re: Louisiana Coastal Erosion.

agreed. i thin the lawsuits were always aimed at creating settlements. if they would have went further, it could have been a circus if the oil companies would have said, "ok how much loss have we created and what's that cost us?"

the other principle which the suit referenced was the old legal idea (and i am no lawyer so i will butcher this) that a landowner/stakeholder upstream cannot implement changes on a landscape that would increase his downstream neighbor's flood risk (at least not without compensation). it was my understanding the levee board was going to try and argue that the o&g companies increased the flood levels seen by the levees through their alterations of the environment (through digging channels or through lack of maintenance) between the levees and the gulf.