"Locals face a perfect storm — they can’t afford insurance and climate change threatens their livelihood."
"“I’ve never seen it this bad.” Eddie LeJuine has been fishing and shrimping along the southwestern coast of Louisiana for about four decades. The garrulous 62-year-old can talk for hours about the best fishing spots and the quiet moments at dusk when the ospreys glide through the marshes. He’s raised a family in Cameron Parish, the heel of the boot, as the state is known, with five kids and 10 grandchildren, one of whom just joined the local sheriff’s office.
But his life and livelihood have been upended in recent years by the proliferation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in the region — once the largest producer of seafood in the entire country. The LNG activity has devastated the environment and polluted the water, leading to significant declines in catches for fishermen.
“They’ve ruined so much of our fishing grounds,” LeJuine told Capital & Main, noting that a dredging accident in early August by a gas company preparing for the new CP2 LNG facility buried crab traps and oyster beds. He’s seen his income from fishing and shrimping plummet to a quarter of what he was earning in 2019 — from $175,000 before expenses down to about $40,000 before expenses."
Advertisement 
