Will Green is Louisiana Association of Business and Industry’s president and CEO
In a 6-1 vote, the Lafourche Parish Council rejected a resolution aimed at getting the parish to sue energy companies over legacy damage to coastal lands, prompting litigation opponents to commend council members for siding with “jobs not judgments.”
The parish council held a special meeting June 3 on a resolution sponsored by Councilman Armand Autin. The measure would have authorized the parish to direct the Block Law Firm of Thibodaux to prepare injunctive actions to ensure compliance with laws governing the parish’s coastal zone.
The resolution indicated that the law firm possessed “specialized knowledge and experience in pertinent state and federal coastal and environmental statutes and regulations, oil and gas statutes and regulations, environmental and ecological risk assessment and remediation, coastal loss mitigation, hydrology, hydrogeology, and geological and lithological science.”
But Autin ended up casting the sole vote in favor of the resolution.
Groups such as the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) and the Grow Louisiana Coalition saw the vote as a rejection of civil legal efforts that undermine the state’s multibillion-dollar energy sector.
“LABI commends the Lafourche Parish Council for rejecting predatory coastal lawsuits in favor of long-term economic growth, job creation and energy investment,” Will Green, LABI’s president and CEO, said in a statement emailed to the Louisiana Record. “Their decision sends a strong signal that environmental progress is achieved through collaboration, not costly courtroom battles.
Green said coastal-erosion lawsuits that have been filed by parishes in state courts can lead to delayed infrastructure projects and the loss of high-paying jobs.
“The Lafourche Parish Council made it clear they remain committed to energy leadership, economic growth and environmental resilience,” he said. “Louisiana needs real solutions and legal reform, not another lawsuit lottery that benefits a handful of trial lawyers while undermining the state’s economy.”
The Grow Louisiana Coalition took a similar position in a recent Facebook post, noting that more than 62,000 energy workers in the state’s Bayou Region made their voices heard on the litigation issue.
“This wasn’t just a vote, it was a message,” the Facebook post said. “Lafourche stands with energy. Lafourche stands with jobs.”
The Lafourche Parish Council correctly saw the coastal lawsuits as a scheme to divert billions of oil and natural gas dollars into the hands of attorneys rather than local residents, according to Tommy Faucheux, president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association (LMOGA).
“Louisiana’s oil and gas industry is under attack – with constant coastal and legacy lawsuits,” Faucheux said in a statement. “It’s time to stop incentivizing trial lawyers to pick industry’s pockets and start protecting the future of both our state and the 306,750 people working in and alongside the oil and natural gas industry here every day – because in Louisiana, they’re one and the same.”
The battle over the coastal-erosion lawsuits in Baton Rouge appears to be never-ending, he said.
“Just as the Lafourche Parish Council takes a stand for oil and natural gas, the Legislature is having to fight these same trial lawyers, who are always looking to find new ways to sue the state’s No. 1 industry,” Faucheux said. “The bottom line is Louisiana prospers with jobs not judgments."
In April, a Plaquemines Parish jury called on Chevron to pay more than $744 million in damages, holding the corporation, which is the parent company of Texaco, liable for the degradation of some of the state’s wetlands over many decades. The funds are supposed to go toward coastal restoration, but critics have questioned whether they could be redirected to other purposes.
