A boat monitors the oil sheen from the Taylor Energy leak. New Orleans, L.A. — Yesterday, a federal judge said New Orleans-based advocacy group Healthy Gulf may intervene in a lawsuit defending the U.S. Coast Guard’s actions to contain the ongoing Taylor Energy oil spill that has been leaking off the coast of Louisiana for over 14 years. Earthjustice, a non-profit environmental law organization, is representing Healthy Gulf in the lawsuit. Collapsed wells at Taylor Energy’s drilling site approximately 15 miles off the southeast Louisiana coast have been discharging oil into the Gulf of Mexico since 2004, when Hurricane Ivan caused the company’s oil platform to topple and sink. Neither Taylor nor the federal government had undertaken comprehensive containment or control measures until October 2018, when the U.S. Coast Guard ordered Taylor to propose a plan to immediately contain the ongoing oil release. When Taylor failed to comply with the order, the Coast Guard took over the response and contracted with a remediation company to work quickly towards capping the spill. Taylor is seeking to reverse that order in federal court. Taylor’s lawsuit seeks to bar any work by the federal government or its contractor on the spill response, […]
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