A former Louisiana governor and environmental groups are backing an effort by local governments to keep a legal dispute over restoring Louisiana’s eroding coastline in state court.
The flurry of filings come as the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled on Jan. 12 to take up Chevron v. Plaquemines Parish, the oil and gas industry’s request to move a swath of lawsuits against it from state to federal court, where energy companies believe they are more likely to win.
The lawsuits say the companies should pay to restore Louisiana land degraded by oil production dating back to World War II.
Former Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who served from 2016 to 2024, said in a friend of the court brief filed last week that when coastal parishes sued the companies for damages when he was in office he directed the state Department of Natural Resources to intervene in the lawsuits “to protect the state’s interests and ensure that any recoveries would be dedicated to coastal restoration.”
