WH Official: Preserving Gulf Coast Massive Job

A White House appointee says preserving the ecosystem of the Gulf Coast — damaged by the BP oil spill and decades of erosion — will be a massive undertaking, the "grandaddy" of restoration projects.

John Hankinson was in New Orleans on Thursday addressing a meeting of the Louisiana Governor's Advisory Commission on Coastal Protection, Restoration and Conservation.

In October, Hankinson was appointed the executive director of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, a group that will recommend how to use potentially billions of dollars in fines BP faces paying.

The White House plans to use fines BP pays on restoration projects along the Gulf Coast.

Louisiana's coast was hit the hardests by the oil spill and faces massive problems.