"Now, parish lawsuits, including one in front of the Supreme Court, could make oil giants pay to restore the state’s vanishing marshes."

"Scott Eustis is doing what he can to keep Louisiana afloat. As a veteran wetland and fisheries researcher and lifelong resident, he says he is sure of what caused the damage to the state’s delicate marshlands and drowning coast: the oil drilling that employed his grandfather decades prior.

“My granddad worked for these companies,” said Eustis. “If he were still alive, he would tell you, straight up: They owe us the land.” 

For a century, oil companies dredged canals through coastal wetlands, dissecting marshes to get to and from wells, and dumped toxic wastewater into marshes and unlined earthen pits. Those wells, canals, pits, and leftover pollution were largely abandoned. Oil drilling is a dwindling portion of the state’s economy today, but its legacy is a fixture of the now-sinking landscape. 

Louisiana loses around a football field’s worth of its wetlands every hour, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and the problem is worsening as sea levels rise. As the coast sinks, home insurance rates skyrocket, local ecosystems collapse, shrimping and fishing economies shrink, and the state’s natural flood barriers disappear — an increasingly acute threat in the face of more frequent and torrential climate-fueled hurricanes."

Emily Sanders reports for ExxonKnews, a reporting project of the Center for Climate Integrity, copublished by DeSmog March 16, 2026. [2]