Today marks the beginning of arguably the biggest trial of this young century. The U.S. Department of Justice goes to court with global oil giant, BP. After spilling 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, BP could be on the hook for a record-breaking $21 billion in fines.

Gulf Coast communities are watching closely thanks to the passage of the RESTORE Act, which Oxfam and allies worked hard to pass. Eighty percent of the fine money will head directly back to the five states along the coast. And they can use the help. Since the spill, the Gulf has suffered enormous environmental damage, such as decreased oyster harvests, oiled marshes, and dying fish habitats. The economy has also taken a hit, with a significant rise in the poverty rate, and rough times for those in the fishing and tourism industries.

People like Byron Enclade, a 3rd generation oyster fisherman from East Pointe A’La Hache, Louisiana, will be watching the BP trial proceedings closely. Enclade is the president of the Louisiana Oystermen Association and the South Plaquemines United Fisheries Cooperative. Photo: Audra Melton / Oxfam America

With the money most likely on the way then, and the needs so acute, the question is: how to invest it most effectively? Unfortunately, with so many interests at play, discussions have at times devolved, often to a stark debate between the economy and the environment.

Oxfam America and others have a simple response. We can address both environmental and economic interests at the same time. We recently joined with The Nature Conservancy and business allies as well as community leaders to raise our voices in support of just such an agenda.

On February 19, leaders from over 120 businesses and industry associations, operating in more than 800 locations along the Gulf and generating more than $20 billion in annual revenues, delivered a letter to the five Gulf Coast governors to say that a healthy ecosystem is a key to driving private sector job growth, future prosperity, and fostering economic mobility. They called for using RESTORE Act funds to make critical environmental investments in restoring wetlands, barrier islands and oyster reefs, together with funding for worker training, i.e. preparing dislocated, low income and disadvantaged workers for jobs in these projects.

“These restoration projects create a demand for work from a wide variety of companies in the engineering, construction, transportation and manufacturing sectors,” said Thomas Matthews, of the marine construction firm Matthews Brothers, Inc. in Pass Christian, Mississippi. “I have witnessed firsthand that investments in coastal restoration can mean jobs for coastal workers and economic growth for local businesses and communities.”

Auburn Wessman of Phylway Construction in Thibodaux, Louisiana wrote in an Houma Courier op-ed, “[M]any of us in the business community believe the best solution is clear: We can use Restore Act money to spur the economy while we restore the environment and protect our communities. And we can employ local workers while we do it — a win for everyone.”

In an op-ed published in Sunday’s New Orleans Times Picayune, Patrick Barnes, President of the consultancy firm, Barnes, Ferland & Associates, Inc., and founder of the New Orleans-based training organization Limitless Vistas, Inc., said, “Our restoration plans could benefit from including efforts to prepare local, low income and disadvantaged workers for these new restoration jobs…We have a chance to bring industry, communities, and training institutions together to identify the necessary skill sets and training programs to prepare our state’s workforce to conduct future restoration projects.”

Last week, officials from the US Department of Commerce and the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council held public hearings along the Gulf on a comprehensive plan to use spill fines.  At one meeting, Rebecca Templeton, an Oxfam partner at Bayou Grace Community Services in Chauvin, Louisiana, reported that community groups agree with the business leaders that we need to invest in ecosystem restoration—at the same that we fund worker training and policies to help local people find work on these projects. “If we have the support of the business community, then hopefully the local people made most vulnerable by land loss will have a chance as well at the livelihood opportunities that will arise,” she said urging the Council to make ecosystem restoration job training a priority.

While the BP trial may result in many billions of dollars for the region, a recent settlement between the US Department of Justice and the owners of the rig that exploded, Transocean, will start to send $1 billion in fines to the region as early as April.

Hopefully this is just the beginning. All of us remain hopeful that we can tap into new opportunities to bring vulnerable communities, business leaders, and government together to tackle these economic and environment challenges effectively.

In the meantime, like everyone else, we’ll be watching to see what happens in court!

