SH – Obama removes funding for the Richton salt dome project
President Barack Obama removed funding for the Richton salt dome project from the Department of Energy’s budget recently, a move Coast environmentalists praised Wednesday.
The department planned to take millions of gallons a day from the Pascagoula River, use the water to carve a storage chamber in the dome and pipe the resulting salty brine 80 miles to the Gulf.
Not only did Obama and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu write out future funding requests for the project, they also redirected the $71 million left in the department’s budget for the project.
They proposed using that money for operations and maintenance at the existing Strategic Petroleum Reserves in Louisiana and Texas.
But those who are watching the issue pointed out Obama’s budget is a proposal and Congress likely would have the last say.
Read more at The Sun Herald
3/24/10
Magnolia Tribune
