Federal Judges Open State Courts to Louisiana Locales on Coastal Erosion

摘要

Federal judges are allowing Louisiana local governments to use state-instead of federal-court to seek billions of dollars from oil and gas companies to compensate for the state's receding coastline. Preferred Forum: This week's ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit gives Louisiana parishes their preferred forum to pursue claims that Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron USA Inc., and other companies, both large and small, destroyed coastal marshes and wetlands by failing to follow state permits regulating drilling wells, canal construction, waste disposal, and landscape restoration.