Every Sunday, my wife and I make a pot of coffee and settle in to watch our favorite political shows—“Sunday Morning” on CBS and “Meet the Press” on NBC. Every week, we cringe when it goes to commercial and we hear the Zydeco music kick in: here comes BP, trumpeting the message that the Gulf of Mexico is not only doing A-OK, but better than ever two and a half years after the largest offshore oil spill in our nation’s history. In one, Mike Ulster, a BP executive handling cleanup and damages, cites BP’s commitment of billions of dollars to ecological and economic restoration and says, “People in the Gulf measure commitment by what’s getting done.” In terms of paying those who lost income in the spill, BP, has paid billions to date in economic damages and is on the verge reaching a settlement with many parties, despite vocal concerns from many in the fishing industry about not accounting for unknowns of long-term impacts.

But in addressing ecological restoration, the reality is that BP just isn’t measuring up to its commitments.

It looked good at first. BP committed a down payment of $1 billion to start the work of repairing the ecological damage wrought by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. However, over a year and a half later, BP has approved only $66 million in ecological restoration projects—less than seven percent of the promised money. At this rate, it would take about 25 years to “measure up” and fulfill their commitment.

And make no mistake: timing is critical. We still don’t know the extent of the damage, but we do know that we need to act fast to mitigate the long-lasting effects and restore the vital resources of the Gulf Coast. For example, Prince William Sound’s herring fishery took a big hit after the Exxon Valdez disaster; but it didn’t totally collapse until four years later. Had action been taken to repair herring habitat, who knows what could have been prevented? While BP is dragging its heels and “slow walking” the process, key ecosystems are languishing.

Shrimp and oyster harvests have been down since the spill, crushing the spirits and livelihoods of thousands of working families. But the effects may extend further; oysters take two to three years to mature, and the bays and bayous are still suffering from the 4.9 million barrels of oil that hit the area in 2010. After Hurricane Isaac, Louisiana closed 12 miles of coastline because of thousands of pounds of oiled debris washing up—the same oil that leaked during the spill.

Under BP’s agreement on early restoration, BP must approve with relevant state and federal agency heads what projects are considered and has the final say on what moves forward.

Project ideas are out there. State and federal trustees have drafted plans that would repair damage, reduce storm surge, protect livelihoods, and more. Louisiana and Mississippi have both proposed significant sets of projects, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, which would restore barrier islands, wetlands, and fisheries. Other states have also engaged with coastal communities in finding solution. But despite having good projects ready to go, the approvals to move forward on vital projects are not materializing.

So, with less than seven percent of this initial commitment to the Gulf Coast  met, it’s fair to say BP must do a better job of working fairly with the state and federal trustee to move projects forward.

On another front, a BP-backed trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, has sued the Securities and Exchange Commission to try to overturn a landmark anti-corruption and transparency regulation that requires all oil, gas and mining companies to disclose their payments to governments both overseas and here at home. In the US, this Oxfam-supported regulation will give Gulf communities a picture of how much BP pays the Federal government in royalties and taxes for each offshore license in the Gulf. Yet another situation where BP talks a good game—in this case with public commitments to transparency—but has refused to follow through in doing the right thing: publicly backing away from this lawsuit which is trying to overturn a landmark disclosure law.

The question to Mr. Ulster: Is your company really willing to do what it takes to measure up?

Americans recognize a problem when we see it. But what happens when that problem continues to worsen year after year, and leaders are reluctant to speak its name?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of workers under the federal poverty line rose to a 20 year high in 2010, the last year analyzed. The number of working poor families in America, many who work multiple jobs, has steadily risen each year since 2005, even before the recession.

Still, after three Presidential debates, neither candidate has spoken about how to address this issue. To be fair, Governor Romney has mentioned poverty five times, and President Obama has spoken about those “who want to climb to the middle class” without being explicit. But neither took the opportunity to detail how their policy agenda will help the working poor. Thought leaders as diverse as Michael Reagan, the pundit and son of President Ronald Reagan, the USA Today editorial board, and former Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Lynn Woolsey have each expressed surprise or dismay that the working poor are not a part of this campaign’s debates.

Speaking up for the working poor is not only vital, but it is a winning argument that resonates with a majority of Americans who want to find viable solutions.

Ignoring the issue of poverty is a missed opportunity according to new polling commissioned by the American Values Network. In total, 87 percent of voters, a strong majority of respondents across ideological lines, believe the working poor should be a top or important government priority.

The next Congress and President will make decisions that could significantly impact these families’ income and economic mobility. The survey tested which arguments voters found most compelling in support of policies addressing poverty and for cutting such efforts. When asked to choose between the best argument in support of government initiatives to help struggling families and the best argument for cutting those programs, 58% of respondents found the messages supporting government poverty programs more convincing. Whoever is on Capitol Hill or in the White House after this election should take note.

