According to a report in the New Orleans Advocate of 12/12 several firms settled the law suit brought against them concerning the state and Cameron Parish for environmental damage caused by the firm's operations. Jury selection for the trial was going to begin the following week. The bottom line to this issue is very elementary to everyone concerned.
The issue was a state issue and not a federal government issue as the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed when they refused to hear the case. (2) The suit was narrowed to state issues which means that the state of Louisiana could have moved against the oil industry years ago for the destruction they caused to the environment. (3) State regulators failed to do their jobs and enforce the provisions violated by the oil industry. (4) The oil industry paid no attention to the state regulations that governed their responsibilities and continued to violate the state's environment with their operations and also failed to restore the land. (5) Louisiana's elected officials who backed the oil industry just because they created jobs cared nothing about the state, it's people or the environment.
Louisiana's voters should never forget the oil industry's environmental damage and their daily denial of doing so. The voters should also never forget the state's failure to enforce its regulations and hold the industry accountable long ago. The 50 plus years of environmental damage supports the notion that the industry has not been a friend to the state, the people or the environment. The settlement also proves a failed political system without checks and balances and a failed government-business partnership that resemble the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico when many elected officials in La. and the industry opposed President Obama's actions to hold BP responsible for its own actions.
Will this settlement and future settlements bring change to the status quo of the last 50 plus years? The people need to make their voices known and let the state and industry know the failed past will not be tolerated in the future.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
