Restore Act: Gulf's Crime Victim Compensation

Consider the Deepwater Horizon disaster a crime. The victim: the Gulf of Mexico, it's back bays and estuaries, beaches, businesses and an entire way of life impacted by millions of gallons of oil flowing freely for months.

If the Gulf of Mexico is the crime scene the Restore Act could be the punishment.

"There was a crime committed, we were victims and this is the right way to compensate where the crime occurred," says co-sponser of the bill Congressman Jo Bonner.

The Restore Act could funnel billions of dollars to the five gulf states impacted by the oil spill to be used for environmental and economic restoration projects. "It will be an opportunity for those states that were so impacted by the Deepwater Horizon to do things, to make long term investments, that will strengthen and improve the gulf coast for generations."

That's the point Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft tried to make in Washington when he testified before Congress a couple weeks ago. Especially considering the risk the coast takes every day. A third of the nations energy is produced in the Gulf of Mexico. "Some protection to us through things like the Restore Act when negligent companies are fined, that fine money comes back to the affected areas wherever it is used to help us recover and to help us take that risk responsibly," says Craft.

The financial responsibility is estimated around 20 billion dollars, a minimum of 500 million paid annually for the next 30 years by the parties responsible for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. "It is going to be largest penalty ever recorded," says Bonner. For the biggest oil spill in the nations history.

Last week a list of the initial restoration projects were released. In Baldwin County it includes a dune restoration project and in Mobile County a multi-million dollar salt marsh project. A meeting to get the publics input on those projects is scheduled for January 23 at the Battle House Hotel in Mobile.