{"id":610167,"date":"2026-04-27T23:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T23:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610167\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T23:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T23:28:13","slug":"louisiana-groups-win-40-million-for-enviro-projects-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610167\/","title":{"rendered":"Louisiana groups win $40 million for enviro projects | Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Louisiana projects addressing post-storm electricity shortages and abandoned<\/a>\u00a0offshore oil platforms\u00a0have won a $50 million contest aimed at funding scientific initiatives in the region.<\/p>\n

The two winning groups \u2013 the Louisiana Public Health Institute and the Gulf Offshore Research Institute \u2013 will each receive $20 million. The National Academies\u2019 Gulf Research Project announced the winners Thursday as part of the philanthropic Gulf Futures Challenge.<\/p>\n

The public health initiative will develop at least eight solar and battery-powered energy resilient hubs at healthcare centers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. In addition to installing the energy system to power the community health clinics through storms, the \u201cGulf Hub\u201d network will strengthen infrastructure at the facilities and develop a data-sharing network in case of severe disasters where people must evacuate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are really safety net clinic providers that provide high quality primary care, preventative care and behavioral health services within 100 miles of the coast,\u201d said Taslim van Hattum, the chief program officer of the Louisiana Public Health Institute. \u201cWe are catalyzing a transformative vision for access to continuous care before, during and after disasters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NO.centerins.052823.3\"<\/p>\n

A group of brown pelicans flies across a stretch of the Cameron Parish coast protected by the Rockefeller Refuge Gulf Shoreline Stabilization Project.<\/p>\n

Staff photo by Alena Maschke<\/p>\n

The Mandeville-based Gulf Offshore Research Institute, meanwhile, will give new life to idle oil and gas platforms. Kent Satterlee, the executive director of the organization, said the group aims to use the $20 million to repurpose five platforms into sites for ocean observation, habitat monitoring, fish farming pilots and other uses.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething of this magnitude is game-changing,\u201d Satterlee said of the grant. \u201cIt allows us to really implement our vision\u2026and to put together a repeatable and scalable process that can be used by other organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eight other finalists<\/a> will receive up to $875,000 for their projects, which include three other Louisiana-based initiatives focused on concerns including financing climate mitigation and transitioning to clean energy.<\/p>\n

The shortlisted groups included a plan from Tulane to repurpose decommissioned wind turbines and a proposal from Louisiana State University to help finance expensive climate mitigation efforts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe asked the people of the Gulf for their visions for a brighter future, and they responded with a flood of exciting proposals,\u201d said Lauren Alexander Augustine, executive director of the Gulf Research Program.<\/p>\n

A regional healthcare network<\/p>\n

The Gulf Hub initiative from the public health institute will provide healthcare to hundreds of thousands of residents in the region, van Hattum said.<\/p>\n

The importance of building energy-resilient sites that can keep the lights on during storms has gained traction<\/a> in recent years, including the resilient lighthouses at New Orleans churches established after Hurricane Ida.<\/p>\n

The public health project is designed to include features beyond ensuring the health care facilities can withstand grid interruptions during hurricanes, flooding and extreme heat.<\/p>\n

This includes establishing \u201ca regional data network,\u201d van Hattum said, that will ensure clinics have medical records for patients across facilities.<\/p>\n

\"Entergy<\/p>\n

This Entergy solar farm began operating in late 2020 in Port Allen, producing 50 megawatts of power, enough to power about 9,600 homes. Photo taken June 10, 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

STAFF PHOTO BY BILL FEIG<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if they are evacuating New Orleans and seen in Atlanta, a physician there is about to query through the Gulf Hub network,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The initiative is a partnership between primary care associations across four states, a host of universities including LSU\u2019s School of Public Health and Southern University\u2019s School of Social Work, and a host of nonprofit organizations.<\/p>\n

From fish farms to ocean monitoring<\/p>\n

For Satterlee, who leads the offshore research institute, repurposing the idle oil platforms is anything but a one-size-fits-all approach. The organization plans to transform the degraded sites into a range of new uses, from clean energy pilots testing a mix of solar, wind and hydrogen systems to trial runs for extracting seawater minerals like lithium and cobalt.<\/p>\n

Satterlee said the specific conditions of the platforms \u2013 such as its depth and the habitat around it \u2013 will affect how the scientists repurpose the structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of our repurposing has a much higher probability of success than others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For instance, ocean monitoring is \u201cready to go,\u201d Satterlee said, and will be installed on all five platforms. Aquaculture farming, however, is not ready for commercialization because government regulatory changes are needed, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to work with the government agencies to significantly streamline that process,\u201d Satterlee said.<\/p>\n

The organization has so far submitted a permit application to repurpose one platform in the South Pass area near the mouth of the Mississippi River, he said. The other platforms have not yet been identified.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Louisiana projects addressing post-storm electricity shortages and abandoned\u00a0offshore oil platforms\u00a0have won a $50 million contest aimed at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[40197,97,252,253],"class_list":["post-610167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-fej","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}