© AFP Photo / Getty Images / Sean Gardner
OIl sheen sits on the surface of Barataria Bay June 19, 2010 west of Port Sulpher, Louisiana.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has flouted the advice of his own attorney general and scores of legal scholars by signing a bill which blocks a levee board's lawsuit against oil and gas companies, who are accused of destroying the state's coast.
"This bill will help stop frivolous lawsuits and create a more fair and predictable legal environment, and I am proud to sign it into law," Jindal said in a written statement Friday.
© AFP Photo / Justin Sullivan
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal
The law, SB 469, has thwarted a levee district in New Orleans' East Bank - the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (SLFPA-E) - from pushing forward with a lawsuit introduced last July against 97 oil and gas companies for damage done to the state's wetlands. According to the suit, the firms exposed New Orleans to catastrophic damage from hurricanes Rita and Katrina by dredging and cutting thousands of miles of pipes and canals through barrier islands and wetlands which, left intact, would have protected the coastal city,
The Times-Picayune Newspaper reports
"We are looking to the industry to fix the part of the problem that they created," SLFPA-E vice president John Barry told the tri-weekly last year.
"We're not asking them to fix everything. We only want them to address the part of the problem that they created."
Local republicans and energy heavyweights, however, viewed the lawsuit as frivolous and
"illegal."
"This bill keeps a rogue agency from misrepresenting this State and trying to raise money through illegal actions," said Senators Robert Adley and Bret Allain, who sponsored the legislation Jindal approved this week.
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