Lafourche, Terrebonne Receiving Nearly $3 Million in GOMESA Funds

From the Top | Christine Aucoin
May 1, 2021
Empowering Women
May 1, 2021
From the Top | Christine Aucoin
May 1, 2021
Empowering Women
May 1, 2021

Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes are receiving a combined $2,822,451.31 in Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA) funds for the 2020 fiscal year. 

Passed in 2006, GOMESA created revenue provisions for the four Gulf oil and gas producing states, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, and their coastal political subdivisions. GOMESA funds are used for coastal conservation, restoration and hurricane protection.

Out of the nearly $249 million in the FY 2020 going to Gulf states, the federal government awarded Lafourche $1,143,534.60 and Terrebonne $1,678,916.71. The state as a whole is being given $109,948,761.


“This $109 million in GOMESA funding will be vital for restoring Louisiana’s coast and strengthening our hurricane protection efforts, and is welcome news for the communities, small businesses and people in our state. Our coastline is the first line of defense against powerful gulf storms, which is why Louisiana took action to dedicate revenues generated from offshore energy exploration and production to coastal restoration and hurricane protection,” said House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) the day it was announced. 

“Today is a reminder that the actions taken by the Biden administration to ban oil and natural gas leasing will deny us future coastal revenues, and will have a destructive impact on the state of Louisiana and the protection of the millions of people who call this home,” he continued. 

GOMESA funding relies on oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. Industry leaders and Louisiana lawmakers have been vocal with how President Joe Biden’s executive actions, such as the moratorium on lease sales and new drilling operations in the Gulf, may affect the funding. 


Congressman Garret Graves (R-La.) also addressed his concerns with the Biden administration’s policies and how they relate to protecting Louisiana lands. 

“Every single penny of this funding will be invested in our flood control, coastal restoration, and hurricane protection. But at the end of the day, as great of news this is, the focus needs to remain on the current trajectory of President Biden’s policies, that stop future domestic energy production, that pose a threat to our communities – whether that be the increased risk of flooding, the accelerated erosion of our coast, and the displacement of our local jobs,” Graves said. 

“We had five named storms last year and one of the first actions of the new administration is to effectively cut off our hurricane protection funds. With these disastrous moratoriums, we will become more and more vulnerable with every hurricane that comes through the Gulf – exchanging critical protection and restoration for immense coastal vulnerabilities,” he continued. “This is not a tradeoff I am willing to accept and neither should you.”


The nearly $110 million Louisiana will receive in the 2020 FY (Oct. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2020) is down nearly 29.4 from the previous year. Last year saw record lows in demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the FY 2019, the state was awarded $156 million. 

According to reports, Louisiana and its parishes have received nearly $455.2 million as part of the revenue sharing system, more than 40 percent of the total amount disbursed to the states since 2009. •