The poll, conducted among 1005 voters nationwide by the Prime Group between September 26-30, also found voters say candidates who address the issue of poverty as more trustworthy and authentic than those who focus solely on the middle class.

And we’re seeing renewed political interest as American s have come together across the country and online to elevate the discussion of the working poor. Earlier this month, Oxfam joined with Sojourners, World Vision and Bread for the World to launch the documentary film, “The Line”, to highlight the story of hard working American families doing everything right but still struggling in poverty. We could never have imagined the response: over 2,000 screenings in churches, community centers and homes in every state in the union, attended by tens of thousands of people since the film premiered Oct 2. People have gathered to talk about growing poverty in our communities and start a conversation they do not see their leaders having. You can still sign up at http://thelinemovie.com/ to host a screening and join the conversation.

At the film’s premiere, Rev. Jim Wallis encouraged a crowd of 400 in DC plus online viewers to encourage our Presidential candidates to #TalkPoverty and take the conversation to social media. The Half in Ten Campaign has spearheaded the response by grassroots communities who have used Twitter to ask our leaders to discuss their plans for addressing poverty. In 24 hours after the second Presidential debate, these messages reached over 700,000 followers.

Americans care about these issues and they are not afraid to act. But will our leaders listen?

The campaign rhetoric and the media coverage of an election focused on our economy have largely overlooked a major national economic shift: the number of working families living under the poverty line grew by over 25% since 2007. A recent study found national media has devoted a mere 0.2% of its election coverage to the challenge of poverty.

Maybe candidates can look away from more working mothers bringing home checks that place their families below the poverty line or one job loss or medical bill away from financial disaster. Maybe they can brush aside the impact of public policy helping struggling families find better opportunity in reducing costs to taxpayers and the economy. But even if you can ignore all this, how can you ignore the politics?

The official poverty rate rose to 15.9% this month. Since 2007, 10.4 million more Americans have seen their incomes fall below the federal poverty mark, $23,500 for a family of four. Now over one in four Americans live either in poverty or near poverty, a number that has grown by 22.6% since 2007, far outpacing the growth even of the nation’s Latino population (14.3%), a demographic shift with significant electoral implications.

Most of this campaign’s rhetoric has focused on the candidates plans to create jobs and help the middle class, implying job creation alone is still a ticket into prosperity. But even as unemployment begins to go down slowly, and economic growth improves, the amount of workers and families in poverty continues to rise, a trend economists believe may continue. Research shows that many of the few jobs being created so far in the economic recovery are low and poverty wage jobs, highlighting that job growth alone will not address the plight of hard-working poor families.

In 2008 voters in households earning under $30,000 accounted for 18% of the vote. Despite the recent debate around the voting habits of the 47% of Americans who do not pay federal income taxes, the working poor are among the closest thing in the electorate to political free agents. Working poor and near poor families benefit from policies that have had bipartisan support in the past like the earned income tax credit, a policy created by Republicans and strengthened by Democrats. According to Gallup a full 50% of poor voters are political independents. Voters earning under $20,000 account for a higher percentage (8%) of undecided voters than any other income bracket in recent polls.

Politicians ignore low income working families at their political peril in 2012. Battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia saw a combined rise in the ranks of poor and near poor grow of 3.7 million since 2007, an increase of 27.9%, well above the national average. In Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia, these newly poor or near poor individuals outnumber the number of voters who made up the margin of victory in each state’s 2008 Presidential general election.

Sources: US Census Bureau, US Election Atlas.org

Additionally, according to a recent survey by the Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, 88 percent of voters across all incomes said a candidate’s position on reducing poverty is important in deciding their vote.

Working poor families and the people who care about them make up a significant portion of voters still up for grabs. Democrats and Republicans would do well in the next 41 days to speak to their challenges and offer solutions.

In order to elevate this discussion, Oxfam America has worked to support a groundbreaking documentary, “The Line,” which shines a light on the reality of poverty in America, and especially the working poor. We helped feature Ronnie Duplessis, an oysterman from Davant, LA, who tells his heartbreaking story of the struggle to survive after the BP spill. And we’re partnering with Sojourners, World Vision, Bread for the World, and other organizations to help bring this topic into the presidential campaign.

