Offshore revenue-sharing: $188M to 4 states including Louisiana

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Four Gulf of Mexico states and their coastal counties/parishes are getting nearly $188 million in revenue-sharing funds as the offshore leasing areas involved expand.
  
The money must be used for coastal conservation, restoration and hurricane protection.
  
An Interior Department news release Thursday says Louisiana is getting a total of about $82 million, with more than $50 million going to Texas, nearly $28 million to Mississippi and almost $27 million to Alabama.
  
The state shares of those totals are $66.3 million for Louisiana, $40.5 million for Texas, $22.2 million for Mississippi and $21.4 million for Alabama.
  
Congress approved the revenue-sharing program in 2006. For the first 10 years, it covered a smaller leasing area in the Gulf of Mexico. The states and counties got about $37 million over those years.