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Glen Gardner, Public News Service - FL February 21, 2011 ORLANDO, Fla. - The BP oil spill may have been the wake-up call that pushes the Gulf Coast region to become more economically diverse. A new plan that aims to restore the region has been proposed by Oxfam America and the Center for American Progress. The plan calls for ecosystem restoration and an economy that is less dependent on oil and gas. Pat Barnes of BFA Environmental, Orlando, is a founder of Limitless Vistas, a nonprofit that trains and educates inner-city youth to become stewards of the environment while providing career opportunities for these young people in environmental science and engineering. He says the new restoration plan features new career opportunities. "The cornerstone to all of this is new job training. I don't think the Gulf Coast can completely rely on what they relied on in the past." The plan pushes for some of the billions of dollars in fines paid by BP to be used to diversify the economy of the Gulf region to make it less vulnerable to swings in the oil business and natural disasters. Barnes says there could be a lot of new job opportunities in restoring the ecosystem of the region, as the Gulf Coast implements plans for the post-spill economy. "There are a lot of new jobs that folks in the community can be trained to do that are related to that. It's not a highly technical area." The new plan aims to diversify the Gulf economy while promoting innovation, creating jobs and protecting communities. http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/18546-1
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