WASHINGTON -- United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., today opened the America's Energy Coast (AEC) National Policy Forum in Washington D.C with remarks highlighting the importance of working together to promote coastal sustainability and energy production in the Gulf Coast region.

During today's event, a coalition of state leaders, businesses and national environmental organizations released a definitive report calling on Congress and senior Obama Administration officials to resolve the maze of bureaucratic roadblocks that threaten the long-term sustainability of America's Energy Coast. The report, titled Region at Risk, describes the value and uniqueness of the Gulf Coast, identifies major threats facing the region and outlines steps that must be taken to protect and restore this invaluable landscape. Download a PDF of the report online at www.americasenergycoast.org.

Sen. Landrieu's remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:

Henry Ford once said: "Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."

I think Mr. Ford would share my pride that the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have come together. We have come together as states that represent the only true working coast in the lower 48, contributing 90% of America's offshore energy production, 30% of the nation's overall oil and gas supply, and 30% of its seafood.

This working coast -- America's Energy Coast -- is home to nearly 10 million people. They live in small towns and large metropolitan areas. They fish the most productive waters and farm the most fertile lands on the earth. They pilot ships -- large and small - through the thousands of miles of bayous and waterways that service the busiest ports in the world. Their hard work turns on the lights and heats homes across America.

And at the heart of this coast is a massive delta formed by the mightiest river on the continent. Like countless coastal deltas around the world, there is a bounty of great opportunity and natural resources. But there is also an immense risk that comes with living so close to the power of water.

Each year, the Gulf Coast is the dead end of "Hurricane Alley". The warm waters that stretch from the west coast of northern Africa deliver powerful storms each year across the Atlantic and into the center of the Gulf of Mexico.

Nearly 70% of all hurricanes that have made landfall in the United States since 1851 struck the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama. (This excludes the state of Florida.)

To compound this annual threat of hurricanes, our coast in Louisiana is vanishing and sinking at an alarming rate -- placing millions of lives at risk and billions of dollars in economic assets at jeopardy.

This is why we have come together -- to demonstrate the critical and strategic resources that are at serious risk, and present solutions for establishing a more sustainable coast with safer communities and a more resilient economy for the nation.

By coming together, we have achieved success before. This powerful coalition of cities, counties, parishes and states helped pass landmark legislation in 2006 to share 37.5% of offshore oil and gas revenues with states and coastal parishes/counties. It is estimated that the Domenici- Landrieu Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act will provide several hundred million dollars a year to the Gulf Coast producing states for (1) coastal hurricane protection, (2) wetlands restoration, and the (3) mitigation of the impact of outer continental shelf activities.

With this promise of dedicated revenue in hand, we must come together again to ensure that right laws and policies are in place to get the work done. We must move swiftly to protect our most vulnerable communities and restore sustainability to our fragile coast; and right now, our patch-work approach at the federal level is woefully inadequate.

To date, federal work that concentrates on coastal restoration, flood protection, water management, and hurricane protection, has been performed in silos -- each effort largely operating independently of the others.

Indeed, our Corps of Engineers currently operates in such isolation that it actually proceeds with work proven to exasperate other factors that ultimately destabilize the region. It does so because it says it has no alternative under law. There is in fact no check or balance on their activities other than years of inactivity.

In recent years, a home-grown movement has arisen that advocates taking a more comprehensive approach to coastal restoration and hurricane and flood protection. Indeed, local governments and the State have made great strides in the last decade to coordinate its efforts in a way that reflects the interdependency of the approaches.

On the federal level, the Obama administration has shown signs that it would be amenable to such an effort. In acknowledging the overlapping roles of government agencies, it has launched the interagency partnership for sustainable communities as a cooperative effort between the Departments of Transportation, Environmental Quality, and Housing and Urban Development.

However, to date no public agency or public-private partnership in the federal government currently addresses the unique challenges and multi-dimensional missions to ensure deltaic sustainability.

We must find a sustainable balance of water management that keeps communities safe and allows us to prosper.

The storms of 2005 - Katrina, Rita and Ike - were wake-up calls for the people of the Gulf Coast and they are now calling out to the rest of the United States and the world. We cannot continue the policy of "patch and pray" - - hoping that the big storm doesn't visit our shores this year.

We have a broken system and no real solution to repair it: flood protection that fails or doesn't even exist, navigation maintenance that does not keep our ports competitive in global markets, lack of dependable sources of clean drinking water, no real plans for restoring natural ecosystems and wildlife habitats. The list goes on and on.

It is my hope that the America's Energy Coast policy initiative can be a voice for change in Washington. With your support, we must call on leaders in the Congress and on our President to establish an integrated water policy with laws and regulations that provides a clear direction and a dedicated source of revenue. These policies should establish a sustainable system that keeps communities safer and our economy stronger.

Our work here today is a beginning of the process -- identifying the specific solutions to these problems. I hope that we can stay together and work together, to achieve success: creating a more sustainable and safe Gulf Coast.