Louisiana Environmental Law Blog

BP is facing hundreds of lawsuits in connection with the Deepwater Horizon explosion and the resulting oil spill. The various lawsuits deal with issues including loss of tourism revenue, falling stock prices, lost income and many more. One such suit is a proposed class action filed by fishermen, shrimpers and oystermen alleging that BP’s clean-up […]

In fighting the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill, more than 1.6 million gallons of chemical dispersants have been dumped into the Gulf of Mexico and the number is still rising. As you may recall, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a directive in late May advising that use of the chemical dispersants should be cut by […]

As the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill moves into its third month, another alarming environmental contamination concern is beginning to materialize. This particular oil spill seems to include the release of a high percentage of methane gas along with the oil that, according to some scientists, may result in the suffocation of marine life and the creation of […]

Media coverage of the aftermath of the BP Gulf oil spill offered generally positive assessments of the White House’s increasing demands on BP to take financial responsibility. The story was briefly noted on the network news. AFP (6/10, Oberman) reports the US “tightened pressure Wednesday on BP, setting a 72-hour deadline for the battered British energy titan […]

The environmental disaster spawned by the BP oil spill and playing out along the shorelines of Gulf Coast states is now focusing with ever-greater urgency on the adverse effects being suffered by the region’s diverse marine wildlife. That wildlife encompasses both the obvious and less noticeable, ranging from dead birds of various species to dolphins, turtles, shrimps […]

Unsettling results of tests on tar balls discovered by beach combers on Marsh Island and at Chenier au Tigre confirm the balls are from the BP Deepwater Horizon source, says Mark Shirley, an LSU Ag Center agent based in Abbeville. The state departments of Wildlife & Fisheries and Health & Hospitals closed the area off […]

It has now been more than a month since the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig, but the effects are just beginning to be felt by people along the Gulf Coast. In addition, to the contamination caused by oil beginning to touch land, there is also a great deal of concern about […]

The EPA told BP late yesterday that they had 24 hours to choose an alternate chemical dispersant that is less-toxic than the one they are currently applying by the hundreds-of-thousands of gallons in the Gulf of Mexico to try to break up the crude oil that is rising to the surface and spreading. BP has been trying […]

From reports in the Texas Tribune and Houston Chronicle: A former safety consultant for BP asked a federal judge Monday to order the oil giant to cease drilling at its Atlantis platform in the Gulf, citing federal regulators’ failure to investigate potential dangers at the site — described by BP as the deepest off-shore well in the world. On […]

Dr. Jeff Masters,  a noted meteorologist, stated that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has pushed steadily westward along the Louisiana coast, and is expected to reach central Louisiana near Atchafalaya Bay by Thursday, according to the latest trajectory forecasts from NOAA. Winds over the Gulf of Mexico this week will blow from the southeast at 15 – 20 […]