Louisiana
Landry signs Louisiana Energy Protection Act
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – The oil and gas industry is a huge part of Louisiana’s economy, and state government is taking more steps to protect it.
With oil company executives and others looking on, Gov. Jeff Landry signed HB 804 into law. It creates the Louisiana Energy Protection Act.
“In signing that bill, basically says that, look, people can’t theorize the fact that climate change is manmade and then take that as a theory and hold those companies that are producing energy liable for that,” Landry told FOX 8 immediately after signing the bill.
The goal is to make it more difficult for groups or individuals to sue the industry.
“Absolutely, that’s absolutely what it is all about, closing the door to frivolous litigation,” Landry said.
The industry applauded the Legislature’s passage of the new law.
“The Energy Protection Act is important piece of legislation for this past session. It’s going to protect not only oil and gas companies but all businesses in Louisiana from lawsuits based on climate change,” said Tommy Faucheux, president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, or LMOGA.
He said the new law does not eliminate the possibility of all lawsuits.
“The industry is too important to be brought down by frivolous litigation, and this bill protects that. It doesn’t mean if there’s a legitimate claim that people won’t be able to bring them but they’re not going to be able to do it saying that climate change was impacted or created by the oil and gas industry or any other business that touches fossil fuels,” said Faucheux.
Environmentalists say greenhouse gas emissions trap heat and make the planet hotter.
And the EPA says the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions comes from human activities such as burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat and transportation.
Landry called the new law a big deal.
“We’ve seen a lot of what I call a public nuisance laws that are used to basically weaponize or used as a weapon against the oil and gas industry, and, look, we recognize that Louisiana wouldn’t be Louisiana without that industry,” he said.
The oil and gas industry fuels thousands of direct and indirect jobs in Louisiana.
“The Louisiana oil and gas industry is doing extremely well,” Faucheux said.
Landry also signed other bills to support the oil and gas industry.
“All of those bills are designed to continue to help the industry move along, and the state of Louisiana is open for business. We’ve been knocking down bureaucratic red tape and regulations and pulling back statutes that really impede the industry’s ability to move energy to market in an extremely timely manner,” said Landry.
Landry also presented Shell Oil with a commendation for its Mars platform in the Gulf. It reached a major milestone earlier this year, becoming the first offshore asset in the U.S. to produce 1 billion barrels of oil.
“The commendation basically is a tribute to the men and women who have helped us to reach the billion barrel mark, which again I think it’s important for everyone out there who’s listening and watching this is that no other company has produced a billion barrels in America,” said Landry.
The platform was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
“Twenty years ago when Hurricane Katrina hit, it devastated Mars, brought her to her knees. We didn’t know how we were going to get her back online, but we did,” said
Colette Hirstius, president of Shell USA.
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