The Trump administration, Republican lawmakers and industry groups are backing a fossil fuel company’s high-stakes effort to shift a legal dispute over liability for restoring Louisiana’s eroding coastline to federal court.
The flurry of filings come as the Supreme Court prepares to take up Chevron’s request for the justices to clarify the requirements for shifting certain cases from state to federal court.
The case, which the court will hear this term, is part of an ongoing legal fight over how much responsibility oil majors bear for damaging Louisiana’s coastline with oil production that dates back to World War II.
The company claims in Chevron U.S.A v. Plaquemines Parish that the oil drilling occurred as part of a U.S.-sanctioned wartime effort to boost production of aviation fuel. Chevron argues that because its crude oil production was for a federal contract, the case should be pulled out of state court and be heard at the federal level.
