the deans list
by bob deans
The fertile marshes, broad tion and leaving the coast vulnerable to the action of waves tidal flats, and sweeping barrier and currents, which is further eroding the wetlands. This islands of coastal Louisiana provide industry has broken faith with the people of Louisiana. Louisiana has provided a stable and profitable base of essential habitat to waterfowl by the millions and serve as a nursery operations for the oil and gas industry, which has drawn for the bounty of fish, shrimp, oys- roughly $470 billion worth of fuel (based on national price ters, and crabs along the skirt of averages) from the state’s lands and waters over just the the Gulf of Mexico. Home to bald past two decades. In return, the industry has broken its cypress, wax myrtle, and black promises and flouted the law. Finally fed up, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protecmangrove, the region is a natural tion Authority–East, charged with protecting part of wonder—and a national treasure. To the people of south Louisiana, this rich tapestry of New Orleans against the kind of flood that devastated wetlands also provides a natural buffer and the first line of the city when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, is insistdefense against the greatest threats they face: storm surges ing that the companies that have profited so richly from and catastrophic flooding from hurricanes. The protective the state’s natural resources be required to repair the coast, however, is fast disappearing. Over the past eight damage they have done to its coastal lands. In July, the authordecades, Louisiana ity filed a lawsuit in has lost enough To the people of south Louisiana, the Parish of Orleans coastal lands to a rich tapestry of wetlands provides Civil District Court, almost cover the a natural buffer against the greatest asserting that the acstate of Delaware, tions of BP, Chevron, and it continues to threats they face: storm surges and Exxon/Mobil, Shell, lose about an acre flooding from hurricanes and 93 other oil and every hour, among gas companies have the highest rates of made it more difficult, and more costly, to protect the city wetlands loss anywhere in the world. There are several reasons for this unfolding disaster. and its people from flooding. This industry isn’t responsible Sea level is rising as a result of climate change. Because for all of Louisiana’s wetlands loss, and nobody claims it is. the Mississippi River is held in place by levees to protect The suit merely asks that the oil, gas, and pipeline companies development and shipping, natural sediments that would pay their fair share to repair the damaged coast, just as the otherwise replenish the wetlands are forced toward the companies promised and the law requires. Asking the court to rule on this matter seems only fair. mouth of the river. And these lands are subsiding—literally sinking into the sea—largely because decades of oil and gas If Louisiana’s coast is to survive, the people of the state extraction have hollowed out vast areas deep underground. must insist that the industry that has gained so much from At the same time, the oil and gas industry has sliced Loui- Louisiana’s resources be held to account. If this lawsuit siana’s coastal lands to ribbons, dredging out irreplaceable succeeds, the case could become a landmark, setting a wetlands to create roughly 10,000 miles of cuts for pipelines precedent for environmental protection in a state that has and navigation canals that shorten shipping routes to off- already paid too high a price to feed our national addiction shore platforms and drilling rigs. Before sinking a shovel, to oil and gas. the oil and gas companies promised to refill, revegetate, and restore these wetlands under the terms of state and Bob Deans, NRDC’s associate director of communications, is a federal laws, regulations, and permitting requirements. veteran newspaper reporter and a former president of the White That hasn’t happened. Instead, these cuts have opened House Correspondents’ Association. His most recent book is Reckless: the coastal lands to saltwater intrusion, killing off vegeta- The Political Assault on the American Environment.
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winter 2013/2014
illustration by bruce morser
A fight to save Louisiana’s coast