State oil industry representatives issued a joint statement on Thursday slamming a Louisiana judge’s decision to revive a lawsuit he had dismissed in August against oil and gas companies over coastal wetland loss.
District Court Judge Stephen Enright Jr. previously ruled the Jefferson Parish lawsuit was premature because the parish first should have sought remedies through state regulators, The Associated Press reports.
However, in an order dated Monday, Enright says the state Department of Natural Resources doesn’t have the staff, funding or capability to conduct the thousands of “administrative enforcement actions” necessary to address the violations alleged by the parish.
In response, the heads of The Louisiana Oil and Gas Association and the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association say in a joint statement that Enright’s reversal “is based entirely on assertions made by Gov. John Bel Edwards and DNR officials that the state doesn’t have the staff, funding or capacity to address permit violations outlined in the lawsuits.”
The statement notes that Edwards has backed the lawsuits and has promised that his administration will take a more active role in wetland damage litigation.
“Governor Edwards’ and DNR’s claim that they are incapable of addressing the alleged violations through the state’s well established administrative enforcement process is absurd,” the statement reads. “DNR manages an annual budget of $69 million and employs hundreds of scientists and inspectors.”
Jefferson Parish has filed seven lawsuits against oil companies, claiming damage from abandoned open waste pits, the dumping of brine and oilfield waste dumped into marshes and the failure to fill in miles of canals companies dredged while drilling in delicate coastal areas. Similar lawsuits have been filed by Plaquemines, Cameron, St. Bernard and Vermilion parishes.
Also, a federal appeals court decision is pending in a lawsuit filed by a New Orleans-area flood control board that seeks damages from dozens of oil companies over damage to wetlands that form a hurricane buffer for the city. That suit was rejected by a federal judge, but an attempt to revive it is pending at the federal appeals court in New Orleans.
The administration’s legal advisers say they believe Enright’s order will lead to decisions by other parishes on whether and how to proceed.
