First on FOX: Former Attorney General William Barr fired a letter Thursday to Louisiana Attorney General Liz Maryll, warning against setting backing down multi-billion dollar lawsuits targeting oil companies like Chevron.
In a letter to Marilee, Barr referenced the reported GOP Governor Jeff Landry’s report on several lawsuits in which the parish and powerful lawyers, a Louisiana county version, demanded hundreds of billions of people on liability for land losses.
“You know, the Trump administration is committed to unleashing America’s domestic energy production,” Burr wrote, saying President Donald Trump’s executive order “protects America’s energy from national overreach.”
Barr’s recent incident in the Parish of Plaquemines against Chevron is Louisiana’s first example, “an arbitrary or excessive fines by an energy producer through retroactive penalties cast as allegedly harmful damage.”
The $300 million LA lawsuit could “destroy” the Gulf energy industry, critics warn the state’s position to question it.
Former Attorney General William P. Barr. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The incident focused on allegations that Texaco disbanded Chevron due to the effects of coastal erosion due to energy development projects prior to the 1980s – was negligent due to the effects of coastal erosion.
“I am concerned that Louisiana is in the process of doing this by acquiescing the wave of 43 cases conceived by the prominent plaintiffs’ lawyers against American oil and gas companies on behalf of Louisiana’s coastal parish,” Barr said.
Following the verdict, Chevron’s lead trial attorney Mike Phillips told Fox News Digital that he plans to appeal the verdict to address “a number of legal errors that led to this unfair outcome.”
“This verdict is just one step in the process of establishing that the 1980 law does not apply to conduct that occurred decades before the law was enacted. Chevron is not the cause of the land losses that occur in Breton Sound,” Phillips said.
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Marine off-road facility at Venture Global Plaquemins’ liquefied natural gas export facility in Port Sulphur, Louisiana. (Getty)
“[T]It says that his condition appears to have largely given over control of the suit against the private plaintiff’s lawyers and postponed it to a legal position.
In a letter to Maryle, Barr said he was deeply concerned about the agreement with Laundry in relation to the lawsuit. Landry has been criticized by the state-based Pelican Institute and other sources for his apparent proximity to plaintiff John Calmouche, a donor who was recently appointed to the Louisiana State University Commission.
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Barr argued that pre-1980 damages were not qualified as grandfather under the relevant 1978 Natural Resources Act, and that “serious constitutional issues of retrospective due process and acquisition” existed in the Louisiana debate.
Instead, Louisiana said the federal government should consider whether lawyers are responsible for the “majority” of the land loss phenomenon that it seeks to blame energy companies.
Burr wrote on behalf of the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce, the American Energy Institute, the American Energy Association, and First Principles.
“We are concerned that if these cases continue, they will affect key current LNG plants and operations in coastal zones, reduce new energy investments in Louisiana, limit funds available for new production in the US Gulf, and undermine President Trump’s efforts to reestablish US energy control,” Burr said.
Neither Carmouche nor Landry responded to requests for comment regarding the original lawsuit.
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Attorney Jimmy Faircross, who represents the state agency of the litigation, told Times Pikayun that the Laundry administration supports a positive impact on the energy industry and its employment.
Faircloth reportedly said the incident was suspected of Texaco’s “past crimes” and failed to enforce regulations in the past decades.
Charles Kraitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers the media, politics and culture of Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.
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