GULF SHORES — In the past two years, the leaders of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach have been drawn closer together as the two cities try to cope with the ongoing recovery from the 2010 BP oil spill.

That relationship will be even more vital when money from the RESTORE Act begins to flow into the five coastal states.

Robert Craft of Gulf Shores and Tony Kennon of Orange Beach will be part of Alabama’s 10-member panel that will decide how some of the money is spent. The pair spoke about the RESTORE Act at a recent Alabama Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce breakfast.

Kennon had just been released from the hospital days earlier after tests to determine why his blood pressure had spiked.

“First of all, let me begin by saying how glad, and I’m sure everybody in this room will agree with this, I am to see Mayor Kennon,” Craft said. “We have a very unique relationship. We are dramatically different in our styles, but together we make a pretty formidable team.”

A team that will have work even more closely in the coming years. Along with Craft and Kennon, Mayor Tim Gant of Fairhope, a commissioner each from Baldwin and Mobile counties, three mayors from Mobile County, chairman of the state docks in Mobile, Jimmy Lyons, and Gov. Robert Bentley will make up the panel.

“Hopefully we have set an example, the two of us, on how Gulf Shores and Orange Beach can continue to work together and complement one another and gain things that we wouldn’t have gained otherwise,” Craft said.

The most important part of that money, Craft said, will come from one of three categories the money is to be spent on.

“RESTORE comes from Resources, eco-systems, tourist opportunity and revived economy,” he said. “This is much broader that what we always understood what NRDA money would be for which is totally environmental. We have the opportunities to spend this in a lot of different ways, divided into three pots.”

NRDA stands for the National Resource Damage Assessment and its grants are issued through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The first of the three pots will contain 35 percent of the fine money and each state will get seven percent of this amount. Each state’s 10-person panel will decide what projects this money is spent on.

“Implementing a federally approved marine coastal conservation management plan, programs to promote tourism and Gulf Coast states, programs to provide the consumption of seafood produced in the Gulf Coast ecosystem, planning assistance, work force development and job revenue,” Craft said. “There are a lot of economic areas within the 35 percent.”

Many, Craft said, will be aimed at improving natural areas and assets.

“Our assets are environmental,” he said. “The reason we have this tourism community we have is that Gulf of Mexico and all the activities that go with it. So the recovery of the environment and the eco-systems, that’s an important part of our business opportunities. When we think about the environmental side it’s not going to the business bucket, but it is.”

This is the part of the money the state panel will have most control over.

“We will try to get as many projects as we can in that bucket and the 35 percent is essentially a project selection by the council,” Craft said. “If we approve it and it is eligible, that’s the only determination. We have a lot of control on how that money’s spent.”

While the 35 percent can be spent on environmental or infrastructure projects the second “bucket” will all go to improve the environment.

“The middle pot is 30 percent and it is a federal-state task force and we’ve got six or seven federal officials plus and the five coastal governors to decide where that money goes,” Craft said. “This is primarily for continued support of NRDA plans which is more of the environmental pot. It will be presented to the task force and they have to decide which projects are the ones they want to spend the money on to compliment NRDA and help the ecosystem.”

The final 30 percent of the fine money will also be distributed by the federal-state panel. Each of the five states will be able to submit projects for approval from this money.

“The third bucket is an impact formula, 30 percent of the money,” Craft said. “This is where projects will be presented to the federal task force to judge the merits of how the money is distributed based on impact. Which one had the most impact on the ecological recovery and economic return. That will be more of a competitive set.

“But all three we will have the opportunity to present projects in that we deem for the state. That affects us in a lot of different ways and there will be a lot of strategic thinking involved on how we present projects, which ones have the best impact.”

The final five percent will be spent on research.

“Primarily the continued research on the damage and any issues,” Craft said. “Any interest created by this fund goes into research also.”

Just how much money will be available is still a great unknown.

“It’s based on per barrel of oil and their degree of negligence,” Craft said. “And depending on the degree of negligence it could be anywhere from $5 billion to $21 billion that BP would be fined.”

According to the RESTORE Act, 80 percent of that fine will go to the five states.