Back at it: Attorneys for a south Louisiana flood board aren’t giving up on their attempt to make scores of oil and gas companies pay for damage to the state’s coastline. The Associated Press reports lawyers for the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East asked the full 15-member 5th Circuit today to hear their arguments. A federal judge dismissed their lawsuit in 2015 and a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld that decision on March 3. The suit seeks to hold close to 90 companies accountable for damage the attorneys say was caused by drilling activity, including dredging of canals. The suit says the result was loss of wetlands that form a hurricane buffer for the New Orleans area. The lawsuit was filed in 2013.
Minus one: Louisiana lost one rig this week, bringing the state’s total tally of active oil and gas rigs to 55, according to Baker Hughes, a Houston-based oilfield services company. For the comparable week one year ago, the state had 49 rigs actively exploring for oil and gas. Nationally, the rig count soared this week by 21, as 789 rigs actively sought oil and gas in the U.S. There were 768 rigs last week, and 476 for the comparable week one year ago.
Dialed back: President Donald Trump’s administration today revoked federal guidance that barred student debt collectors from charging high fees on past-due loans. The Washington Post reports the Education Department is ordering guarantee agencies that collect on defaulted debt to disregard a memo former President Barack Obama’s administration issued on the old bank-based federal lending program, known as the Federal Family Education Loan Program. That memo forbid the agencies from charging fees for up to 16% of the principal and accrued interest owed on the loans, if the borrower entered the government’s loan rehabilitation program within 60 days of default. Read the full story.
