New Orleans, now more than 50 miles from the Gulf, will be oceanfront real estate. Many environmentalists target the oil and gas industry as the primary human contributor to the wetlands loss, but Penland said that's a little simplistic. We used geographical information systems technology, computer mapping and other techniques to objectively study the 680,000-acre loss in southeast Louisiana. Louisiana has more coastal wetlands than any other state in the country and it's a national treasure that allows the state to be at the top of all seafood production, wintering habitat for ducks and other important benefits. One-third of the seafood catch for the lower 48 states comes from this Louisiana habitat.
Wetlands loss is two-fold.
First, it's a natural process. But studies show that if you add up all the area of all the canals ever dredged in the 75 years of oil and gas activity in the wetlands, it would amount to about 10 percent of all wetland loss. Industry is addressing its responsibility through dedicating oil and gas monies to wetland restoration programs, as well as employing a myriad of new technologies like directional drilling and 3-D seismic, which allows the industry to dramatically decrease its footprint on this sensitive environment. He said it's important to remember that most of the oil and gas activity visible today in Louisiana's wetlands took place 40 or 50 years ago. At one time, he said, almost 50 cents of every dollar that went into the state was oil and gas revenue.