Chevron ordered to pay over $ 740 million to restore Louisiana Coast in Landmark Trial

Pointe à la hache, la. (AP) – The oil company Chevron has to pay at least $ 740 million to repair damage it has done to the coast of the coast of Louisiana’s coast, a jury decided on Friday after a landmark trial that is running for more than a decade. The case was the first of dozens of pending lawsuits to hear in Louisiana against the world’s leading oil companies for their role in accelerating land loss along the rapidly disappearing coast of the state. The ruling – likely to be appealed – can set a precedent, leaving other oil and gas companies on the hook for billions of dollars connected to land loss and environmental deterioration. What did Chevron do wrong? Jurors found that the energy giant Texaco, which was purchased by Chevron in 2001, for decades the Regulations of Louisiana were in violation of regulating coastal resources by not repairing the wetlands affected by baggic channels, drilling pit and billions of gallons. The jury allocated $ 575 million to compensate for land loss, $ 161 million to compensate for pollution and $ 8 million for abandoned equipment. “No company is large enough to ignore the law, no company is large enough to walk away scot -free,” the plaintiff’s main advocate, John Carmouche, said at the closing of arguments. A Louisiana Coast Management Act from Louisiana of 1978 instructed that sites used by oil companies “cleaned, redesigned, detoxified and otherwise so restored to their original condition” after the operations ended. Older operating websites that were still used were not released and companies are expected to apply for proper permits. But the oil company did not obtain proper permits and was unable to clear the mess, which led to infection of wastewater that was stored unsafe or dumped directly into the swamp, the lawsuit rang. For decades, the company has also failed to follow well -known best practices since he started working in the area in the 1940s, expert witnesses testified for the plaintiff. The company chose ‘profits above the swamp’ and made the environmental degradation that caused by its operations disappeared and distributed, Carmouche said. How does oil companies contribute to the loss of Louisiana? The lawsuit against Chevron was filed in 2013 by Plaquemines Parish, a rural district in Louisiana who also called the final leg of the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico, also the Gulf of America, as declared by President Donald Trump. According to the US geological uptake, which also identified oil and gas infrastructure as a major cause, Louisiana’s coastal coastal coasts lost more than 2,000 square miles (5.180 square kilometers), which also identified oil and gas infrastructure. The state could lose another 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometers) in the coming decades, the coastal protection agency warned. Thousands of miles of channels cut by the wetlands by oil companies weaken it and exacerbate the effects of rise in sea level. Industrial wastewater of oil production degrades the surrounding soil and vegetation. The ripped wetlands leave South Louisiana – home to some of the largest ports of the country and the most important energy sector infrastructure – more vulnerable to flooding and destruction of extreme weather such as hurricanes. Chevron’s main advocate Mike Phillips said the company was legally acting and blamed land loss in Louisiana on other factors, namely the extensive Levee system that blocked the Mississippi River to restore the country -a widely recognized cause of the erosion of the coast. The way to solve the land loss problem is to “not sue oil companies, it makes the Mississippi River again with the delta again,” Phillips said during the closure of arguments. However, the court case held the company responsible for aggravating and accelerating land loss in Louisiana, rather than being the only case. Chevron also challenged the expensive wetland recovery project proposed by the congregation, removing the removal of large amounts of contaminated soil and the filling of the fragmented wetlands that have been inherited over the past century. The company said the plan is impractical and is designed to blow up the damages rather than lead to real world implementation. Attorney Jimmy Faircloth, Jr., who represented the state of Louisiana, who supported Plaquemines and other local governments in their lawsuits against oil companies, told jurors of the congregation that Chevron said their community was not worth preserving. “Our communities were built on the coast, our families raised on the coast, our children go to school,” Faircloth said. “The state of Louisiana will not surrender the coast, it is for the benefit of the state that the coast is maintained.” What does this mean for future litigation against oil businesses? Carmouche, a well -linked lawyer, and his firm Talbot, Carmouche and Marcello were responsible for bringing many of the lawsuits against oil companies to the state. Louisiana’s economy has long been very dependent on the oil and gas industry and the industry has considerable political power. Nevertheless, Louisiana’s strong pro-industry Governor Jeff Landry supported the lawsuits, including the state on board during his term of office as a lawyer general. Oil businesses fought with tooth and nail to end the litigation, including Louisiana’s legislature unsuccessful in accepting a law to invalidate the claims. Chevron and other firms also repeatedly tried to move the lawsuits to federal court where they believe they would find a more sympathetic audience. But the heavy price that Chevron will pay can make other firms faster to seek settlements in the dozens of other lawsuits across Louisiana. Plaatjies alone has 20 other business pending oil companies. The state is gaining money to support its ambitious coastal recovery plans, which were fueled by soon extensive settling funds of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and litigation supporters say payouts could provide a much-needed injection of funds.