In 2006, a year after hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the U.S. government struck a deal to give states in the region a growing share of offshore drilling revenues to finance projects protecting them from future monster storms.
The stakes are particularly high for Louisiana, which has lost about 2,000 square miles of land over the last century because of Mississippi River levees that block silt from reaching its swamps, the oil industry’s carving of canals through the marshes, and sea level rise from climate change. Six months earlier, the chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers admitted the agency had “missed something” in engineering the system, which collapsed at water levels lower than they were designed to withstand.
An official for the Texas General Land Office said the lower payouts had not impacted its programs because it had budgeted conservatively. Officials in Mississippi did not respond to requests for comment.