Women of the Storm hold conference in DC for Gulf Coast restoration
Imagine a sunny day on Capitol Hill, with more than 140 women standing under bright blue umbrellas urging Congress to dedicate 80% of the BP Oil fine dollars to the Gulf Coast States for restoration.
Members of the press are invited to attend a Capitol Hill news conference on Tuesday, March 29 at 11 a.m. on the Upper Senate Side lawn hosted by Women of the Storm. The non-partisan grassroots organization was formed after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, with the blue umbrellas representing the blue tarps that covered thousands of damaged roofs along the Gulf. Following the environmental and economic storms caused by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, the group expanded to include women from all five Gulf Coast states.
More than 140 women of different backgrounds and political persuasions, hailing from Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, will speak with one voice at the 11 a.m. news conference, backed up by over 131,000 signatures by citizens in every state who signed the group’s e-petition at www.RestoretheGulf.com.
The press conference will be attended by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson; elected Gulf Coast officials; Alabama businesswomen including Lucy Buffett, environmentalist Alexandra Cousteau; New Orleanians Donna Brazile and Mary Matalin; and a group of students from Greenwich Academy in Greenwich, CT, who are interested in restoration of the Gulf Coast.
“These women are going to Washington in a spirit of bipartisanship because they know that it is both fair and reasonable for BP to pick up the tab for Gulf Coast restoration, rather than forward the bill to tax-payers in the future,” said Anne Milling, who founded Women of the Storm in early 2006. “It’s not a partisan issue. It’s a leadership issue!”
03/29/2011