Call your Senator today!! Senator Dan Claitor 7520 Perkins Road Suite 160 Baton Rouge, LA 70808 (225) 765-0206 claitord@legis.la.gov Senator Ben Nevers 724 Avenue F Bogalusa, LA 70427 (985) 732-6863 neversb@legis.la.gov Senator Daniel "Danny" Martiny 131 Airline Highway Suite 201 Metairie, LA 70001 (504) 834-7676 martinyd@legis.la.gov Senator Edwin R. Murray 1540 N. Broad Street New Orleans, LA 70119 (504) 945-0042 murraye@legis.la.gov
Why doesn’t Big Oil and Gas Answer for Historic Lack of Action on Pollution? If they acted, we wouldn’t have legacy lawsuits
When the House and Senate Natural Resources Committees asked all parties involved in the legacy lawsuit debate now before the Legislature to work out a compromise, Big Oil and Gas ignored the spirit of that request and used Rep. Neil Abramson to sneak a bad bill out under the guise that it is necessary to hurt trial attorneys, the health of our citizens be damned. As exposed at LouisianaTruth.org, Big Oil and Gas has a history in Louisiana of saying one thing and doing another. See What Did the Oil Companies Know and When? at www.LouisianaTruth.Org In fact, what Rep. Abramson's bill does is help the 50 oil and gas lobbyists in Baton Rouge earn a nice pay day while the citizens of Louisiana lose their rights to protect their land and waters from a legacy of oil and gas pollution. In other words, oil and gas get access to the decision makers in government, but the average landowner doesn't.
Political commentator Chuck Morse examines in his new book, the WHIG Manifesto, how American Iraqi and Afghan war veterans are organizing a new political party that is neither liberal or conservative but dedicated to fighting for a more unified country. Fearing modern politics is tearing at the fabric of the American system, the new party is reviving a movement that traces its roots back to the American Revolution. The party has run local and state candidates with success in Nebraska, Virginia, Massachusetts. Mr. Morse speaks to modern-day political issues through the eyes of WHIG activists. Find out more by emailing him at chuckmorse4@gmail.com
Treacherous Waters: Big Oil could bypass clean-up standards with HB 618
4/25/2012
Big Oil would have a single leverage point to get away with poisoning Louisiana ground, surface, and drinking waters!!!
State remediation standards exist for a reason. HB 618 has the potential to give them the authority to create clean up plans that don't meet those very standards.
Sound like a good idea to you? About as good an idea as a salt water irrigation system.
Read the letters attached below and judge for yourself.
And rumor has it the bill will be amended on the floor today to turn it all over to DEQ which uses risk/use clean up standards - the laxest regulatory standards available.
Cheaper clean up means more profit for Big Oil, and treacherous waters for Louisiana...
THE HOUSE CIVIL LAW COMMITTEE, CHAIR NEIL ABRAMSON, will go against the wishes of his colleagues and hold hearings on HB 618 Tuesday, April 17. HB 618 is a bill which would weaken Act 312 and thus prevent remediation of polluted lands by the oil and gas companies which did the damage.
State Representative Neil Abramson has discovered a way to make an apparent conflict-of-interest pay for himself and the large New Orleans law firm in which Rep. Abramson is a stockholder and member, LouisianaTruth.org has discovered. As Chairman of the Louisiana House Civil Law Committee, Rep. Abramson, on Tuesday, April 17, 9:30 a.m., will push a bill in his committee that grants the Department of Natural Resources primary jurisdiction over so-called “legacy lawsuits”. Rep. Abramson is the author of the legislation. If passed, Abramson’s bill will strip from Louisiana landowners their current right to initially pursue land and water pollution damages caused by major oil companies in Louisiana courts by jury trials. “Instead, these cases would start in the bureaucratic morass of the Department of Natural Resources,” said Cheron Brylski, LouisianaTruth.org. Major oil companies have long sought this legal change outlined in HB 618, in order to keep hidden company documents out of the public domain, keep Louisiana juries from adjudging their fault in these cases, and save oil companies literally hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental clean up costs, said Ms. Brylski. “Rep. Abramson represents the large oil companies in these very cases through his law firm. He is now attempting to protect them with his legislation in the very committee he chairs, after other legislators said such legislative consideration should be delayed one more week while public hearings were conducted,” said Ms. Brylski. According to the Liskow and Lewis law firm web site, Abramson is touted as a State Representative and a lawyer who represents “oil and gas companies in legacy law suits involving claims of property and ground water contamination.” According to the state ethics law, Abramson may have more than a money problem. The state ethics law prohibits a public official from receiving anything of economic value, other than his governmental compensation, for performing his public duties. Here in lies the issue, said Ms. Brylski. “Is Neil Abramson working for himself, his law firm, and his big oil clients while serving as a State Representative and committee chairman, or is he working for his constituents in the 98th House District?”
