Louisiana looking at high cost from oil spill
by Mike Hasten - Shreveport Times (excerpt)

BATON ROUGE — Even if British Petroleum is able to cut off the flow from the Deepwater Horizon in the next several days, enough oil has gushed into the Gulf of Mexico in the past 43 days to cause Louisiana major problems for a long time to come, state officials said Tuesday. "This is going to be a very expensive and have a very long-time impact, and we still have oil going into the Gulf," Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis told the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday.

British Petroleum awarded Louisiana $25 million as an advance payment of state expenses to fight the largest oil spill in United States history. Davis said the majority of the money is being used to reimburse agencies for their expenses, especially large amounts of overtime being run up by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Department of Public Safety and the Department of the Military monitoring the spill and fighting oil intrusion into the state's marshes.

However, $5 million of the BP money will fund legal action the state is taking against the oil company. Attorney General James "Buddy" Caldwell said he appreciates the money, but he believes it would take another $22 million to fully pursue a lawsuit.