Orders of the Chevron jury to pay more than $ 744 million for destroying the wetlands of the Louisiana | Louisiana
Chevron He was ordered to pay more than $ 744 million for damages for having destroyed parts of the coastal wetlands of South-East of Louisiana over the years.
The sentence, which arrived in the form of a verdict of the civil jury on Friday, marks the conclusion of the first trial between 42 legal actions filed about 12 years earlier, which stated that the petroleum projects and the company of the company led to the degradation of the wetlands of the region. Among other things, the wetlands play a key role in offering the area a protection measure from hurricanes.
The jury discovered that the Texaco oil brand, owned by ChevronHe violated the state regulations surrounding the coastal resources by contributing to the disappeared coast through dredging channels, perforation of wells and downloading huge quantities of waste water in the swamp.
The verdict could push other companies to resolve the other separate but similar causes. However, Chevron’s lawyer Mike Phillips said that the oil company intends to appeal to the verdict.
Second The geological investigation of the United States, the Louisian coastal wetlands are among the most critical environments in danger of extinction throughout the country as they experience more losses of wetlands compared to all the other continental United States put together.
From 1932 to 2016, coast Louisiana He experienced a clear change in the earth’s surface of about -4,833 square kilometers, marking a decrease of about 25% of the land area at the beginning of that period of time.
The channels used to create transport paths for oil and gas platforms prevented the flow of natural water through the ecosystems of the wetlands, second The Lowlander Center. In addition, the canals create straight roads that allow the increase in ocean waters to bypass the Bayous and instead go directly to the hinterland during weather events.
According to a law on the management of the Louisiana of 1978, the sites used by the oil companies must “be eliminated, revised, detoxified and otherwise restored as much as possible to their original condition” after the end of the companies of the companies, the Associated Press reports.
The parish of the south-eastern Louisiana of the parish of Plaquinsmines presented the cause against Chevron in 2013, asking for damage from 2.6 billion dollars at that moment. The parish has 20 other cases pending against other oil companies.
The jury has assigned various fees to Plaquemines on Friday, including $ 575 million for land loss, $ 161 million for contamination, as well as $ 8.6 million for abandoned equipment.
Speaking with the jurors, Jimmy Faircloth Jr, a lawyer who represents the state of the Louisiana, said that Chevron said that the parish of Plaquemines was not worth preserving, reported the Associated Press.
“Our communities are built on the coast, our families raised on the coast, our children go to school on the coast,” he said. He added: “The state of the Louisiana will not give up the coast. It is for the good of the state that the coast is maintained”.
Second The coastal protection of the State and the Louisian restoration authority could lose up to 3000 square miles in the next 50 years.
Phillips said that Chevron was not “the cause of the loss of earth” in the plates. He said the law does not apply to the “conduct that took place decades before the law was issued”.
Phillips defined the “unjust” sentence, claiming that there were “numerous legal errors”.
