In a courtroom thunderclap that reverberated across the Gulf Coast and beyond, a Louisiana jury ordered Chevron to shell out nearly $745 million for environmental destruction tied to decades of oil drilling that shredded southeast Louisiana’s fragile coastal wetlands.
After over a decade of legal wrangling, the long-awaited verdict dropped Friday, marking a pivotal win for Plaquemines Parish, which launched its case in 2013 — the first of many suits targeting Big Oil for turning Louisiana’s marshes into watery graveyards of industry neglect.
The jury, after just four hours of deliberation, ruled that Texaco, now a Chevron subsidiary, violated Louisiana law by failing to remediate damage from oil operations that dumped billions of gallons of toxic wastewater and left wetlands permanently scarred.
Billions Sought, Hundreds Awarded — And the Legal Fireworks Aren’t Over
While the parish aimed for a towering $2.6 billion, jurors awarded:
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$575 million for lost land,
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$161 million for contamination,
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$8 million for abandoned infrastructure.
This case is the opening salvo in what could become a deluge of similar litigation. Parishes including Jefferson, Cameron, Vermilion, St. Bernard, and St. John the Baptist have filed their own suits citing similar environmental harm from drilling, dredging, and disposal practices dating back to World War II.
