A measure to send most of the Deepwater Horizon spill penalties to the Gulf Coast and boost land acquisition funding could be voted on by the Senate this afternoon, potentially providing the largest single federal contribution to conservation in history.

The proposal, introduced as an amendment to the Senate transportation bill by Sens. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.), would send 80 percent of the potentially tens of billions of dollars in Clean Water Act fines to the five Gulf states.

The money would be used to pay for economic and environmental restoration projects in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas and to fund Gulf Coast ecological research and national oceans research endowment (E&ENews PM, July 21, 2011).

In a bid to attract the necessary 60 votes, which supporters say the amendment now has, the measure includes a massive infusion of cash into a popular federal conservation program called the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The provision would double current funding levels for the LWCF program to $700 million for each of the next two years and reauthorize it until 2022, at $1.4 billion total.

Injecting cash into and extending the LWCF appeared intended to attract support from key Senate leaders who favor the program -- such as Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) -- as well as others outside the five-state Gulf region.

The result is an amendment that supporters now say would provide perhaps the largest-ever federal boost to conservation and environmental efforts in the nation.

"This could be the biggest infusion of conservation dollars in history," said Joshua Saks, legislative director for the National Wildlife Federation. "This would be a remarkable achievement."

To pay for it all, architects of the amendment have agreed to delay for an additional year, until 2022, implementation of a law that would relax rules under which multinational corporations may claim tax deductions on interest expenses incurred overseas. Essentially a corporate tax loophole in waiting, the rule change has been repeatedly delayed to pay for various programs over the years.

Lawmakers yesterday had considered a different way of offsetting the $2.8 billion cost -- $1.2 billion for the RESTORE Act plus $1.4 billion for the LWCF -- through a fee on mortgage transactions. That caused an uproar among some Democrats and was scrapped.

Landrieu had previously suggested extending a per-barrel oil drilling tax for three years but that, too, was scrapped.

Nelson urged passage of the amendment in a speech on the Senate floor this morning. The House approved a stripped-down version of the "RESTORE Act" last month (E&E Daily, Feb 17).

"In the U.S. Senate today, we have a chance to take a step that will make the Gulf whole," Nelson said.

Nelson noted that without a change in the law, most of the spill penalties would likely be spent in any number of ways, unrelated to the spill.

"Otherwise the money is going to end up in the federal Treasury, and there's no telling where it will be spent," he said.

Doubling LWCF funds

The amendment would also roughly double funding for LWCF over the next two fiscal years. Its adoption would be a major victory for the Obama administration and conservationists, who have argued the account has been shortchanged for decades.

The program allows up to $900 million in offshore oil and gas revenues to be spent annually on land acquisitions, conservation easements and grants to states to promote urban parks.

While the Obama administration requested full funding for fiscal 2012, it received about $350 million. Today's amendment would provide $700 million in each of the next two fiscal years, significantly higher than the administration's most recent request.

"We are essentially trying to right what has been a 50-year wrong," said Alan Rowsome, who directs conservation funding for the Wilderness Society.

The amendment would also require 1.5 percent of the LWCF money promote land access for sportsmen, a provision that appears similar to a proposal by Montana Sen. Jon Tester (D) (E&E Daily, June 24, 2011).

"That's a critical piece of this because we want to make sure our public lands stay open and accessible," Rowsome said.

The fund has enjoyed a resurgence under the Obama administration after facing multiple years of declining appropriations. But the program faces many skeptical lawmakers, mostly Republicans, who oppose enlarging the federal estate during times of fiscal constraints.

Yet, Republican Sens. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Richard Burr of North Carolina and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have signed onto a separate measure by Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Bingaman to provide full funding for LWCF.