EPA chief to lead Gulf Coast restoration task force

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who grew up in New Orleans, will chair a Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force that President Obama will soon create by executive order.

Jackson is not the first person with roots in the region that Obama has placed in a major role overseeing its restoration. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus – the former governor of Mississippi – led the effort to craft a long-term recovery plan.

Creation of the task force is among the recommendations in a major strategy for Gulf Coast restoration that Mabus unveiled Tuesday.

The plan also calls for steering a large amount of the Clean Water Act penalties against BP and other parties responsible for the Gulf oil spill into restoration.

The Obama administration supports the idea, which requires Capitol Hill action.

The plan also calls on Congress to create a Gulf Coast Recovery Council to manage the funds, but envisions the quickly-created task force that Jackson will lead as a way to get the ball rolling on restoration without Capitol Hill action.

The task force – which will include federal, state and tribal officials – could be “modified or dissolved” if Congress creates the Gulf Coast Recovery Council, the strategy unveiled Tuesday notes.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) on Tuesday warned that states – not federal officials – must call the shots on the region’s recovery.