Bobby Jindal's Outrageous Betrayal Of Louisiana

by Manny Schewitz

If you don't pay attention to Louisiana politics, you're really missing out on political theater that involves more plot twists than an M. Night Shyamalan film and more corruption than - well, nothing beats Louisiana corruption. Consider the recent backroom deals and infighting that occurred after Congressman Vance McAllister was caught kissing a married staffer and Bobby Jindal tried to draw Senator David Vitter in on the scandal. All of this is just par for the course in the openly corrupt realm of Lousiana politics, where the lines between party affiliation or conflict of interest are often foggier than a March morning on the Baton Rouge waterfront, but nothing has been quite as flagrant as the latest story coming out of the state capitol.
Quick background: Governor Bobby Jindal signed a law barring local levee boards from suing oil companies for damages caused by flooding and coastal erosion, which basically moved the only power to sue to the state level, that happens to be firmly in the back pocket of Big Oil. Because of the poor wording and perceived in-defensibility of the law upon appeal, the state Attorney General asked Jindal to veto the law, which was put together by attorneys representing the oil and gas industry.

    The law, SB 469, essentially bars a levee district in New Orleans' East Bank - the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, or SLFPA-E - from pressing forward in its lawsuit against 97 oil and gas companies, which it blames for exposing New Orleans to catastrophic damage from hurricanes Rita and Katrina by cutting thousands of miles of pipes and canals through sensitive barrier islands and wetlands that otherwise would have protected the coastal city.
    The lawsuit, filed last summer, sought to force energy companies to restore the wetlands, fill in the canals, and pay for past damages.

In addition to that, not only would it protect these oil companies, but it would also possibly stop any current local or state lawsuits against BP for damages and lost tax revenues arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill. Outrageous? Oh absolutely. Not only do oil and gas companies not have to compensate coastal parishes and their residents for losses, but BP could also then find themselves absolved of any further financial responsibility in the state of Louisiana for their part in the oil spill.

    Perhaps even more problematic than Jindal's unwillingness to listen to Caldwell is that Jindal recently acknowledged that oil and gas industry attorneys helped draft the legislation.

Well, Louisiana, you voted to be butt fucked and now you're getting what you voted for