HLS 15RS-1452 ORIGINAL
2015 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 135
BY REPRESENTATIVE DOVE
COASTAL COMMISSION: Requests the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority to
establish a subcommittee to study at-risk energy infrastructure in the coastal area
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2To urge and request the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Board to establish a
3 subcommittee to develop recommendations for a coastal protection and restoration
4 program that addresses critical at-risk energy infrastructure, while simultaneously
5 providing broader ecological benefits and incentivizing shared investment in
6 individual projects, and submit a report of the recommendations to the House
7 Committee on Natural Resources and Environment and the Senate Committee on
8 Natural Resources on or before February 15, 2016.
9 WHEREAS, the coastal region of Louisiana has been experiencing rapid change for
10many decades, primarily as a result of coastal land loss to such a degree that the state and
11its partners have made coastal protection and restoration a priority by funding projects that
12help to sustain the coastal economy, environment, and infrastructure; and
13 WHEREAS, Louisiana's coastal wetlands provide an important energy corridor for
14a network of thousands of miles of petroleum pipelines and related assets that transport an
15estimated thirty percent of oil and gas resources from the Gulf of Mexico to American
16energy consumers as far as New England; and
17 WHEREAS, many of the older pipelines in these systems were designed and built
18in a once stable wetland area that has since deteriorated to such a point where the pipeline
19infrastructure is now critically exposed, and where the risk of damages from storms, normal
20tidal scouring, continued erosion and subsidence, and marine accidents have dramatically
21increased; and
Page 1 of 3 HLS 15RS-1452 ORIGINAL
HCR NO. 135
1 WHEREAS, oil and gas and pipeline operators may, in the near future, be forced to
2lower their pipelines or abandon and remove some critically exposed systems altogether and
3subsequently incur the enormous costs of such drastic measures; and
4 WHEREAS, current technologies and techniques, such as installing rock rip-rap or
5concrete mats, designed to protect and sustain these critically exposed pipeline systems may
6no longer be seen as feasible methods of maintaining safe operations, and as such oil and gas
7and pipeline operators have expressed an interest in alternative measures to protect these
8facilities in the long-term; and
9 WHEREAS, the innovative coastal protection and restoration technologies and
10partnerships currently being implemented and developed by restoration agencies, nonprofit
11organizations, and some landowners can provide alternative solutions for oil and gas and
12pipeline companies to evaluate and invest in protection and restoration projects that have a
13measurable and cost effective benefit to an existing energy asset and an ecological benefit
14to a broader group of stakeholders.
15 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
16urge and request the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Board to establish a
17subcommittee to develop recommendations for a coastal protection and restoration program
18that addresses critical at-risk energy infrastructure, while simultaneously providing broader
19ecological benefits and incentivizing shared investment in individual projects, and submit
20a report of the recommendations to the House Committee on Natural Resources and
21Environment and the Senate Committee on Natural Resources on or before February 15,
222016.
23 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a suitable copy of this Resolution be transmitted
24to the chairman of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Board.
DIGEST
The digest printed below was prepared by House Legislative Services. It constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument. The keyword, one-liner, abstract, and digest do not constitute
part of the law or proof or indicia of legislative intent. [R.S. 1:13(B) and 24:177(E)]
HCR 135 Original 2015 Regular Session Dove
Urges and requests the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Board to establish a
subcommittee to develop recommendations for a coastal protection and restoration program
that addresses critical at-risk energy infrastructure, while simultaneously providing broader
Page 2 of 3 HLS 15RS-1452 ORIGINAL
HCR NO. 135
ecological benefits and incentivizing shared investment in individual projects, and submit
a report of the recommendations to the House Committee on Natural Resources and
Environment and the Senate Committee on Natural Resources on or before February 15,
2016.
Page 3 of 3