Please join us in spreading the word! Already over 1000 people across the country have agreed to host film screenings already. You can still sign up to host a screening on October 2 and receive a free DVD to premier the film with friends, family, and neighbors! Let’s start the conversation about reducing poverty, increasing economic opportunity, and about the dignity and rights of all of us to prosper.

Out of the tragedy of the 2010 BP oil disaster, we could soon see hope emerge. New legislation, the RESTORE the Gulf Coast States Act, just passed by Congress, could bring billions of dollars in resources and a range of new opportunities for environmental restoration, fighting poverty, and promoting economic mobility.

According to the Pew Center on the States, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas rank among the worst states in the country for economic mobility: whether it’s the ability of a child born into a poor family to climb the economic ladder or the likelihood of a middle class family to fall into poverty.

They are also home to fishing communities like Dulac, LA, Apalachicola, FL, Bayou La Batre, AL, Point au La Hatche, LA and Pascagoula, MS, which face double to triple the national poverty rates. These communities have always been places of limited means, but a healthy Gulf put a roof over the heads and food on the table of families for generations. But now, after Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill, small multi-generational family fishing and seafood enterprises are under threat.

"This is the first time in generations we have had our waters taken from us." Byron Enclade, President of the Louisiana Oystermen Association. Photo: Audra Melton/Oxfam.

The full extent of the spill’s ecological damages is unknown, but in many places shrimp, oyster, and crab catches are down. This means underemployed shrimp boat captains, oyster harvesters, and deckhands and layoffs at processing plants. The loss of income has stretched social services as proud, formerly self-reliant people are forced to turn to community nonprofit agencies and food pantries for assistance.

It’s not just the recent disasters that have bruised the Gulf; over many years, the region has lost 50 percent of its inland and coastal wetlands and oyster reefs. Over the next 20 years, the Gulf is vulnerable to an estimated $300 billion in economic damages from hurricanes, coastal erosion, sea level rise, and flooding.

Recognizing this challenge, a coalition of Gulf State legislators led by Senators Mary Landrieu, Bill Nelson and Richard Shelby, along with Reps. Steve Scalise, Palazzo, and Cedric Richmond, together with community, environmental, and business allies navigated historic legislation to direct 80% of as much as $21 billion in 2010 BP oil spill civil fines back to economic and environmental restoration of the Gulf Coast states.

While how these dollars are spent lies in the hands of state and federal decision makers, they provide an opportunity for new resources for oyster reef construction, marsh building, and strengthening living shorelines and barrier islands to help restore damaged ecosystems and reduce vulnerability to hazards. They can also help put people back to work and provide new pathways out of the current struggles along the coast and towards economic mobility.

Every million invested in ecosystem restoration creates between 17-39 jobs according to Oxfam research. Restoring coastal wetlands, barrier islands, and oyster reefs can create good, family supporting wage jobs from welders, to civil engineering technicians, to dredge boat captains, to heavy equipment operators, skills which are already in demand locally, while also restoring our fisheries for future generations.

These jobs can also be a good source of economic opportunity. According to Ancil Taylor, Vice President of C.F. Bean, a Belle Chase, LA-based dredging firm, “If you come in at an entry level, work hard, and stay with it, there really is a chance to move up the ladder. A young man who began working with Bean as a dishwasher “worked his way up within the crew to become a US Coast Guard certified captain piloting one of our vessels.”

The sponsors of this bill deserve enormous kudos, but the job is not done. Now we need to ensure federal government and the state decision makers entrusted with these funds get the right policies and programs in place not only to restore this incredible natural resource, but to ensure we use these funds to create economic opportunity for low income, disadvantaged, and underemployed coastal workers, including fishery workers.

Positive examples exist on the Coast: from training fishermen in the bayou to be certified marine personnel, helping shrimpers in Oceans Springs to learn welding, or training at risk youth in New Orleans to be environmental technicians. The Louisiana First Hiring Act and the Mississippi Jobs First Act have also created new opportunity by placing qualified local workers in restoration and recovery projects.

Now we need to connect the dots and bring industry, community, workforce institutions and government together—to provide new career pathways out of poverty and build more resilient communities.

As Louisiana literally sinks into the Gulf of Mexico—wetlands disappearing at the rate of a football field per hour or so—it becomes imperative and even urgent to find ways to stop coastal land loss. Five years ago, Congress recognized the need for action, and approved the Louisiana Coastal Area Program (LCA), which authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to plan and construct several large scale ecosystem restoration projects.

