Coastal

It’s been in the works for a decade now, but the result of California’s ban on the use of seawater to cool a series of mostly natural gas-fired coastal electric generation plants is expected to have an impact on the state’s carbon footprint in the decade to come.

A science advisory team in California has outlined a blueprint for ocean water restoration in the offshore areas that were once used to cool coastal natural gas-fired power plants with seawater. The plants were ordered nearly a decade ago by state water authorities to phase out the practice of “once-through-cooling (OTC).”

After a five-year wait, TransCanada Corp. primed itself Tuesday for a quick start on building a supply pipeline for natural gas exports from the northern Pacific coast of British Columbia (BC).

Elected officials from coastal states took disparate views over the Trump administration’s proposal to open more than 90% of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to oil and natural gas exploration, which garnered more than 630,000 public comments.

The U.S. Fifth Circuit District Court of Appeals has affirmed the dismissal of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East’s (SLFPA-E) lawsuit against oil and gas companies alleging damages to coastal land in Louisiana.

Louisiana’s Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes want nothing to do with multiple lawsuits against the oil and natural gas industry accusing it of damage to coastal wetlands.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards is reportedly sending letters to the state’s coastal parishes, urging them to join litigation against the oil and gas industry within the next 30 days over decades of alleged environmental damage to wetlands. If they don’t, he said the state will sue on their behalf.

Louisiana’s Vermilion Parish is now the sixth coastal parish in the state suing the oil and natural gas industry for alleged damages to coastal wetlands.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has directed the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources to intervene in 39 lawsuits filed by three parishes against numerous energy companies, alleging damage to coastal wetlands by pipeline and other energy infrastructure/activities (see Daily GPI,Nov. 13, 2015;July 25, 2013). Plaquemines, Jefferson and Cameron are the parishes that are suing. Last month the state’s attorney general announced his office’s intervention in the lawsuits (see Daily GPI,March 16). “This intervention would ensure that the interests of the state of Louisiana are fully protected and that any money recovered in these suits will be spent on coastal restoration,” Edwards said. “The administration’s participation means that all of the coastal stakeholders are now at the table, and I look forward to working with the attorney general and the parishes to bring this matter to a resolution.”