Corps of Engineers will not lead new coastal panel

A new interagency working group being created by President Obama to tackle coastal restoration planning in Louisiana and Mississippi is likely to be led by either the White House Council on Environmental Quality or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, not the Army Corps of Engineers.

That's just fine with Louisiana officials.

"We believe that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proven that they're incapable of leading the effort to restore coastal Louisiana, " said Garret Graves, Gov. Bobby Jindal's adviser on coastal issues and chairman of the state's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.

"The critical issue here is that this working group needs to be empowered. We've studied and we've talked about the restoration of coastal Louisiana for decades." Graves said. "It's time for action."

Creation of the panel was included in a briefing paper about Obama administration responses to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita given to reporters last week.

"The group will enable federal agencies, working with state and local governments and other regional stakeholders, to come together and develop a strategy to increase both the economic and environmental resiliency of the region, " the paper stated.

The two states are targeted because they are facing threats to wetlands and barrier islands from rising a sea level that is a byproduct of climate change, according to the paper.

Both coastlines are the subjects of comprehensive studies by the corps into ways to protect coastal communities from major hurricanes.

The draft Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Study estimates the cost of increased protection, including much higher levees and gates and improvements to wetlands and barrier islands, to be as much as $100 billion for just the New Orleans area.

The working group also will act as a pilot for addressing similar climate-change challenges in other coastal regions, the paper stated.

Louisiana officials first heard about the working group from two articles in connection with an interview with Obama that ran in Sunday's Times-Picayune, Graves said.

Graves said he expects the new panel and financing for levee- and coastal-restoration projects to be the subject of meetings later this week with new Assistant Secretary of the Army for Public Works Jo Ellen Darcy, who oversees the corps, and White House Office of Management and Budget natural resources specialist Sally Ericsson.

"The president has indicated an interest in the restoration of coastal Louisiana. We're excited about that, " Graves said. "But we look forward to the president dedicating construction funds to coastal-restoration projects."

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