I was listening to Moon Griffon this morning and heard David Vitter on the show. He mentioned a sub-committee hearing he testified at concerning coastal erosion and how it seemed that after his presentation Louisiana was going to be able to get more federal help in fighting the loss of our coastline.

Now I read that Billy Tauzin and Chris John were also at the hearing to testify in an effort to secure the funding. For some reason Vitter didn’t mention either of them but did managed to make it sound like he was there all alone in trying to save our coast.

Don’t be picking on my boy Vitter, he & the President got high marks on their costal package this weekend by my friends at the Times Picayune:

Much is left out

The $1.9 billion in federal and state money that would be spent in the next decade would finance five major projects, ranging from work along the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet to efforts to shore up coastal Jefferson and Lafourche parishes, and would pay for the planning stages of a number of other projects.

But the handful of projects shouldn’t be considered more than a beginning of the coastal restoration process, critics say. And several may not work, or could be considered a waste of time and money by those outside Louisiana if state and federal agencies don’t stop approving logging, home and business construction, and other human activities in the areas the restoration projects are designed to save.

“This set of projects together is not going to restore our coast in any significant way,” said John Day, chairman of the National Technical Review Committee, a group of scientists that has been providing an independent review of the restoration program.

Story: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1090137364230520.xml

The Guv