Louisiana Environmental Law Blog

Everyone in Louisiana remembers the oil spill that devastated Louisiana’s beaches, wildlife and fishing industries last year. After an explosion on a BP oil well that sent endless gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico finally came to an end, questions started to arise about what kind of medical and health effects would […]

Landowners in rural, upstate New York have been given moment to pause over natural gas drilling leases thanks to environmental law. Over the last few years, many landowners entered into natural gas drilling leases with energy companies, but a number of the landowners signed the leases before learning about the possible negative environmental impact of hydrofracking. […]

The beaches in the United States are subjected to more environmental land contamination and water contamination than many beach-goers probably realize. A recent study shows that contamination is still a big problem at beaches in the United States. Beaches in the southeast and northeast regions of the country have the cleanest ratings. Louisiana, perhaps unsurprisingly, […]

The tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan has created a nuclear emergency at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. While reactor containment units have not been breached yet, the thought of long-term radiation contamination is on the world’s mind. Almost two weeks ago and about one week before the tragic earthquake in Japan occurred, lawmakers in […]

School districts across the country are building new schools on ground fraught with possible environmental land contamination. The trend is not limited to urban area school districts as the same trend is also occurring in rural areas. In many areas of the United States there are no longer areas that have not been touched by […]

Even though the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was greater than the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, the seafood testing measures in the Gulf of Mexico are less rigorous than the testing measures after the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska. Despite the lower testing hurdle, officials say the contamination risk of eating […]

In a dispute between the Environmental Protection Agency and the railroad company Union Pacific over which party should clean land contaminated by lead, the mining company Asarco wants to join the fight. The land at issue is near Omaha, Nebraska and was formerly the location of a lead smelting operation run by Asarco. The focal […]

The federal panel investigating the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that caused environmental contamination in the Gulf of Mexico has met stiff resistance by Transocean. Transocean is the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and leased the rig to BP. Transocean will not hand over requested documents regarding the company’s compliance with international safety management codes. […]

A class action lawsuit was recently filed in the U.S. District Court in New Orleans seeking punitive damages from BP, Transocean Ltd., Cameron International, and Halliburton in relation to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The lawsuit was brought by Corliss Gallo, a man owning land on Grand Terre Island, who claims […]

Previously, we talked about the recent decision by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to consolidate and transfer a number of oil spill and environmental contamination-related cases to the Eastern District of Louisiana. While the judges transferred most cases related to the BP spill, the stopped short of ordering all matters be transferred there. The panel did […]