Still silent

Yesterday I linked to this article from Bob Marshall  where he wondered why some prominent Louisiana environmental groups weren't supporting the SLFPA-E's lawsuit against the oil and gas industry.

Yet three weeks later, the National Wildlife Federation, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Audubon Society remain silent on the lawsuit.

After working separately for a couple years, the three groups joined together in 2008 to create the Restore the Mississippi River Delta coalition, a well-funded drive to gain national support for salvaging the state’s abused, collapsing coast. A large part of that effort has been championing the state’s Coastal Master Plan, developed by the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. The state authority is headed by Garret Graves, an outspoken critic of the lawsuit.

Restore spokesmen said the coalition’s mission" saving the coast" is the reason for its silence on the lawsuit, not the politics of its working relationship with the CPRA.

When The Lens asked local officials with the three national groups for their organization’s position on the lawsuit, all of them referred to a joint statement that acknowledges damage by the oil and gas industry and recognizes that wetlands loss hinders flood protection" the case made by the flood protection authority. The statement stops short of supporting the suit.

Today a coalition of organizations who do support the lawsuit held a press conference to affirm their position and to take shots at the Governor.

At a New Orleans news conference, environmental groups presented a list of 231 contributions to Jindal state election campaigns between 2003 and 2013 by oil and gas companies and executives that total $1,019,777.

The Jindal administration has criticized a lawsuit filed by the East Bank levee authority against 97 oil, gas and pipeline companies.

Representatives of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Global Green, League of Women Voters, Levees.org, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Sierra Club, and Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans attended the news conference Wednesday.

 I don't see any of Marshall's big three organizations listed among them.