Parties in the multibillion-dollar coastal erosion lawsuit against oil and gas companies that had been set for trial in Cameron Parish have settled their differences, but the details remain hidden by a confidentiality agreement.
In the lawsuit filed in the 38th Judicial District Court, Cameron Parish alleged that numerous energy companies' drilling and dredging activities caused coastal erosion damage in the parish. It was the first of dozens of coastal erosion litigation cases to advance toward a trial in state courts, with billions of dollars hanging in the balance for coastal restoration.
Coastal parishes allege that their wetlands were damaged as a result of the construction of industrial canals, the disposal of hazardous waste and the intrusion of saltwater.
“We can confirm that we have settled BP’s involvement in the (Parish of Cameron v. Auster Oil and Gas Inc.) case,” Paul Takahashi, spokesman for BP America Inc., said in an email to the Louisiana Record. “We are subject to the terms of a confidentiality agreement and related order that prohibits us from disclosing the terms of the settlement.”
Oil companies BP, Shell and Hilcorp are defendants in the Cameron Parish case. Some of their co-defendants, including Honeywell International Inc., Kerr-McGee Oil and Gas Onshore LP and Gulfport Energy Corp., also reached settlements in the case in November, according to court filings.
Shell declined comment about the settlement in the case presided over by Judge Penelope Richard. It remains unclear how many of the defendant companies are covered by the settlement.
Many of the coastal erosion lawsuits filed by Louisiana parishes are a decade old or more. In previous court proceedings, energy companies had argued that the lawsuits should be tried in federal court because the companies had been following federal directives for energy development in Louisiana and elsewhere during the World War II years.
But last year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the venue issue, letting stand a Fifth Circuit of Appeals decision that directed a coastal erosion lawsuit to be tried in state court. The high court also declined to take up energy companies’ argument that all of the 4,000 potential jurors in Cameron Parish had a financial interest in holding the oil companies responsible for coastal damage, since that would mean a jury award would go to their local government.
The parish argued that jurors had no direct financial interest in the trial’s outcome and that the issue of moving the trial to another venue could occur after the questioning of potential jurors.
The filing of coastal erosion lawsuits led to another settlement in September 2019, when the energy company Freeport-McMoRan settled with multiple parish plaintiffs in a $100 million deal that included state environmental credits.
Critics of the civil lawsuits have said that too much of the damages awards generated would go to trial attorneys rather than provide remediation for coastal damage. In addition, the hiring of private attorneys to carry out the litigation resulted in state agencies abandoning their duty to investigate the allegations against the energy industry and turning over those powers to law firms, critics have said.
Scientists who have studied coastal erosion issues in Louisiana have also disagreed on whether the damage was primarily due to dredging and industrial activities or whether natural processes related to the Mississippi River and the delta regions played a major role.