BusinessReport.com

As a way to secure support for coastal restoration and hurricane protection, state officials have argued for more than a generation that Louisiana’s strategic location in the nation’s energy supply chain was too important to ignore. Now that message is growing, thanks to a regional approach orchestrated by America’s Wetland Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group that originated in the Bayou State. The new accord for bolstering the Gulf region is called “America’s Energy Coast,” or AEC, and includes Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, which collectively contribute 90% of the nation’s offshore energy production, 30% of its energy supplies and 30% of its seafood. The group was formed earlier this year and promoted in a special section in Forbes magazine over the summer.

This morning, AEC held a policy forum on Capitol Hill, which was also aired during a live Webcast. To watch a replay of the Webcast, click here. Participating were H. Dale Hall, director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife; Mark Hurley, president of Shell Pipeline; Don Young, president of Ducks Unlimited; and R. King Milling, chairman of America's Wetland. More than anything else, the forum represented the next stage of evolution for the America’s Wetland Foundation. In short, the regional push could soon go national, says the foundation’s managing director Val Marmillion of Houma. Recent successes and the rapid formation of AEC “suggests a future for a growing national foundation based in Louisiana that will continue driving the national dialogue about saving coastal Louisiana while, at the same time broadening the mission to serve as a voice for the entire region of Gulf energy producing states,” Marmillion says.

For now, the focus is on AEC, which seeks to bring together leaders of academia, industry, conservation, government and nonprofit agencies from the four states. The underlying goal of the initiative is to establish policies and best practices to protect the Gulf Coast and the benefits it delivers to the rest of the country. The unlikely coalition also includes Shell, the National Wildlife Federation, National Rifle Association, Ducks Unlimited, Entergy and many others. As for support, a recent national poll that America’s Wetland commissioned earlier this year of 1,200 residents from AEC region found that almost nine out of every 10 respondents, or 86%, believe the federal government should be responsible for protecting coastal areas that provide energy to the United States.