Attorney General Jeff Landry on Wednesday added Louisiana to a 21-state lawsuit that aims to overturn President Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL oil pipeline – just weeks after Landry drew oil industry criticism by approving a coastal erosion legal settlement.
Earlier this month, Landry signed off on a multimillion-dollar memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the state and mining company Freeport-McMoRan Inc. that he said would benefit coastal restoration after decades of oil and gas industry activities. Critics, however, argue the settlement will do little more than financially reward the private attorneys hired by parishes to sue energy companies.
Details of the MOU were posted on the attorney general’s website.
“This ill-conceived proposed settlement seeks to address legally permitted production activities that occurred decades ago,” Lana Venable, executive director of Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch, told the Louisiana Record in an email. “Further, it does not require that funds be dedicated specifically to coastal restoration, which is the basis for these lawsuits.”
The settlement only reinforces Louisiana’s reputation as a bad state to do business in, according to Venable.
This week, however, Landry sided with the oil industry and efforts to invalidate Biden’s executive order on the Keystone project, which would have transferred crude oil from the Canadian province of Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries.
“The Biden order not only violates federal law and constitutional safeguards but also threatens jobs, our state and local economies, and even the environment he purports to want to protect,” Landry said in a prepared statement. “It should concern every person that the price of gas started going up the day he picked up his pen and began threatening financial stability for the hard-working people of Louisiana.”
No president has the authority to overturn pipeline permits that were approved through an act of Congress, according to the attorney general.
The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) is among the organizations that have expressed criticism of the overall coastal erosion settlement with Freeport-McMoRan Inc.
““At a time when our state has lost nearly 10,000 oil and gas jobs and the federal government has stopped new leasing in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s disappointing to see a renewed focus on lawsuits,” LABI spokesman Mitch Rabalais told the Louisiana Record in an email. “... This settlement will be perceived as an invitation for more lawsuits which will, in turn, continue to drive away jobs and opportunity.”