Report: Feds have funneled more than $500M to Gulf Coast since 2010

Days before a newly formed council focuses on long-term Gulf of Mexico cleanup, a report released to The Associated Press shows that one federal agency has committed more than a half-billion dollars to the region in the past two years, nearly one-fifth of it on projects directly linked to recovery from the 2010 oil spill. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service—one of the so-called trustees involved in divvying up projects and cash from a settlement with BP— detailed its Gulf projects in a report shared with the AP in advance of its public release next week. The NRCS says it has committed nearly $570 million to such projects since 2010. Some projects started shortly before the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up in April 2010, killing 11 people and spilling hundreds of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf. Others began during efforts to clean up and protect wildlife immediately after the environmental catastrophe. And in at least one case, an oil spill recovery project has been so successful, it is being expanded nationally, says NRCS chief Jason Weller. The Associated Press has more details from the report here.