A jury in the US state of Louisiana has sentenced the oil company Chevron to pay over 744 million dollars – equivalent to approximately 5.2 billion kroner – in compensation for extensive environmental damage to coastal marshlands. This is reported by the German Spiegel.
This is the first verdict in a case that stems from a total of 42 lawsuits filed about 12 years ago. According to the court, Chevron's subsidiary Texaco has violated state environmental regulations for decades by digging canals, drilling for oil and discharging large amounts of wastewater into the wetlands. The oil company has announced that it will appeal the ruling.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Louisiana's coastal wetlands are among the most endangered in the entire United States. Between 1932 and 2016, more than 4,800 square kilometers of land disappeared - about a quarter of the area's original area.
A major reason, according to the NGO Lowlander Center, is the many canals that have been dug as transportation routes for oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. The canals disrupt the natural flow of water and make coastal areas vulnerable to storm surges, as seawater can easily penetrate overland.
Since 1978, energy companies in Louisiana have been required by law to clean up their messes. This means, among other things, that areas must be cleaned of contamination, rehabilitated and, as far as possible, returned to their original state.
Specifically, the case concerns a lawsuit that the municipality of Plaquemines in southeastern Louisiana filed in 2013. Here, the municipality demanded 2.6 billion dollars in compensation. The court has now awarded the municipality 575 million dollars for lost land and an additional 161 million dollars for pollution – corresponding to a total of approximately 5.2 billion. DKK. Several of the other cases are still pending, including 20 against other oil companies.
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