[StBernard] Restoring Louisiana's Coast Will Require Restoring Its Democracy

[Westley Annis]

Mr. Kennedy's quote of Seneca..."To greed, all of nature is
insufficient"...is well stated - particularly coming from a trial lawyer who
would stand to make quite a handsome sum from this lawsuit.  Thus, is the
true purpose of this lawsuit revealing its hand?



-----Original Message-----
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/louisiana-wetlands-jindal_
b_5162230.html

Restoring Louisiana's Coast Will Require Restoring Its Democracy -- Governor
Jindal Is Trying to Undermine Both

Robert F Kennedy, Jr

President, Waterkeeper Alliance; Senior Attorney, NRDC
Posted: 04/16/2014 5:26 pm EDT 
Updated: 04/16/2014 5:59 pm EDT        
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Mississippi's River southernmost delta is home to a rich ecosystem,
robust, culture and booming economy. Wetlands provide critical storm
protection for the Louisiana's coast. A recent poll by America's Wetland
Foundation found that 74 percent of Louisiana residents "consider saving the
coast to be the most important issue [in the state] of our lifetime." For
Delta citizens, flood protection is a matter of survival. Louisiana wetlands
are disappearing at a rate of approximately 1 football field every hour and
coastal communities are already washing into the Gulf of Mexico. To date,
roughly 2,000 square miles of land have disappeared under water and the
erosion is accelerating. The disappearing land once buffered communities
including New Orleans from catastrophic storm surges. 
Managing the Mississippi River Delta is a daunting challenge, but the
greatest barrier to restoration and flood protection is politics. Last year,
a board of flood experts, acting to protect New Orleans, ignited a battle
that has starkly pitted the public welfare against the sycophantic fealty of
Louisiana's toadying politicians to a rapacious oil and gas industry.
The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority -- East (SLFPA-E)
oversees the greater New Orleans levee system. The deterioration of the
wetlands that protect the levees surrounding New Orleans led the SLFPA-E to
file suit against 97 oil and gas companies. While the Army Corp of Engineers
diversion projects have contributed to wetland shrinkage by starving the
delta of sediments, study after study, including those conducted by the
state and the oil industry, point to oil and gas activities as a principle
culprit in the loss of Louisiana's wetlands. The petroleum titans have
dredged approximately 10,000 miles of canals through Louisiana's fragile
wetlands in their thirst for oil and gas allowing wave action and salt water
from the Gulf to infiltrate and destroy what is left. State issued dredge
permits require these companies to restore the injured wetlands. Petroleum
industry practice is to ignore those permit mandates. 
SLFPA's suit seeks to force these companies to finally repair the damage
they have inflicted on coastal wetlands as the law requires.
These permit violations are not victimless crimes. In breaking the laws that
require wetland restoration, these companies endanger everyone who depends
on Louisiana's productive and delicate coasts. The protection of the many
should take precedence over the protection of the money, but Louisiana's
servile politicians seem more concerned with protecting cash flow for the
most profitable industry in history -- an industry that provides local pols
their largest source of campaign lucre.
Genuflecting to Big Oil's pressure, the industry's chief indentured servant,
Governor Bobby Jindal, is leading an attempt to kill the suit by
orchestrating the replacement of several members of the levee authority.
Jindal's caper violates state laws that guarantee that body's political
independence. Urged on by the Governor, crooked Legislators are currently
advancing bills to undermine the levee board and retroactively kill the
lawsuit. Louisiana is a classic corporate kleptocracy. There is no sunshine
in Baton Rouge ; Like so many cockroaches Big Oil's state house sock puppets
are working their mischief in the darkness with no accountability or public
participation.
A Louisiana elected official once said "the flag of Texaco flies over the
Louisiana State Capitol." Right now that flag is flapping in the face of
every citizen. Tax-hating governor Jindall now wants to spend tens of
millions of dollars of tax payer money to plug oil canals which companies
are required by law to plug themselves. That money pales beside to the $50
billion cost of the state's Master Plan to protect the coast. Jindal's
funding proposal caper will protect his oil industry patrons and stick the
public with the bill: taxpayers will cover the costs of damage caused by oil
companies. 
A recent poll by the nonprofit, Restore Louisiana Now, found that 90 percent
of state residents believe the oil and gas industry should pay it's fair
share, and 75 percent believe the governor has no business shielding the oil
and gas industry from the costs of its misbehavior.
As Seneca observed "To greed, all of nature is insufficient".