Louisiana Coast

The view from atop an offshore drilling platform shows a derrick, various pipes and a flame atop the derrick from vented gas.

Federal judge says area for oil and gas leases in Gulf of Mexico must be expanded

BY: - September 23, 2023

A federal judge has ordered the Biden administration to expand next week’s offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico by 6 million acres. His ruling overturned a federal plan released last month that put limits in place to protect an endangered whale species. U.S. District Judge David Cain in Lake Charles […]

Homes and businesses destroyed by wildfire are seen on Aug. 14, 2023 in Lahaina, Hawaii.

FEMA’s disaster relief fund is running low on cash. What happens now?

BY: - August 18, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund is in desperate need of cash, with the agency projecting at least a $4 billion deficit in the weeks ahead — even as the government responds to devastating fires in Hawaii and hurricane season continues. FEMA, however, won’t simply stop the response and recovery activities […]

An aerial view of Louisiana's coastline

Sediment diversion breaks ground, promising to stave back land loss on Louisiana’s coast

BY: - August 11, 2023

Humans have long tried to tame the Mississippi River with levees. In the process, they starved many of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands of the sediment that sustains them. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, billed as the first project of its kind, seeks to remedy that by replicating those natural land-building processes by reconnecting the basin to the […]

hurricane evacuation route sign

Hurricane season is getting longer because of climate change, researchers say

BY: - July 24, 2023

Hurricane season, which officially runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, is getting longer because of climate change, researchers say.  “Seven of the last eight years we’ve had named storms form before hurricane season officially began on June 1. We technically had a named storm in January of 2023,” Barry Keim, Louisiana’s state climatologist and […]

An LNG tanker is docked at an export terminal

Property insurance disappears for Louisiana residents — but not for new fossil fuel facilities

BY: - July 24, 2023

Residents of coastal Louisiana are facing growing risks from flooding and extreme weather, with options for home insurance vanishing as insurers leave the state. But the fossil fuel industry operating nearby has no such worries. Liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals have been springing up along the fragile Gulf Coast, securing insurance even as their product […]

Tall reedy grass emerges from a wetlands landscape with a pond in the background

How an Idaho couple’s fight to build a home near a lake might affect Louisiana’s wetlands

BY: - July 16, 2023

In 2007, an Idaho couple wanted to build a home near a lake; the Environmental Protection Agency stopped them. Fifteen years later and 2,300 miles away, the ensuing legal battle has launched the protection of some Louisiana wetlands into uncertainty. The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the couple in May and curtailed the EPA’s authority […]

These Louisiana bird nesting islands were bleak. Restoration projects gave them new hope.

BY: - July 13, 2023

People on Louisiana’s coast aren’t the only ones in need of home elevations. In 2018, much of Queen Bess Island in Jefferson Parish was covered by water and dull-looking foliage. Birds nesting there were forced to crowd the little bits of suitable land left.  “Much like our coastal communities, these guys are losing their habitat […]

Louisiana coastal marsh

Departing coastal head advises next Louisiana governor to act with urgency

BY: - June 12, 2023

The departing coastal authority head thinks restoration needs to be elevated in Louisiana’s political conversation, including the governor’s race. Chip Kline will exit as chairman of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) after July 3. He’s held the role and been state director of coastal activities since 2018. Kline also manages the day-to-day operations […]

Lake Maurepas map

Limits on carbon capture quashed in Louisiana Legislature despite environmental concerns

BY: - June 7, 2023

A handful of Louisiana lawmakers brought bills this session to address public outcry over carbon capture projects, but their fellow legislators rejected most of their proposals. Carbon capture and sequestration is a process where industrial facilities contain their carbon dioxide emissions to inject and store them below ground instead of releasing the gas into the […]

COMMENTARY
Louisiana approves contracts held up over consultants’ work with environmentalists

The start of hurricane season should intensify coastal rebuilding efforts

BY: - June 1, 2023

You probably don’t need a reminder that the 2023 hurricane season begins today, but you’re welcome if it somehow slipped your mind. Unless you have the luxury of spending the next five months at your mountain hideaway, you know the drill — plan, prepare and execute early enough to get out of town safely. That […]

A residential structure stands on pilings in the middle of a shrinking coastal area in Louisiana

Louisiana’s landmark climate adaptation program is running out of time

BY: - May 30, 2023

Climate change has made Louisiana one of the most endangered states in the country. It has been struck by six major hurricanes in less than 25 years and lost hundreds of square miles of land to erosion in roughly the same period. But thanks partly to its extraordinarily bad luck — in particular the devastation […]

Person holding redfish just caught

Sinking redfish numbers could place bull reds off limits to anglers

BY: - May 25, 2023

Redfish stocks in Louisiana are declining at rates that have prompted state lawmakers to ask for tighter fishing regulations. The House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment unanimously approved a resolution Wednesday from Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, that would urge the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission to adopt a new limit prohibiting anglers from keeping […]