This story was originally published by the Louisiana Illuminator.
A Plaquemines Parish jury has ruled that Chevron Corp. must pay the local government more than $740 million, blaming the fossil fuel company for decades of damage to its wetlands.
The ruling is the first among several lawsuits from coastal parishes in Louisiana that want the oil and gas industry to compensate them for carving up swamps and marshland. Local officials contend the vast work related to energy exploration and pipelines has gradually exacerbated the natural depletion of coastal areas, making them less effective barriers against hurricanes.
Chevron has said it intends to appeal the ruling. It’s among several companies from which Louisiana parishes are seeking billions in damages for coastal land loss.
“Chevron is not the cause of the land loss occurring in Breton Sound,” Mike Phillips, the company’s lead attorney in the case, said in a statement, adding that it plans to appeal the ruling
Attorney John Carmouche, who’s representing several parishes in their lawsuits against the energy industry, has argued the defendant companies have failed to follow state law that requires them clean and restore sites as close as possible to their original state. Chevron and others maintain the law doesn’t apply to activity that took place before it was enacted in 1978.
The jury’s award in the 12-year-old case is far less than the $2.6 billion Plaquemines Parish was seeking in the lawsuit, although interest will take the final award above $1.2 billion, according to Carmouche.
Chevron also contests that figure.
This is a developing story that will be updated.