44.

4. e oil spill began on April 20, 2010, after 11 men lost their lives in a blowout on the Deepwater

Horizon oil rig. N C   BP D H O S  O

D, R   P, D W: T G O D   F 

O D vi (2011), https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-OILCOMMISSION/pdf/

GPO-OILCOMMISSION.pdf. For the next 87 days, oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, releas-

ing millions of barrels total. Id. As the oil owed, underwater cameras broadcast the environmental

disaster in real-time to an increasingly horried, angry, and helpless audience. See id. When the well

was nally capped in July, the spill was being called the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

Press Release, e White House, Remarks by the President to the Nation on the BP Oil Spill (June

15, 2010), https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-oce/remarks-president-nation-bp-oil-spill. Envi-

ronmental impacts were both immediate and persistent, and they are only beginning to be understood.

Drew Grin et al., 5 Years After the Gulf Oil Spill: What We Do (and Don’t) Know, CNN., Apr.

20, 2015, http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/14/us/gulf-oil-spill-unknowns. Monumental impacts were

felt by species, ecosystems, and human communities of the Gulf region. Id.

5. See Webinar: Climate Change, Community Resilience, and Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico (ELI

Ocean Seminar Series 2015), http://eli-ocean.org/gulf/climatechangewebinar. During the webinar,

panelists and attendees expressed concern that restoration was not adequately considering climate

and community resilience.

6. See generally Environmental Law Institute, Introduction to Gulf Recovery, http://eli-ocean.org/gulf/

intro-gulf-recovery/ (last visited Aug. 22, 2016).

7. See id.