Apparently we've learned absolutely nothing from the regulatory failures that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, at least not here in Louisiana. Against the backdrop of BP's 200-million-gallon spill and botched cleanup efforts, a group of tone deaf Louisiana legislators has introduced three bills that would drastically limit the liability of the oil and gas industry in site contamination cases. At issue are "legacy claims," lawsuits that address past and present environmental damages – primarily contamination from oilfield waste and radioactive brines – tied to exploration and production processes. Louisiana landowners have long tried to cleanup the "legacy" of pollution left behind on private property once leased by oil and gas companies. Now their hopes of a "legacy-free environment" may never be realized. If passed, these bills would shift the financial burden of cleaning up contaminated sites from the industry to an economically strapped state bureaucracy. And, to make matters even more unpalatable (not to mention unconstitutional), the legislation would apply retroactively to "legacy claims" that have already been filed, enabling the industry to walk away from decades of environmental degradation and potentially billions in remediation costs. Perhaps most disturbing of all is the fact that this legislation, if voted into law, ...
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