A scene from Southern Louisiana. Valerie Downes/Oxfam America.

It’s one thing to come up with a plan (and a website); it’s another to come up with the money to fund the projects and make them happen. Since approving the program in 2007, Congress has yet to fund the construction of the projects. While time ticks on, the challenge only grows: land loss accelerates, projects get much more expensive and people are put at greater risk of being displaced. The longer the wait, the thornier (and more expensive) it gets to take effective action.

Last week, the White House made a bold move in insisting that the House Appropriations Committee send money toward the LCA, or it would veto the entire Energy and Water Appropriations Bill; as the Energy and Water Subcommittee relented on their threat to cut these funds, the result is a modest but significant beginning of new construction aimed at restoration.

In the past two budget cycles, President Obama has made requests for the Army Corps of Engineers to fund LCA restoration construction. Last year, the Energy and Water Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee reduced the requested $16.2 to $1 million (the federal budget outlay was roughly $3.8 trillion). In the end, it was zeroed out altogether.

This year, the President requested $16.8 million; then watched as the House Energy and Water Subcommittee struck it out of their proposed bill. The funds fell victim to a misguided debate where subcommittee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) claimed, despite significant evidence to the contrary, that ecosystem restoration projects did not create jobs, like other navigation or flood protection projects constructed by the Army Corps.

This time around, however, the White House took the bold step of threatening a veto if the appropriations bill did not include some funding for the LCA. In a statement released two weeks ago, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) called on the House to restore funding for several priority Army Corps of Engineers projects. Shortly after, Reps. Steve Scalise, R-LA and Cedric Richmond, D-LA, proposed an amendment to restore $10 million for the program; the move was passed 216-177 on June 1.

While $10 million is a modest sum compared to the $50 billion in projected projects planned in the state of Louisiana to thwart land loss, Congressional support for breaking ground on new construction is critical. Once the construction starts, it will be easier to get funding in future cycles to complete these projects.

Ironically, these types of ecosystem restoration projects have benefits on many levels, including creating abundant jobs that pay well and can employ local residents. Patrick Barnes, President of BFA Environmental Consulting and founder of a job training nonprofit organization, cites the benefits to the local economy. “These projects will generate all types of jobs: from data collection to manual labor to engineering and more. A lot of it is physical labor and field inspection, and we can train for these types of skills.”

Investing in these projects would benefit the local and national economy; reduce risk (this is hurricane season after all); help the unemployed and underemployed; and protect and restore the environment and wildlife. (Beyond Recovery, a joint report from Oxfam and the Center for American Progress explores the benefits of restoration projects.)

As the White House puts it: “Investing in these areas is critical to the Nation’s economic growth, security, and global competitiveness. The Administration also strongly objects to the inclusion of ideological and political provisions that are beyond the scope of funding legislation.”

The White House deserves credit for being willing to stick its proverbial neck out for coastal Louisiana—not exactly within the President’s political base—and risk delaying a big bill like this in an election year, in order to protect vulnerable communities along the coast.

And yet again, Reps. Scalise and Richmond are showing Congress that big challenges (like losing landmass the size of Rhode Island) can be tackled with sensible bipartisan solutions to, quite literally, put money where our mouth has been—in this case since 2007.

Faith and fishing: two central parts of Louisiana’s vibrant coastal culture. Every April, going back generations, you can see them intersect in a celebration of bayou life at the annual Blessing of the Fleet in Chauvin, LA. Families welcome the opening of the year’s first shrimp season by coming together to pray for family and friends who depend on the seafood industry and for a healthy ecosystem that yields a bountiful catch.

“We pray for the safety and welfare of all fishermen,” said Fr. Frederic Brunet, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic church who has presided over the event for many years. “Bless the shrimp and crabs and help us to catch a lot of them.”

Fr. Frederic Brunet of St. Joseph Catholic Church at the annual Blessing of the Fleet. Photo by Bayou Grace.

This year saw the second blessing since the BP Oil Spill shut down the Gulf fishing industry in 2010. Since then, many shrimpers have reported problems: poor catches and startling irregularities (such as shrimp with no eyes). Fishers working in commercial oyster beds say the harvests are down as much as fifty percent. Many people believe these changes are related to the spill. While scientists question what may be causing these issues (research into the impact of the spill on fisheries is still ongoing), the fears, and the difficulties, remain.

