The Senate on Tuesday passed Senate Bill 2176 , sending it to the House for more work. It would create the Gulf Coast Restoration Reserve Fund in the state treasury. Photo by Imani Khayyam.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Senate is advancing a plan to reserve oil spill settlement money for use on projects along the Gulf Coast.
The Senate on Tuesday passed Senate Bill 2176 , sending it to the House for more work. It would create the Gulf Coast Restoration Reserve Fund in the state treasury.
BP is paying Mississippi $750 million over 17 years in economic damages payments because of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Coast lawmakers want the money reserved for projects in their part of the state, but some lawmakers further inland say the oil spill caused economic problems elsewhere, too.
A similar bill passed the Senate last year but died in the House because leaders said it lacked details of how money would be distributed.
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