U.S. energy interests warn that if the first of several expected lawsuits over decades of land loss — an issue widely acknowledged as a crisis — succeeds, it could threaten the future of American energy exploration.
Plaquemines Parish, a coastal jurisdiction south of New Orleans — which would be called a “county” in most other states — is seeking billions in damages from Chevron due to allegations surrounding the behavior of its now-subsidiary Texaco.
“Decades after Texaco ceased operations and was acquired by Chevron, the Parish and state have teamed up with private plaintiffs’ counsel to file dozens of lawsuits under a 1980 law that was never meant to apply to oil and gas activities,” said Chevron spokesman Bill Turenne.
“The federal Fifth Circuit has already held that plaintiffs’ theories are without merit. The Parish and the State should cease their state court efforts to destroy the oil and gas sector in Louisiana.”
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Plaquemines v. Rozel alleges Texaco released toxic pollution into bayou wetlands around the 1980s and violated permitting laws; but if Chevron/Texaco were to lose, observers said it could spell a very bad precedent as dozens of other cases against a potpourri of energy producers are primed to hit Louisiana courtrooms soon.
One such case in Cameron Parish — home to Lake Charles — resulted in a “landmark settlement,” according to local press, involving BP, Shell and others.
Most of the lawsuits have been filed by, or are associated with, attorney John Carmouche, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Carmouche, seen as an ally of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, has critics asking why the governor — in the form of the state of Louisiana — appears to be countering the economic interests the oil companies represent.
Climate change activists and skeptics alike in the Gulf Coast have highlighted the issue of land loss in Louisiana — as the state-centric Pelican Institute CEO Daniel Erspamer said nearly 2,000 square miles of land has been lost to coastal erosion since 1900.
“It’s not just climate alarmism,” he said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “It’s a Bonafide policy problem in Louisiana — People down [in Plaquemines] have a level of urgency on the issue that maybe Washington Republicans may not understand.”
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Erspamer pointed to Landry appointing Carmouche to the board of Louisiana State University as evidence of their close relationship. A message left with a representative in Carmouche’s office was not replied to by press time, nor were calls placed with Landry.
Attorney Jimmy Faircloth, representing state agencies in the suit, told the Times-Picayune that the Landry administration supports the energy industry and its positive impact on jobs.
Faircloth reportedly said the case is more about Texaco’s alleged “sins of the past” and failure to enforce regulations in past decades.
As energy development technology advances, its ability to operate more cleanly improves, as evidenced by allegations in Pennsylvania that natural gas firms purportedly sloppy fracking led to flammable tap water. Critics there have said the fiery effects are from mid-20th century operations, not contemporary ones.
In Louisiana, a similar sentiment reigns among critics of the lawsuit.
Erspamer cited a slew of natural and non-energy-development human events that have contributed to the land-loss crisis.
Hurricane Katrina, the levee-ing of the Mississippi River and other phenomena have changed the mighty waterway’s course and caused a lot of the erosion being blamed on the energy firms.
For its part, Texaco began operations in Louisiana in the 1930s, and by World War II, many U.S. firms, including in the oil sector, were harnessed by the government to contribute mainly or entirely to aiding the Allied efforts.
Carmouche claimed in court earlier this month that the damage from Texaco’s alleged actions is comparable to the 2010 Gulf oil spill, claiming that Texaco did not properly follow the permitting process 40-plus years ago, according to the Times-Picayune.
Erspamer said Landry, like bipartisan governors before him, rightly deemed land loss a “big issue,” but said the Republican “needs to be seen as being kind of a crusader.”
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He said that then-Attorney General Landry had entered into a joint-prosecution agreement with Carmouche, “allowing him to handle these land loss cases on behalf of the state.”
On the topic of Landry’s stated support for energy development in the state and as part of President Donald Trump’s vision of a revitalized domestic energy sector, Erspamer said if the governor were asked directly, “he would tell you this isn’t about the LNG renaissance that he’s a part of as governor, this is about the sins of the past.”
Erspamer also agreed with critics warning of long-term consequences for oil and gas development in the Gulf of America if any of the suits — including Plaquemines’ — are successful.
“I think right now Chevron, for example, was saying: Listen, if Louisiana is going to stick us up for a cool $3 billion and more … how can we do business in that state?”
Fox News Digital also reached out to Louisiana’s two U.S. senators, John N. Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, for their takes on the suit and its potential effects on the Pelican State.