For many years, communities of faith have provided a safety net to fisher families impacted by bad seasons or disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the BP spill. They have also seen firsthand the vital connection between the health of natural resources and the life of the community. When Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, the key nursery of seafood across the Gulf, suffer from erosion and pollution, the whole community suffers.

Bayou Grace Community Services in Chauvin (an Oxfam partner) was founded as a disaster relief group, first operating out of a local church, after the 2005 hurricanes. The group later refocused on the biggest issue facing the future of their community: coastal land loss.

“This is an area that has lost 1,900 square miles of coastal land, more man-made land loss than anywhere in the world. How do we change that? It will take national will, the will for a national investment, and a decision that this place is worth saving,” said Rebecca Templeton, director of Bayou Grace, which debuted a photo series highlighting why it is worth saving the coast at this year’s Blessing of the Fleet.

Other Oxfam partners—like Zion Travelers Cooperative Center in Phoenix, LA, led by Rev. Tyronne Edwards, BISCO in Thibodeaux, LA led by Sharon Gauthe and Mary Queen of Vietnam CDC in New Orleans East led by Diem Nguyen—share similar stories of founding within faith institutions and evolving missions to protect communities and livelihoods along the coast in the face of multiple economic and environmental threats.

This week, these community leaders joined together to send a letter to leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives urging support for the RESTORE the Gulf Coast Act. This bill would invest fines from the BP oil spill into restoring natural resources along the Gulf, and helping create local jobs on restoration projects; the goal is to put fishers harmed by poor catches back to work restoring these resources to protect their communities and help ensure future generations can continue fishing and living along the coast. Rebecca, Sharon, Rev. Edwards, and Diem united their voices with over 140 faith leaders, including national figures like Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners, Mitch Hescox of Evangelical Environmental Network, and Rabbi David Saperstein, Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism. As we noted earlier, The U.S. Senate passed the RESTORE Act as a part of their long-term transportation bill in March.

“We urge you to do what is best for the Gulf Coast—and for all Americans—by working to guarantee that the RESTORE the Gulf Coast Act is signed into law by the President, ensuring a response to the oil spill which is effective, and just, meets the needs of those suffering today while laying a foundation for long-term restoration and renewal,” the leaders say in the letter.

In a breaking development, the Rules Committee in the US House of Representatives today will consider a US House version of the transportation bill (H.R. 4248), which includes the RESTORE Act. The full House could vote on the bill as early as Wednesday, leading to a conference committee, with both chambers passing transportation bills which include the RESTORE Act.

Passing this legislation in the House will be a critical step towards helping to restore coastal communities and support the livelihoods in the aftermath of our nation’s largest oil spill and the long-term devastation of coastal land loss along the Gulf.

Anyone running for office in the heated Presidential and US Congressional races in the state of Florida in 2012 should take notice of a new poll of likely voters in Florida voters released yesterday by Oxfam America, the Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense Fund, National Wildlife Federation, and National Audubon Society.

Gulf Coast BP Oil Spill May 2010. Photo by Audra Melton/Oxfam America.

Eighty-four percent of likely voters support a bill to use BP oil spill fines for Gulf restoration. The RESTORE the Gulf Coast States Act, (S. 1400), a bill co-sponsored by Florida Senators Nelson and Rubio, would dedicate 80 percent of the estimated $5-$21 billion in expected fines for the BP oil spill to restoring the Gulf ecosystem and economy. The House version of the bill, (H.R. 3096), is co-sponsored by nine Florida House members including Rep. Steve Southerland (FL-2), and Jeff Miller (FL-1). The poll showed 75 percent of Florida voters are more likely to support candidates who back the legislation.

Many think Florida’s January 31 winner-take-all Presidential Primary could select the Republican nominee, so GOP Presidential candidates should also take note. Seventy-three percent of Florida Republican Primary goers say they are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports the RESTORE Act.

This support holds across party affiliation and ideology from Tea Party supporters to liberals, who say said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports such a bill. These voters overwhelmingly favor using BP fines to invest in local ecosystems and communities over paying down the deficit by a margin of 80%-12% (Tea Party) and 86%-10% (Liberals)!

Read the rest of this entry »