Applying BP PLC spill fines and other funds to Gulf of Mexico coastal restoration would generate 68,000 to 88,000 jobs throughout the region over the next 50 years, according to an economic analysis released this week.

The Mather Economics LLC study, commissioned by Greater New Orleans Inc. and the Walton Family Foundation, assumes the receipt of $25 billion in restoration funds from the "Restore Act," part of the Senate transportation bill, as a basis for its forecast.

One provision of the act would create a Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund that would net 80 percent of any Clean Water Act penalties paid by companies responsible for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill. Those funds would then be used to pay for restoration projects in the Gulf states.

"These restoration projects have and will continue to have a positive impact environmentally, but the funding associated with these restoration projects also have substantial economic impacts. ... [R]estoration funding can yield significant and positive impacts economically, especially on state and regional employment," the report says.

Mather researchers used an economic model to conclude that Gulf restoration work would produce 77,453 jobs, according to the report's moderate forecast, over the next 50 years, with benefits more heavily skewed toward the earlier part of the time period because inflation erodes the value of restoration funds over time. The study's conservative and aggressive forecasts predict that restoration funds would create 68,820 jobs and 88,011 jobs, respectively, over the same time period.

If conditions remain constant, just 50,707 jobs would be created over the next half century, the report says.

Jobs added as a result of restoration funds would be most heavily concentrated in transport, trade and utilities (20,947); manufacturing (10,504); public administration (9,945); and construction (8,261), the report states.

The work would also create indirect employment as demand for materials, supplies, equipment and other services necessary to restoration rose. It would also have induced effects, which are those produced when people employed directly or indirectly by the restoration industry spend their earnings.