In yet another step forward in our oligarchian corporatocracy, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has signed into law a bill that:
"effectively blocked a New Orleans-area levee board from suing oil and gas companies for allegedly destroying the state’s coasts – and in so doing, may have also derailed state and local claims against BP for damages and tax revenue lost following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill."
As a native Houstonian who grew up on the Gulf Coast, I find it absolutely astounding that the governor of a state in that region would completely accede the coastal cities, waterways and natural environment to the oil and gas industry. Oh wait. No I don't. The absolute ignorance and greed of politicians in the south just continues to grow. George W. was the worst president I have ever seen, but Bobby Jindal and Rick Perry are way beyond even ol' W in pure evil as governors.
A little more copypasta from the above linked article:
The law, SB 469, essentially bars a levee district in New Orleans’ East Bank – the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, or SLFPA-E – from pressing forward in its lawsuit against 97 oil and gas companies, which it blames for exposing New Orleans to catastrophic damage from hurricanes Rita and Katrina by cutting thousands of miles of pipes and canals through sensitive barrier islands and wetlands that otherwise would have protected the coastal city.
The lawsuit, filed last summer, sought to force energy companies to restore the wetlands, fill in the canals, and pay for past damages.
“We are looking to the industry to fix the part of the problem that they created,” SLFPA-E vice president John Barry told the Times-Picayune last year. “We’re not asking them to fix everything. We only want them to address the part of the problem that they created.”
You can read more about this
here.
Local governments are also worried that the legislation will affect their ability to get compensated for losses related to any future oil spills or pipeline breaks along the coast. Lawyers have told the parishes that the law will likely tie their hands in terms of unforeseen disasters.
At what point do Texans and Louisianans realize they are being sold up the river by the oil and gas industry? At what point do they stop voting for these craven politicians who care nothing for their constituencies? I am so grateful that my family has relocated to true blue California, Darrell Issa excepted. (Please Bill Maher, flip MY district! Issa does NOT represent me!)
And in related news, BP has sanctions against it lifted by the EPA just in time to make more money exploiting the environment for profit:
Six days before bidding opened on further oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that BP could once again do business with the federal government.
BP sued to have the suspension and debarment lifted last August, and under a five-year administrative agreement announced Thursday, it agreed to comply with a set of new safety and ethics standards in exchange for the ban’s end.
...
The decision and its timing, though, raised some eyebrows. On Wednesday, the Interior Department is expected to put more than 40 million acres off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on the market for oil and gas development.
Sigh. Business as usual in the good ol' boy south.