Louisiana oil companies suffered a major setback last week in their effort to restrict lawsuits brought by property owners seeking cleanup of land and groundwater contamination left behind from decades of drilling operations. With hundreds of millions in environmental cleanup costs at stake, neither side is pulling any punches in the fight surrounding "legacy lawsuits," which has now spilled into the state legislature (see links to my previous related posts at bottom). The Louisiana oil and gas industry and its government allies are attempting to negate contractual obligations to clean up oilfield contamination at sites across the state by pushing through legislation that would inhibit landowner suits. To sway legislators (and anybody else who will listen), the oil companies have long argued – and hailed a favorable report from LSU – that legacy lawsuits will deny Louisiana tens of thousands of industry jobs. Not so fast. According to a noted economist, the LSU report is utter "nonsense" – an enormously damaging revelation that has significantly weakened the position of the oil companies in this increasingly contentious legislative fight. Consider this from an April 19 Advocate report by Mark Ballard: An Oregon economist told legislators Monday that a report by an LSU professor on which ...
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