GALVESTON, Texas -- Conservation groups announced that 300 new conservation jobs will be created in Texas and other Gulf Coast states with restoration funds from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

The $7 million project, funded by fines from the incident, will repair and restore coastal areas damaged by the oil spill in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. Mary Ellen Sprenkel, executive director at Corps Network, a group that organizes young adults to do conservation work, said the jobs will go to people from the towns where the work needs to be done.

"We will be working with our existing programs in the Gulf states to train young people in their communities to do this restoration work - to provide young people with training, to do the ecological work and provide them with career opportunities,” Sprenkel said.

The partnership, called GulfCorps, includes The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, The Nature Conservancy, The Corps Network and the Student Conservation Association. Grant funds from the RESTORE Act will be used to plant native vegetation, remove invasive species and restore stream banks and shorelines.

In 2010, a BP oil platform exploded 25 miles off the coast of Louisiana and dumped almost 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf before it was capped. Sprenkel said it's important that people from the hardest hit areas will be hired for the GulfCorps projects.

"I think that it's an opportunity to maybe bring something positive out of the oil spill in terms of engaging and providing opportunity to young people in some very economically depressed communities,” she said.

Sprenkel said the project will have similar goals and objectives to the Civilian Conservation Corps, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Great Depression undertaking in the 1930s. She said there's still a great deal of work to be done in coastal areas since the spill.

"This is definitely cleaning up the original problem. A lot of the oil is gone but this is ecological problems that were caused as a direct result and absolutely need to be addressed,” Sprenkel said. "It speaks to the fact that the recovery dollars have been so slow in hitting the ground."

GulfCorps officials say they will begin hiring for the positions this fall.


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ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Farm bureaus and agricultural leaders of Chesapeake Bay watershed states are pushing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund a major initiative to reduce farm runoff pollution in the bay and its waterways.

Six farm agencies - from states including Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York - are urging Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to put more than $730 million behind the Chesapeake Resilient Farms Initiative. It aims to help farmers with conservation efforts to cut chemical and sediment contamination.

Denise Stranko, federal executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said time is running out to meet federal cleanup goals.

"We know that roughly 80% of the reductions that are still left need to come from agriculture," she said. "And so efforts like this - a bold move by USDA to acknowledge that and say, 'Yes, we are going to send more money to the watershed' - it would just be a huge step toward getting us to that 2025 deadline."

With 83,000 farms in the region, farm runoff is the largest single source of water pollution in the bay and its tributaries, according to the foundation. Runoff makes up 49% of the bay's three main pollutants: nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment.

Farm runoff needs to contain about 50 million fewer pounds of nitrogen than it does now by 2025, said Doug Myers, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's senior scientist for Maryland. His group has been working with Maryland lawmakers to reform the state's conservation practices to meet that target. Now, more diverse cover crops are in place that help use less fertilizer, and soon the addition of stream buffers will also protect against runoff.

"Those are two big policy changes that we think will accelerate the agriculture sector," he said, "and if that was to be matched up with really good funding for agricultural programs from the feds, I think we could not only make but exceed our goals."

President Joe Biden's proposed budget for 2022 promises about $90 million for the Chesapeake Bay Program to clean up the watershed, a $3 million increase over current funding.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- The historic clean-energy bill signed into Illinois law yesterday includes measures from closing coal and natural gas plants by 2045 to funding for clean-energy opportunities for Black, brown and Indigenous workers.

It also sets the deadline for net-zero emissions by 2050, increases funding for wind and solar, and keeps three nuclear power plants open for five more years.

Dulce Ortiz, co-chair of Clean Power Lake County, said it is important the bill focuses on Black and brown residents and frontline communities.

"The climate and equitable-job section prioritizes Black and brown communities that have been disproportionately impacted and historically suffered due to exposure to toxic pollution," Ortiz explained.

Opponents of the law argued closing coal and natural-gas plants could raise electricity bills. State Democratic lawmakers noted consumers can expect to pay between $3.55 and $4 more per month.

Ortiz, who lives near a coal-fired power plant, argued the plants need to be closed to protect the health and wellness of surrounding communities.

Pat Devaney, secretary treasurer of the Illinois AFL-CIO, a member of Climate Jobs Illinois, said the bill sets some of the nation's strongest labor standards, such as requiring collective-bargaining agreements for all utility-scale wind and solar.

He added it also helps communities currently reliant on coal and natural gas transition to the clean economy.

"With these provisions, we can ensure the clean-energy grid of the future will be built and maintained right here in Illinois by highly trained union workers to the benefit of their families and their communities," Devaney asserted.

For people who live in work in communities where power plants are closing down, the bill establishes community grants, and a "Displaced Energy Worker Bill of Rights." Advance notice of any closures is required, as well as financial advice, employment assistance and career services.

HELENA, Mont. -- Montanans are delivering a message to the offices of Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., across the state today: Support bold investments in the country's future.

Congress is considering a $3.5 trillion budget, which includes major investments to address climate change. Tester was instrumental in crafting the bipartisan infrastructure bill last month, which carried a $1 trillion price tag.

Caitlin Piserchia, climate and political organizer for the Sierra Club Montana chapter, said lawmakers now have a chance to pass an ambitious budget reconciliation bill.

"With the budget reconciliation bill, we have an opportunity to pass something three times the size with priorities that could be truly transformational for Montana and for the rest of the country," Piserchia asserted.

Montanans are delivering care packages to six Tester offices from Kalispell to Billings today. They are calling on the senator to support six priorities in the reconciliation bill, including moving the country toward 100% clean energy, repealing federal fossil-fuel subsidies and retrofitting and electrifying all schools and hospitals.

Congress is still working out the details of the reconciliation bill, the fate of which has been tied to the infrastructure bill.

Piserchia wants to see the measures pass in September while there is still the political will to move forward on them. She added it is also crucial to act on climate change now as it impacts on the country grow and in light of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which urged the world to act quickly to prevent more warming.

"Also, it's coming at a time when there are significant wildfires in Montana," Piserchia pointed out. "There's been a drought emergency, and that IPCC report just came out, concluding that we're coming closer to the end of our window to change the outcomes that we could be facing."

Piserchia noted they are also calling on Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., to support the budget reconciliation, but admitted it is a long shot. Daines voted against the infrastructure bill in August. Because of how it is crafted, the reconciliation bill just needs a simple majority in the Senate to pass.