Since then, Jindal has received over*$1 million in campaign donations*from the oil and gas industry, which sees the deep-water Gulf of Mexico as one of the few remaining exploration frontiers left in the United States. None of this came free, of course, and earlier this month the governor made a significant down payment on repaying these donations by pushing through and then signing into law*a sweeping bill*that would effectively eliminate the ability of LouisianaÂ’s coastal communities to*sue oil companies for destroying the stateÂ’s vulnerable coastal wetlands*via their everyday activities of drilling, laying pipe, and bringing oil to market.
With a sweep of the governor’s pen, Jindal waved aside what is perhaps the most pressing long-term issue facing Louisiana today — the*inundation of huge swathes of southern Louisiana*and the rapid advance of the ocean onto the very doorsteps of the New Orleans metropolitan area, home to 1.4 million people — largely to appease and protect his well-heeled friends in the state’s powerful oil and gas industry.