For more information: C. Brylski (504) 897-6110.
Attachment:
streamdocument.pdf
Louisiana landowners are disputing claims by Louisiana’s largest producer of crude oil, Hilcorp, that state laws which define so-called “legacy lawsuits” are hurting the oil and gas industry.
Last week, Hilcorp's Chief Executive Officer Jeffery Hildebrand, in a letter to State Senators, asked the State to protect his company from the legacy of pollution left behind by decades of oil and gas exploration and production. He claims that the "consequences of inaction are dire for our business and the industry as a whole" if there is no legislative fix for the oil industry's legacy lawsuit problem. “Mr. Hildebrand leaves out important facts and tells half-truths, wanting Louisiana's citizens to believe the oil industry in Louisiana needs a bailout from environmental damages it has caused to the landowners of our State,” said Attorney Mike Stag. “Mr. Hildebrand fails to disclose that he made a fortune buying old oil fields for a discount in part due to the existing environmental liability.” The Louisiana Legislature is holding a public hearing on the legacy of oil and gas pollution left at older, privately owned fields and so-called “legacy lawsuits” which seek to get the abandoned waste cleaned up, as required by state law. For example, Hilcorp purchased the Erath Field in Acadiana for $1.5 million in 1995 from Texaco. As part of the deal, Hilcorp accepted Texaco's obligations to cleanup the toxic waste left behind from oil and gas operations, including asbestos and radioactive material. (See 1Art. III 3.1 (a) 1995 Purchase and Sale Agreement attached) Hilcorp promised to indemnify Texaco for any damages that were caused by historical operations in the field. These promises were made by a corporate President who knew Texaco operations harmed land owned by others. Before the sale, Hilcorp performed a Phase I Environmental Assessment of the Field. Hilcorp's environmental engineers reported the existence of past spills and radioactive waste in the field. (See April 1995 Phase 1 Environmental Assessment of Selected Assets of the Texaco Exporation and Production, Inc. Erath Field, attached) “Hilcorp's engineers recommended surveys for radiation and abatement of asbestos. Hilcorp did little to nothing to address these environmental issues until long after it was sued,” said Attorney Mike Stag. “Louisiana's regulators, the DNR and DEQ did nothing as well. It took landowner lawsuits to cause Hilcorp to start addressing these damages.” “Mr. Hildebrand also didn't tell us that his company has made hundreds of millions of dollars extracting minerals from old fields,” added Mr. Stag. “Hilcorp and the oil industry report record breaking profits while they seek to avoid being held responsible for the damages they cause in the one place landowners can seek justice: a court of law,” said Mr. Stag. While Mr. Hildebrant writes that legacy lawsuits are a “growth industry in Louisiana with no signs of abating,” an independent report by the Department of Natural Resources, released in February, showed there were on average 50 such suits filed a year since 2006. The petroleum industry reports there are 200 salt domes and 180,000 oil/gas wells in Louisiana.
Attachment:
documents.zip
Photographer Harold Baquet will present Loyola's photographic treasures ...including images by Russell Cresson, Tracy Smith and himself... on Wed, April 11, 7 p.m., Nunemaker Auditorium, Loyola University, 6363 St. Charles Ave. Loyola is celebrating 100 years!
Enrollment is limited by BESE to 1000 students, so parents are encouraged to get student applications in. Enrollment closes May 7.
Louisiana Connections Academy will host free parent information sessions, both in person and online, to fulfill a growing number of requests for information about the virtual school program. Parents and others seeking more information about Louisiana Connections Academy can call the school at 800-382-6010
It is impossible to work in someone’s campaign and not become a fan. The hours, the stress…it binds you to your candidate, as if you both survived some kind of battle.
While I’ve always been a fan of St. Rep. Austin Badon, I had not worked closely with him during the nearly 10 years he’s been in office. Our paths crossed during all the education reform legislation offered over the past 6 years. And he impressed me that he was willing to take on issues like vouchers, consolidation of the Orleans Assessors, and defense of SUNO…because so often he acted out of passion and not politics.
Working in his recent Council-at-Large race, I learned that he loves the Boy Scouts, mentors lots of young men out of the kindness of his heart, is devoted to his wife Therese, and genuinely believes in public service. Not for personal gain, just because he believes that right will ultimately prevail over wrong.
Politically, some may call him naïve. In a world where people study Machiavelli and Sun Tzu as a bible, I would agree: he seems unschooled in the cynical world of consultants and bagmen.
I gritted my teeth when he called for a “commuter tax”, having survived two painful elections on that subject in the 1980s. But it would be nice to have some way to pay for all those S&WB repairs without doubling my water bill. And supposedly the Mayor was angered by his repeated calls to bring in the Louisiana National Guard, even though it still seems like a good idea to me when you have 10 shootings in one weekend and persistent questions about police integrity.
