To: The Louisiana State House and The Louisiana State Senate

To All Members of the Louisiana Legislature: Let the courts decide Big Oil's liability for coasta...

No one, not even Big Oil, is above the law. Big Oil broke our coast, and Big Oil is obligated to fix it. Louisiana taxpayers can't afford a $50 billion bail-out for Big Oil - Let the courts decide the lawsuits!

Why is this important?

Last summer, the levee board responsible for protecting metro New Orleans filed suit against 97 oil, gas and pipeline companies for their part in destroying Louisiana's coast. Instead of filling thousands of miles of abandoned access canals within 90 days after they stopped using them – as their permits required – and restoring land they damaged – as the law required – the industry simply left, allowing the channels to swell and engulf the sliced, fragile vegetation of our millennia-old marsh and wetlands. The destruction of this natural buffer against hurricane storm surge endangers all residents and property of south Louisiana. Our survival is literally at stake.

In one lifetime, our coast has lost nearly 2000 square miles of land, an area the size of Delaware. The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina was a symptom of that loss, and we continue to lose land at the rate of one football field every 45 minutes.

Legislation backed by Governor Jindal and Big Oil to retroactively declare the levee authority’s lawsuit null and void is moving quickly through both chambers of the state legislature. If adopted, the oil and gas industry – the most profitable in world history – will enjoy virtual legal immunity in Louisiana. It will be above the law, and it will leave the taxpayers in one of America’s poorest states with the impossible task of raising the $50 billion minimum required to rebuild our coast.