Chevron It has been ordered to pay more than $ 744 million as compensation for the destruction of parts of wetlands in southeast Louisiana over the years.
The ruling, which came in the form of the civil jury ruling on Friday, represents the conclusion of the first trial out of 42 lawsuits that were filed about 12 years ago and which claimed that the company’s oil and gas projects in the company led to the deterioration of wetlands in the region. Among other things, wetlands play a major role in providing a degree of protection from hurricanes.
The jury found that the TEXACO oil brand, which it owns ChevronThe government regulations surrounding coastal resources were violated by contributing to the disappeared coastal line through the naked channels, drilling wells and throwing huge quantities of wastewater in the swamp.
Judgment can push other companies to settle other separate but similar lawsuit. However, Chevron’s lawyer, Mike Phillips, said that the oil company intends to challenge the verdict.
according to The American geological survey is the coastal wetland in Louisiana is among the most endangered environments throughout the country because it suffers from wet land loss more than all other states in the continental continent combined.
From 1932 to 2016, coastal Louisiana A clear change in the land area witnessed about -4,833 square kilometers, which represents a decrease of about 25 % of the land area at the beginning of that time period.
The channels used to create transportation methods of oil and gas fossils have impeded the flow of natural water through the ecosystems of wetlands, according to Lowlander Center. In addition, the channels create straight roads that allow the growing ocean water to bypass the Gulf and instead head directly during the harsh air events.
According to the Louisiana Administration Law of 1978, the oil companies that are used by oil companies, the restoration of vegetation, the removal of toxins from them must be cleared and restored as being close to my work in their original condition “after the end of the companies’ projects. Reports.
The Southern Louisiana community in Louisiana of Plaquemines’s diocese filed the lawsuit against Chevron in 2013, and asked for $ 2.6 billion at the time. The diocese has 20 additional cases hanging against other oil companies.
The jury gave many compensation for Plaquemines on Friday, including $ 575 million for land loss, and $ 161 million for pollution – in addition to $ 8.6 million for abandoned equipment.
Speaking to the jurors, Jimmy Vir Kulth Junior, a lawyer representing the state of Louisiana, said Chevron said that Plaquemines is not worth preserving it.
He said: “Our societies are built on the coast, and our families that grew up on the coast, our children go to school on the coast.” He added: “The state of Louisiana will not surrender the coast. From the benefit of the state to preserve the coast.”
according to The coastal protection and restoration organization, Louisiana, may lose up to 3000 square miles in the next fifty years.
Philips said Chevron was not “the cause of the Earth’s loss” in Plackiminis. He said that the law does not apply to “the behavior that occurred decades before the enactment of law.”
Philips described the “non -fair” ruling, as a cultivation that there are “many legal errors.”
