The Dollars and Sense of Restoring the Gulf

In a cramped community center in Tillman's Corner, heavy hitters in our coastal recovery say the fight to restore the coast is just beginning. "We've bad year. A long, bad year and what are we going to do tomorrow and how can we work together for a better tomorrow?" asks Casi Callaway with Mobile Baykeeper.

While some parts of the coastline may have seen more oil coming ashore than in Alabama, Congressman Jo Bonner says there is no doubt where the economic epicenter of the disaster is. "Individuals, entire businesses and communities still have to be made whole."

Part of keeping promises will come in the form of penalties and fines, as much as 25 billion dollars. Right now all that money would go into the U.S. Treasury. Callaway wants to make sure that doesn't happen. "We keep saying and unfortunately some of the legislation that is coming out is differentiating between economic and environmental restoration and it shouldn't. They are the same."

One voice, one piece of legislation that could truly restore the Gulf. "An environmental disaster, that's what Alabama had that wrecked our economy. We've got to invest in our environment in order to restore our economy."