But then you open this week’s GAMBIT and you see his photo in the story about the bullying bill before this Session of the Legislature. …a bill he will get a lot of grief about…not from people in New Orleans, but from all the supposedly “religious” fanatics who think this is somehow ungodly. He will be hounded, he will be harassed.
But knowing Austin, he’ll just smile and reiterate why he does what he does: he loves public service. Man, that’s refreshing.
BUSTED #4: What did the oil companies know and when did they know it?
3/21/2012
A sampling of evidence obtained through legal discovery of internal documents show oil companies knew the impact of their activities early in the 20th century, but chose to ignore it.
Attorney says entire lobbying effort over Act 312 is so oil and gas can control courts
Oil and gas are known to control the State Department of Natural Resources. Now, to avoid having to pay for cleanups on lands they have polluted, the oil company lobbyists want legislators to write into law that they can control the courts! Read the attached secret letter circulating to legislators!
Attachment:
faircloth letter.pdf
BUSTED #2: Dismukes Deposed Over Legacy Study Details; UPDATE...DISMUKES TRIES TO AVOID SERVERS! POLICE REPORT FILED
3/19/2012
LSU “RESEARCHER” OF SO-CALLED ENERGY REPORT TO BE DEPOSED IN POTENTIAL LEGAL ACTION
LSU “researcher” David Dismukes will have to answer questions under oath on his latest missive regarding “legacy” lawsuits in Louisiana.
Don Carmouche, a longtime leader in the legal effort to require oil companies to clean up hazardous dump sites which have existed for decades on the lands of private citizens in Louisiana, says that the research conducted by Dismukes is “flawed, erroneous, and prejudiced.”
“Because of its outlandish claims, we want some questions answered by Dismukes and LSU on a number of issues,” Carmouche said.
Among many items that Dismukes will be questioned about are: • Was the “research” based on timely and current data? • What persons or entities paid for and/or subsidized the “research”, given that the LSU Energy Center’s Board, where Dismukes works, is replete with oil and gas executives? • Are the findings of the “research” supported by LSU and, if not, why not?
“We will also ask for all communications between Dismukes and the oil industry, as well as any payments made to Dismukes for “work” he has done for the oil industry since 2006,” Carmouche continued. “In all of our cases where hazardous pits have been left by the oil industry, we have discovered the only way to find the real truth is by demanding internal documents.”
The disposition of Dismukes, and, perhaps, others, is being undertaken relative to potential litigation. The disposition is set for March 29, 2012.
The support letter reads: We support the continued role that COAs and AAAs will serve across our state and understand that under DHH’s leadership and coordination, they will not only continue to be a trusted focal point for services, but also will be strengthened under a funding formula that closer tracks the seniors served through the fair use of census data to determine resource availability. Furthermore, we are encouraged by commitments from DHH’s leadership to protect funding for COAs, AAAs and the areas they serve.
Attachment:
healthcare leaders.pdf
DOWNLOAD THE FORM AND FAX BACK OR EMAIL CBRYLSKI@AOL.COM WITH YOUR SUPPORT!
As of today, physicians in Louisiana use a one-page form to request coverage for prescriptions for Medicaid patients when a medically necessary medication falls outside of the regular formulary. However, physicians must navigate an inefficient, time-consuming labyrinth of more than 230 forms when they see insured patients. Senator Murray’s SB 231 seeks to authorize the Louisiana Department of Insurance to develop a streamlined form, so that physicians can spend less time on paperwork, and more time with their patients. This measure has our support and we ask for yours as well.
Attachment:
form murray.pdf
The spokesperson in the "hidden videos" about legacy lawsuits is...one of their own!
One of the big fights in the Legislature, if you listen to the lies spouted by Big Oil apologists Don Briggs (Louisiana Oil and Gas Association) and Melissa Landry (Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch) is going to be over "legacy lawsuits" and Act 312. You can click the link to find out more about this. Basically, oil and gas doesn't want to have to clean up the radioactive and chemical pollution they have left on private lands after extracting the oil and gas. This is against the law. So when landowners sue to have oil and gas meet their contractual duties, this is called a legacy lawsuit. Oil and gas claims they just can't make a profit with these things hanging over their heads so... they are fighting the law that regulates settlements of these types of cleanups, something called Act 312. To make their case, they have been releasing clips of a video like the one above, purportedly of a trial attorney, talking about all the ways lawyers can bilk the oil and gas industry out of millions through legacy lawsuits. Well...the "secret" video is really of a seminar held in Houston BY DEFENSE LAWYERS WHO WORK FOR OIL AND GAS and the instructor is William Griffin. His resume is attached. HE WORKS FOR THE OIL COMPANIES!! I hear through the grapevine that he is TOTALLY PISSED that his presentation is being bastardized in this way! Well you know what they say...when you sleep with dogs...
