Court Backs Oil Firms, Not Levee Authority In Wetlands Damage Suit

"A federal appeals court refused Friday (March 3) to revive the east bank levee authority's controversial lawsuit charging oil and gas companies with threatening hurricane levees by digging exploration and production canals through Louisiana's coastal wetlands. It was the latest setback to the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East's four-year effort to make the companies pay for environmental damage inflicted decades ago.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the 2015 decision by U.S. District Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown that the lawsuit involved enforcement of federal laws and thus should be heard in her courtroom, rather than returned to a state court as the levee authority wanted. Also agreeing with Brown, the panel said the levee authority failed to show that the 97 oil and gas companies originally included in the suit had a duty under three key federal laws to repair the damage caused by their operations, including the refilling of the canals.

The decision was hailed by the oil and gas industry. Several organizations representing the defendants repeated their contention that the suit was a frivolous attack thought up by trial lawyers to pocket part of what might have been billions of dollars from a damage award."

Mark Schleifstein reports for the New Orleans Times-Picayune March 3, 2017.