🌅 Today’s stat: $745 million

SOURCE

AP

WHAT TO KNOW

• A Louisiana jury has ordered energy giant Chevron to pay $744.6 million to restore damage it says the company caused to southeast Louisiana’s coastal wetlands. Oil company Texaco, which Chevron acquired in 2001, spent decades violating state regulations by failing to restore coastal wetlands the company damaged by drilling wells, dredging canals, and dumping billions of gallons of toxic wastewater. Chevron plans to appeal the decision.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The jury found Texaco’s disregard for a 1978 regulation requiring companies to clean and restore their used sites accelerated the destruction of the state’s coast, awarding Plaquemines Parish $575 million for land loss, $161 million for contamination of the area, and $8.6 million for abandoned equipment. The landmark trial was 12 years in the making and the first of dozens of pending lawsuits against the world’s leading oil companies for their role in accelerating the damage along the state’s rapidly deteriorating coast.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• There were 2,180 climate change related lawsuits ongoing as of 2022, more than double the amount in 2017 (884). Cases were filed in 65 jurisdictions around the world, mostly located in the U.S., though several were located in small island developing nations, which are particularly vulnerable to climate change. However, climate litigation in the U.S. appears to be headed for a roadblock: on Tuesday, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to stop the enforcement of state laws focused on mitigating climate change.