Louisiana CIAP Plan: First plan to get federal completeness review

Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Secretary Scott Angelle announced today that officials with the U.S. Department of Interior, Minerals Management Service (MMS) have given a stamp of approval on the “completeness review” of the state’s Coastal Impact Assistance Plan or CIAP Plan.  Angelle said this means that Louisiana is the first eligible coastal state to achieve plan completeness. 
            "Over the next 90-days, the state’s CIAP Plan will be considered for final approval, the last step in the process required by MMS," Angelle noted.
            “Now that MMS considers Louisiana’s plan complete, we are well on our way to becoming the first state to reach the finish line,” Angelle said.  Louisiana and five other oil and gas producing states are required to submit CIAP plans to the federal government in order to receive federal dollars from offshore oil and gas operations, as provided in the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005.
            The CIAP program allocations for FY 2007 and 2008 have been determined to about $127.6 million a year, and FY 2009 and 2010 allocations are expected to be announced in April of 2009.  The four-year program is based on calculations by the MMS on Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas revenues.
            Angelle said that beside the state-only projects, the 19 coastal parishes have project proposals within the plan which comprise 35 percent of the federal funding to be 
used for conservation, restoration, and infrastructure projects to mitigate the onshore impacts of OCS oil and gas exploration and production activities. “I am pleased to see Louisiana leading the way, once final approval is obtained, the CIAP grant applications can be submitted in October,” Angelle said.