New Louisiana Poll: 98% Want to Maintain as Much of Louisiana’s Coast as Possible

October 4, 2020

Gulf Week continues with Jacques and Simone's latest episode

On today’s episode of Delta Dispatches, hosts Jacques and Simone are joined by Mark Sickle, Corporate and Government Relations for Weeks Marine and Bernie Pinsonat, formerly a partner at ‎Southern Media & Opinion Research, Inc. and now commissions polls for Bernie Pinsonat Inc. Mark kicks off the show to talk about Weeks Marine’s new dredge, which will be used for the upcoming Terrebonne Basin Barrier Island project, which includes West Bell Headlands, Timbalier Island and Trinity East Island. On the second half the show, Bernie joins the show to talk about the results of the recently completed poll of Louisiana voters. This poll found that voters are deeply concerned about the state’s coastal land loss crisis and support coastal restoration efforts to address it. You can read the results of the poll at http://mississippiriverdelta.org/coastal-poll-2019/.

Show Transcription
This transcription was generated by a computer. Please excuse any errors.
Jacques Hebert & Simone Maloz

Jacques works as Communications Director the Environmental Defense Fund in Louisiana and Restore the Mississippi River Delta, raising awareness to Louisiana’s land loss crisis, its far-reaching implications on people, wildlife and the economy, and the restoration solutions available to address it. Jacques leads a team that leverages public communications and innovative marketing strategies to build support for restoration of Louisiana’s coast. Prior to joining Audubon, Jacques worked as the Public Affairs Manager at Mother Jones in San Francisco, where he helped elevate the profile of the news organization and its reporting. Previously, he worked at Google in its advertising department and then on the company’s corporate communications team focusing on YouTube. Jacques graduated from Dartmouth College with a dual major in Spanish and Latin American Studies. Jacques is a native son of Louisiana, having grown up in the town of Braithwaite in Plaquemines Parish, where his family had lived for generations. In 2015, he participated in Greater New Orleans Foundation’s Emerging Leaders program, in 2016, Jacques completed the Institute for Environmental Communication at Loyola University, and in 2018, he was an Aspen Ideas Festival scholar. Gambit selected Jacques as one of its “40 Under 40” for 2018. | As Executive Director of Restore or Retreat, a non-profit coastal advocacy group working to identify and expedite the implementation of aggressive, large-scale restoration projects, Terrebonne Parish native Simone Theriot Maloz works with Restore the Mississippi River Delta on the local, state and federal levels to advocate for the needs of the disappearing Louisiana coast, specifically the Barataria and Terrebonne Basins. Since the devastating hurricanes of 2005 and the 2010 oil spill, she has also been tracking the process of the different planning efforts underway, including the Natural Resources Damage Assessment Act (NRDA), Clean Water Act Penalties, the 2012 and 2017 State Master Plan Update and the Louisiana Coastal Area Study projects, all to ensure the needs of the Barataria and Terrebonne Basins are being adequately met with the necessary sense of urgency in the face of what is at stake. She was appointed to serve on the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Coastal Protection, Restoration and Conservation in the summer of 2014, and is a member and co-chair of the Commission’s Diversion Subcommittee. Simone plans on having the Louisiana coast continue to serve as her home and the home of her children and grandchildren.