Pointeà la Hache, Louisiana (AP) – Oil company Chevron has to pay at least $740 million to restore damage to the coastal wetlands in southeast Louisiana, a jury ruling over a decade after the landmark trial.
The case is the first Dozens of lawsuits to be filed Trials against world-leading oil companies in Louisiana as their role in accelerating land losses in the state Disappear quickly coastal. This judgment – which may be appealed – could set a precedent for other oil and gas companies to be linked to billions of dollars in damages related to land losses and environmental degradation.
What did Chevron do wrong?
Jurors found that energy giant Dexaco, which Chevron acquired in 2001, had violated Louisiana regulations for decades that failed to restore wetlands that were bleached canals, drilling and billions of gallons of wastewater dumped into the swamp.
The jury awarded $575 million to cover land losses, $161 million to cover pollution, and $8 million to compensate for abandoned equipment.
“There is no large enough company to ignore the law, and no company is big enough to walk away from Scot,” John Carmouche, the plaintiff’s chief attorney, told jurors during the closing.
In 1978, the Louisiana Coastal Administration Act stipulates that after the operation is over, the locations used by oil companies are “cleared, refixed, detoxified and otherwise close to their original condition.” The older operating website that is continuously used is not exempt and the company is expected to apply for an appropriate license.
The lawsuit says the oil company has not obtained the proper permit and has not cleaned up the mess, causing the wastewater to be uneasyly contaminated or dumped directly into the swamp.
Since the start of business in the region in the 1940s, the company has also failed to follow known best practices, expert witnesses of plaintiffs. Carmouche said the company “chooses the profits of the swamp” and allows the environmental degradation caused by its operations to fade away and spread.
How do oil companies contribute to land losses in Louisiana?
Plaquemines Parish filed a lawsuit in 2013, a rural Louisiana area that spans the last stop of the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, also known as the U.S. Gulf, announced by President Donald Trump.
According to this century, Louisiana’s coastal parish lost more than 2,000 square miles (5,180 square kilometers) of land in the past century. American Geological Surveywhich also identifies oil and gas infrastructure as a major reason. The state could lose another 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometers) in the coming decades warn.
Oil companies cut thousands of miles of canals, weakening them and exacerbating the impact of sea level rise. Industrial wastewater in oil production degrades surrounding soil and vegetation. The torn wetlands left southern Louisiana – home to some of the largest ports and key energy sector infrastructure in the United States – more vulnerable to flooding and damage from extreme weather events such as hurricanes.
Chevron’s chief attorney Mike Phillips said the company has operated legally and blamed Louisiana’s land loss on other factors, namely the widespread embankment system that prevents the Mississippi River from storing land regenerated sediments, a widely recognized sediment – Causes of coastal erosion.
The solution to the land loss problem is to “not sue the oil company, which reconnects the Mississippi River to the Delta,” Phillips said during the closing.
However, the lawsuit puts the company in charge of aggravating land losses in Louisiana, not its sole reason.
Chevron also challenged the Parish’s expensive wetland restoration project that involved removing a large amount of contaminated soil and filling wetland debris that have eroded over the past century. The company said the plan was impractical and was designed to exaggerate damages rather than lead to real-world implementation.
Jimmy Faircloth, Jr., representing Louisiana, who backed Plaquemines and other local governments in a lawsuit against oil companies, told parish jurors that Chevran told them that their community was not worth keeping.
“Our community is built on the coast, our families are raised on the coast, and our children are going to school on the coast,” Faircross said. “Louisiana won’t surrender to the coast, it’s to sustain the interests of the coast.”
What does this mean for future lawsuits against oil companies?
Well-connected attorney Carmouche and its company Talbot Carmouche & Marcello are responsible for bringing many lawsuits against oil companies in the state.
Louisiana’s economy has long depended heavily on the oil and gas industry, which has enormous political power. Even so, Louisiana’s staunch pro-secretary Jeff Landry supported the lawsuit, including putting the state in the lawsuit while serving as attorney general.
Oil companies have fought teeth to dismiss the lawsuit, including a failed lobbying for Louisiana’s legislature to pass laws to invalidate the claim. Chevron and others have also repeatedly tried to transfer the lawsuit to federal court, and they believe they will find a more sympathetic audience.
But heavy herringbones will be paid, which could accelerate other companies seeking settlements in dozens of other Louisiana lawsuits. Plaquemines alone has 20 other cases against oil companies.
The state has run out of funds to support its ambitious coastal recovery program, driven by soon-engagement settlement funds Deep water horizon oil leaksupporters of the lawsuit say spending could provide much-needed capital injections.
