SCOTUS Hands Oil Companies a Big Win in Louisiana Cases

Oil companies just won a key round in a long-running fight over who should pay for Louisiana's disappearing coast. The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously said Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and others can shift a batch of parish-filed coastal damage lawsuits out of Louisiana courts and into federal court, a venue seen as more favorable to the oil industry, the New York Times reports.

• Writing for the court, Justice Clarence Thomas said Chevron had met the bar to invoke a federal law that lets cases involving defendants "acting under" federal officers be moved to federal court, pointing to the company's early oil extraction under World War II–era contracts to produce aviation fuel for the US military.

The ruling doesn't decide whether the oil companies must pay for environmental damage, but it reshapes where that question will be fought. More than 40 suits brought under a state coastal protection law seek billions in damages for allegedly illegal drilling, dredging, and waste disposal. Louisiana's coastal parishes have lost around 2,000 square miles of land, an area the size of Delaware, since the 1930s, the AP reports. The state's coastal protection agency estimates that another 3,000 square miles could be lost by the end of the decade. Louisiana has a $50 billion coastal restoration fund, but money from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement is running low, reports the Times.

• The ruling means a case in which a state jury ordered Chevron to pay $745 million to clean up the coastline will probably be retried in federal court, NOLA.com reports. It will also impact cases across the nation involving companies that have contracts with the federal government.
• Attorney John Carmouche, who has worked on the Chevron case and dozens of similar lawsuits, said the ruling is disappointing but local leaders plan to keep the lawsuits alive, the AP reports. "We will aggressively defend the rights of Louisiana citizens and will continue in our fight to restore and rebuild what has been harmed or destroyed," he said.
• Louisiana's Republican governor and attorney general support the local lawsuits against the oil companies, while the Trump administration has sided with the companies.
• The Supreme Court ruling was 8-0. Justice Samuel Alito recused himself from the case because he has holdings in ConocoPhillips.