Representatives from U.S. states bordering the Gulf of Mexico met May 30 in New Orleans to “move forward with the establishment of a Gulf of Mexico Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council,” according to a press release from the group.
The group says they are modeling themselves after the councils in Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet, formed after the Exxon Valdez oil disaster in 1989.
Similar to the Valdez spill, oil industry and government complacency has been cited as underlying causes of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.
“Our goal is to learn from lessons of the past and prepare for the future,” said Drew Landry, a native of Louisiana and one of the coordinators of the meeting.