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In a 6-1 vote, the Lafourche Parish Council decided to reject ongoing coastal lawsuits– a decision which will protect the Bayou Region’s people from costly and self-sacrificing legal battles.
“Trial lawyers have asked Lafourche Parish Council Members multiple times to join these lawsuits, and each time they have said no,” said Grow Louisiana Coalition Executive Director Marc Ehrhardt. “With this vote, Lafourche sent a clear message: we stand with the 63,485 men and women of the Bayou Region who power our energy industry.”
A never-ending legal war is currently being waged in courtrooms across the state against hundreds of oil and natural gas producers– a battle which threatens the backbone of our state’s economy, according to the Pelican Institute for Public Policy.
“These lawsuits handcuff the very producers who are key to President Trump’s goal to return our Nation to energy dominance and ensure the stability and affordability of American energy prices,” said Pelican Institute for Public Policy Chief Executive Officer Daniel Erspamer. “For a state whose identity and prosperity are intertwined with energy production, this legal quagmire is a self-inflicted wound we can ill afford.”
A 2019 study by the Pelican Institute found that coastal lawsuits against oil and gas companies cost Louisiana’s economy between $44.4 million and $113 million annually. Over a two-year period following the initial filings in 2013, more than 2,000 jobs and $70 million in wages were lost.
“Louisiana’s oil and gas industry is under attack– with constant coastal and legacy lawsuits. It’s time to stop incentivizing trial lawyers to pick industry’s pockets and start protecting the future of our state,” said Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association President Tommy Faucheux. “Today, by voting to oppose self-sacrificing coastal lawsuits, the Lafourche Parish Council is standing up for its people and its future. The bottom line is Louisiana prospers with jobs, not judgements.”
To read more about coastal lawsuits and the issues they present, please visit the Pelican Institute for Public Policy online.
