[StBernard] As La. Coast Recedes, Battle Rages Over Who Should Pay

[Westley Annis]

"Barry is known for his book Rising Tide, about the 1927 Mississippi River
flood. Most recently, he was vice president of the Southeast Louisiana Flood
Protection Authority-East and PUSHED THE LAWSUIT alleging that oil and gas
companies destroyed land that once served as a buffer protecting New Orleans
from hurricanes."

The above excerpt pretty much sums up what started all this law suit
nonsense.  John Barry is well known to be a liberal, progressive,
anti-business militant.  He might not come across that way when you meet
him, but when you get into what he really thinks, it becomes obvious.  He
should never have been allowed so sit on that board because since day one he
has used that board for his own personal battle, misleading the other board
members into thinking their purpose is to go after oil and gas.  When in
fact the primary and formal cause of our coastal loss is due to the fact the
United States government constructed a levee system along the lower
Mississippi River - and they did it at OUR request.  So who is really to
blame here?  That's why I don't have a problem with the proposed legislation
to change how the appointments are made to that board.  As it is, it favors
mandating appointments by these environmental kooks.  Remember, these are
the same kind of kooks who want to build those freshwater diversions
throughout St. Bernard and east bank Plaquemines.



-----Original Message-----
As La. Coast Recedes, Battle Rages Over Who Should Pay by DEBBIE ELLIOTT
April 16, 2014 3:40 AM ET

Louisiana's coast is disappearing at the rate of about a football field an
hour. Since the 1930s, the Gulf of Mexico has swallowed up an area the size
of Delaware.

You can see the water encroaching in Delacroix in St. Bernard Parish, less
than an hour southeast of New Orleans. Here, a narrow crescent of land known
locally as the "end of the world" is where the road abruptly comes to a dead
end; in the distance, you see the tops of now-submerged trees.

"It's hard to imagine if the coast continues to erode and enormous amounts
of money are not invested in protecting it, that New Orleans could survive,"
says historian John Barry.

Barry is known for his book Rising Tide, about the 1927 Mississippi River
flood. Most recently, he was vice president of the Southeast Louisiana Flood
Protection Authority-East and pushed a lawsuit alleging that oil and gas
companies destroyed land that once served as a buffer protecting New Orleans
from hurricanes.

"The loss of this land has increased the storm surge on the flood protection
authority's property - the levees - and made our burden much greater," he
says.

'Sending A Message'

The authority is responsible for maintaining an elaborate new levee system
built after Hurricane Katrina, an endeavor expected to cost about $40
million a year. And it's not the only one looking for energy companies to
pay up: Two Louisiana parishes are also suing for coastal restoration.

The litigious environment discourages business investment, says Gifford
Briggs, vice president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association.

"That's sending a message to the oil and gas industry that if you want to
operate in Louisiana, you have to be prepared to be sued," Briggs says.

He rejects claims that companies are to blame for about a third of
Louisiana's land loss because of the canals they cut through wetlands.

"In the '60s and '70s, when we were doing exploration in coastal Louisiana,
we had to create canals. So from a standpoint of land loss, it's clear that
when you dig a canal or create a canal, that there's land lost," he says.
"But being responsible for the coastal erosion side of it, that's not
something we feel like we're responsible for."

Briggs says the reason Louisiana has a coastal land crisis is not oil and
gas activity, but the way the Mississippi River has been controlled by the
federal government. Flood protection systems prevent sediment from flowing
downstream to replenish the Delta.

"Trying to blame us for something that is really the responsibility of the
Army Corps of Engineers is really nothing more than just a money grab,"
Briggs says.

Man-made canals built for the oil and gas industry cut through wetland. The
industry argues those canals aren't to blame for coastal erosion.
Man-made canals built for the oil and gas industry cut through wetland. The
industry argues those canals aren't to blame for coastal erosion.

Somebody should pay, says Stephen Estopinal, current vice president of the
Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East. He says the courtroom
is the logical place to decide who should pay what.

"You bring 'em in the court, and let's have the court decide. That is the
conservative thing to do," Estopinal says. "The liberal thing to do would be
to have Uncle Sam come in and make it all better."

Estopinal is a surveyor and civil engineer from St. Bernard Parish, and has
measured firsthand the disappearing coast. He says he's not out to cast oil
companies as the lone villain.

"I don't want the oil and gas industry to take the whole bullet, because
they're a very important industry. I like gas in my car. I also like to have
a home to go back to," he says. "We're not talking about inconvenience,
we're not talking about the little birdies, or how nice things looked before
and how bad they look now. We're talking about survival."

The prospect of a legal fight has sparked an epic political battle in Baton
Rouge. Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal and state GOP leaders are pushing bills
to retroactively quash the lawsuits. Oil and gas severance taxes make up
about 10 percent of the state's general fund budget.

State Senate transportation committee Chairman Robert Adley worked most of
his career in the oil and gas business. He says it is bad policy to target a
key industry that had permission from the state to develop its natural
resources.

"I don't believe that anyone ought to be sued or exploited for doing what
they were told to do," Adley says. "Now, it's easy to argue about the big
bad oil companies and that kind of thing, but the truth of the matter is, we
as a people, we want what they have."

Proponents of the lawsuits say it's the other way around.

"Oil companies can't leave Louisiana. We've got what they want," says
Democrat Foster Campbell, a public service commissioner. "Here we have in
Louisiana for years and years and years kowtowed to the oil companies under
the threat we will leave Louisiana. They're not leaving Louisiana. We're
where the oil is. We're where the gas is. We're where the delivery system is
for America."

And America needs what Louisiana has. The question is just who should pay to
keep Louisiana intact.