BOEMRE Awards $1.1 Million to Texas
Will Fund Coastal Impacts Technology Program and CIAP Management
NEW ORLEANS – The Bureau of
Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) today
announced it has awarded two Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP)
grants totaling $1,162,302 to the Texas General Land Office and to
Brazoria County, Texas, respectively. The grants will fund a project
to develop a Coastal Impacts Technology Program (CITP) for
conservation research, and will assist in the management of the CIAP
Program in Brazoria County.
Created by the Energy Policy Act of
2005, CIAP provides funding to the six Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)
oil and gas producing states to conserve and protect the coastal
environment. CIAP is an ongoing program with grant funding that is
allocated based on the offshore energy revenues collected by the
United States.
“BOEMRE is proud to support Texas in
its conservation and restoration initiatives, which are crucial to
the state’s coastal communities,” said BOEMRE Director Michael R.
Bromwich. “Through the CIAP program, we are able to provide the
necessary funding to continue the important work of preserving our
coastal environment for future generations.”
The first grant will provide $1
million to the Texas General Land office to work with the Research
Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA), a non-profit
consortium composed of more than 150 leading U.S. organizations.
RPSEA includes organizations drawn from industry, academia,
independent research laboratories, and government agencies. The
consortium will implement the CITP to identify and apply
environmentally-friendly technologies along the Texas Gulf Coast.
The proposal seeks to assess, demonstrate and measure the
effectiveness of these new technologies for potential commercial
application, as well as fund educational workforce programs. The
CITP research efforts will conserve and protect the natural coastal
environment by reducing the effects of energy exploration and
production activities along the Texas coast.
The second grant will provide
$162,302 to Brazoria County, Texas. This award will fund compliance
and management expenses and various other costs associated with
administering the county’s CIAP program.
CIAP received $250 million in
appropriated funds for each of the Fiscal years 2007-2010, to be
disbursed to six eligible OCS oil and gas producing states: Texas,
Alabama, Alaska, California, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Contact: BOEMRE
Public Affairs-Gulf