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In La. gubernatorial race, GOP candidates push Dem incumbent on coastal suits

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In La. gubernatorial race, GOP candidates push Dem incumbent on coastal suits

SNL Image

From left, Republican businessman Eddie Rispone, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and Republican Rep. Ralph Abraham participate in the first televised gubernatorial debate Sept. 19 in Baton Rouge, La.
Source: AP Photo

The top three candidates in Louisiana's gubernatorial race agree on how crucial the oil and gas industry is for state's economy. But lawsuits from Louisiana's coastal parishes demanding energy companies help restore land has become a sticking point in Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards' reelection campaign and has provided political ammo for the two leading Republican challengers.

Since 2013, coastal parishes have filed more than 40 lawsuits against more than 200 oil and gas companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips, alleging that the corporations' activities such as dredging, drilling and waste disposal on the Louisiana coast have caused coastal erosion and damage to the state's wetlands, and violated Louisiana's State and Local Coastal Resources Management Act of 1978. The parishes want the companies to "restore the entire parish coastal zone to the 'original condition,'" according to one lawsuit.

In 2016, Edwards said he would intervene in the litigation and that the state would sue the energy companies if the coastal parishes did not.

Businessman Eddie Rispone and U.S. Congressman Ralph Abraham have polled as the leading challengers against incumbent Edwards. Louisianans will vote Oct. 12 in a primary election for either Edwards, a Democrat, or five other candidates. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, the state will hold a general election between the two people with the most votes Nov. 16.

Both Rispone and Abraham have campaigned on Edwards' involvement in coastal governments' legal battle as a threat to the state's oil and gas industry.

"How can we expect our energy and job producers to keep investing in Louisiana and the coastal waters that surround us if our governor and chief executive officer of the State has declared all-out war on the industry? We can't," Abraham said in a July 25 statement. "We also shouldn't be surprised that our largest economic competitor, Texas, is reaping the rewards of Edwards' energy assault."

The election comes at a time when Louisiana is cementing its status as a top oil and gas exporter as developers plan to add even more infrastructure for shipping hydrocarbons abroad. Cheniere Energy Inc.'s Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas terminal became the first facility to ship super-cooled shale gas commercially from the U.S. in 2016, and the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port owned by MPLX LP subsidiary Marathon Pipe Line LLC, Shell Oil Co. and Valero Terminaling and Distribution Co. is the only terminal in the country that can fully load very large crude carriers, or VLCCs. The Sempra Energy-led Cameron LNG export facility, also located in Cameron Parish, began commercial operations in August.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, meanwhile, has issued project certificates for Venture Global LNG's Plaquemines and Calcasieu Pass LNG terminals in Louisiana. Venture Global made a formal final investment decision on Calcasieu Pass LNG in August and has reported beginning construction.

On the crude oil side, Tallgrass Energy LP and Drexel Hamilton Infrastructure Partners LP are planning a pipeline and an export-capable terminal near the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana that would accommodate VLCCs beginning in the second quarter of 2020.

The back and forth on the lawsuits is not unique to this year's gubernatorial race, said David Dismukes, a professor and executive director of Louisiana State University's Center for Energy Studies. However, Edwards' support for the coastal parishes stands out since many prior administrations, most of which have been Republican, have tended to support the oil and gas industry.

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The Mississippi River Diversion in West Bay near Venice, La.
Source: AP Photo

"On the environmental side, the main issue that has sucked the oxygen out of the wind has been these coastal lawsuits," Dismukes said in an interview. "That's the real big difference in all of this. Those lawsuits have been out there, but I think having administrative backing on them is something that has changed now that has made it more political."

But outside the lawsuits, Dismukes said Edwards has not "articulated a clear energy sector agenda or even an environmental agenda," nor has he been the biggest supporter in the coastal parishes' legal action. "I would say he's just been more of a supporter of that activity and letting everyone have their day in court," he added.

Abraham and Rispone also recognize problems linked to climate change and that the state needs to take action, Dismukes said, but he has not seen either candidate discuss more aggressive initiatives, like renewable portfolio standards or carbon trading, that some other states have launched.

However, politicians at the local level have taken action: The New Orleans City Council is undergoing a rulemaking process to establish a renewable portfolio standard for Entergy Corp. subsidiary Entergy New Orleans LLC. Helena Moreno, who chairs the council's utility committee, described an RPS as "a cornerstone of the city's strategy" to fight climate change.

"We, this city, is on the front lines of climate change," New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at an Oct. 7 forum hosted by Entergy. "In the city of New Orleans, we cannot in any way turn our backs away from that change, because it's impacting our everyday life in our city."

In September, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. became the first company to settle one of the lawsuits for $100 million in cash and environmental credits that will be paid to six parishes and New Orleans to fund coastal restoration.

Rispone and Abraham have publicly stated their opposition to the lawsuits and are committed to ending them.

Louisiana Oil and Gas Association would like to see the suits put to a stop. While the trade association itself does not back candidates for office, its political action committee endorsed Abraham in September, and Association President Gifford Briggs was clear in a recent interview: "Hopefully … either of the candidates that want to stop this legal abuse of the oil and gas industry could win and we could change the narrative of the state from being a lawsuit judicial hellhole to a state that is open and encouraging investments in the oil and gas industry."