Social media plays a role in a lot of debates, including those of a political nature. The lawsuit filed against nearly 100 oil and gas companies by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East has certainly been the subject of heated debates. For some politicians, getting the lawsuit stopped has seemed like a personal crusade. However, when one man took to Twitter to question a comment made by Garret Graves, the state’s coastal advisor, he got an invitation he didn’t expect.
The man, a reporter out of New Orleans, had questioned Graves’ remarks that oil giant Shell had pulled out of Louisiana while in the preliminary planning stages for a gas-to-liquids plant worth $20 billion – all because of the SLFPA-E’s lawsuit. Graves said someone had told him this information. The reporter was invited to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority meeting – the same meeting where Graves was eventually given the green light to look into a lawsuit to nullify the contract between the SLFPA-E and the attorneys representing the authority in the lawsuit.
According to the reporter, Shell didn’t just pull out of the state, but completely out of North America. He stated that Graves comment “was an example of a powerful public official going out of his way to blame fellow Louisianians for the loss of an industrial mega-project.” The reporter said that Shell never even mentioned that the lawsuit was a factor in a recent press release.
The reporter also stated that Graves has said that the Louisiana legislature will “snuff out” the lawsuit this year and that anyone who doesn’t believe that “is living in a dream world.” The reporter, though, thinks that the coastal advisor is certainly wasting a lot of time debating the subject.
The lawsuit has been been targeted by Governor Bobby Jindal and Graves. It seeks to hold the oil and gas companies responsible for the destruction and injury to the state’s coastal areas because of dredging operations and the construction of pipelines and canals.
Environmental issues often require legal actions in order to get needed results. An experienced environmental attorney may be able to help concerned individuals get the action they need to protect our natural resources.
Source: thelensnola.org, “A quip on Twitter lands me a public audience with Louisiana’s coastal chief, but it could have been worse” Mark Moseley, Jan. 17, 2014
