The view from the deck of the Exxon Valdez was grim. The slick was huge; birds and other wildlife were covered in oil, dying; and hardly any containment effort had begun. The spill would kill an enormous number of animals -- seabirds, bald eagles, sea otters, seals and whales.

Residents of the Jefferson Parish town of Jean Lafitte, 25 miles south of New Orleans, hope a levee can be built soon after they were inundated by Isaac in August and a string of earlier storms.

By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Senators from the U.S. Gulf Coast urged President Barack Obama on Friday to ensure th...

What's the difference between BP paying $5.4 billion to repair the epic mess it created along the Gulf Coast and the $21 billion check it should write? Two words: "grossly negligent."

Regional leaders at a Gulf Coast Restoration Summit said they're relieved that Congress passed the RESTORE Act in June. But they're unsure when money from RESTORE, which devotes 80 percent of BP's Clean Water Act fines for the 2010 spill to Gulf states, will be available.

Garret Graves, chairman of Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said last week "we will not allow BP to walk out of here, wiping its hands" of the company's responsibilities.

One thing is for sure: When it comes to how the billions of dollars in BP fines slated for the Gulf Coast is used by the states, advocates, watch-dog groups and citizens alike best keep their nose on the money trail.

A number of Louisianans attended, and the theme of resilience or withstanding adversity didn't sit well with some of them, who said the state had suffered unnecessarily from oil-and-gas greed and the mistakes of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. What exactly upset attendees from Louisiana?

(Repeats to widen readership) * States have higher incentive to demand higher BP fines * Complex talks, litigation could...

I am proud to announce The Nature Conservancy's new partnership with Oxfam America in the Gulf of Mexico. We aim to show that environmental restoration is the foundation for lasting economic security for Gulf Coast communities.

Louisiana needs to get smart quickly about coastal restoration, U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu said in her hometown of New Orleans last week.

The RESTORE Act is simply about fairness for the Gulf. The truth is that we are only at the end of the beginning of restoration. We don't even know the full impact of the BP oil disaster yet.

It took just 89 days for that well to spew over 4 million barrels of oil, but it will take much longer for us to fully understand the impact of this disaster -- and longer still to rebuild a healthy and prosperous Gulf of Mexico.