While Donald Trump insists on betting on fossil fuels as the engine of the hoped-for economic revival of the United States, Chevron – the country's second-largest oil company – has been ordered by a Louisiana court to pay a heavy penalty: $744.6 million in damages for pollution caused along a stretch of coastline not far from New Orleans, on the southern coast of the North American nation.

A wetland area that protects Louisiana's coastline was altered

The verdict was delivered on Friday 4 April by a jury, bringing to a close the trial concerning the area known by its French name, Pointe à la Hache, which falls within the parish of Plaquemines. This is a wetland area to the southeast of the city, which in 2005 was struck by the most severe extreme weather event in United States history, both in terms of lives lost and material damage. The passage of Hurricane Katrina caused the flooding of approximately 80 per cent of the urban area, killing 1,836 people and causing $108 billion in damage.

This is one of the reasons that prompted the parish of Plaquemines to sue Chevron: the wetland areas around Pointe à la Hache play a crucial role in protecting the coastline, as they help to mitigate the impact of storms and limit the effects of rising sea levels. And it is precisely for this reason that they must be remediated and kept intact.

A law required Chevron to leave the area as it had found it

The activities that damaged local ecosystems had been initiated by Texaco, acquired in 2001 by Chevron itself for a record sum of over $38 billion. It is for this reason that the California-based company is now being held accountable. Legal proceedings were initiated several years later, in 2013. The charge brought by the Parish of Plaquemines was the violation of an environmental protection law adopted in Louisiana in 1978.

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Oil giant Chevron has been ordered by a Louisiana civil court jury to pay $744.6 million to a parish government to help restore coastal wetlands destroyed by the company over a period of decades.
ecowatch.com/chevron-louisi…

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This regulation requires fossil fuel companies, once oil extraction operations are complete, to "clean up, remediate, replant" and more generally to "return the site to a condition as close as possible to its original state". In other words: to leave the place in the same condition in which it was found.

A further $9 million imposed for abandoning infrastructure on site

Such a requirement may seem utopian when one considers the devastating impact on nature, ecosystems and landscapes caused by the installation of drilling infrastructure. But the law nonetheless demands a return to the original state. Instead, according to the judges, Chevron did not act accordingly — thereby worsening, as alleged by the American parish, the risks associated with the impacts of climate change.

Dr Paul Dorfman ✓ @dorfman_p

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US Jury orders Chevron to pay more than $744m for destroying Louisiana wetlands.
theguardian.com/us-news/2025/a…

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Specifically, the judges awarded $575 million to Plaquemines for the loss of part of its land, now permanently submerged, and $161 million for pollution caused and not remediated. A further $9 million was awarded for abandoning infrastructure on site — a fact which, in and of itself, speaks volumes about the approach often taken by oil companies when it comes to deciding whether to spend money on "doing things properly" or simply turning a blind eye.

A further 42 similar proceedings against Chevron

Naturally, the lead attorney who defended Chevron during the trial, Mike Phillips, announced that the company will appeal the ruling, citing "numerous judicial errors that led to this verdict". The stakes are extremely high, as this case is only the first of as many as 42 similar lawsuits that could cost the company billions of dollars.