Biloxi’s crude deal: Oil spill reparations are funding a baseball stadium in Mississippi
“For something that is a ‘combination event’ where there are environmental and economic impacts, you should be looking at projects that have environmental and economic benefits,” says Cameron Smith, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute, a libertarian think tank that is researching the use of oil spill funds. “I’m not sure about the environmental nexus of a stadium, and there’s a large body of research that suggests they aren’t even the [drivers of] economic development that they purport to be.”
…Perhaps the tide will soon turn for Biloxi and its fishing community. Though BP’s total fines are still being litigated, a lot of money is on its way to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. About $50 million has already been earmarked for the restoration of an oyster reef in Heron Bay on the Louisiana state line, the type of project Smith says can be “an environmental win but also, where fishing is a major industry, a really good economic plan.” The project’s coordinator expects work to begin in late 2015.
