Hurricane Barry’s approach last month left many in the New Orleans area anxious and uncertain. Despite being a relatively weak storm, it came while the Mississippi River was at a height not normally seen during hurricane season, and forecasters warned that if it approached on just the right track, a surge could push the river’s...Read More

The risk of a ratings downgrade can pressure cities and companies to take steps to mitigate climate risks, such as from sea level rise. One of the main agencies that rates the creditworthiness of big borrowers, including cities and corporations, has brought on board a data firm specializing in climate risks. It’s a signal that...Read More

In early July, Bangladesh became the first country to grant all of its rivers the same legal status as humans. From now on, its rivers will be treated as living entities in a court of law. The landmark ruling by the Bangladeshi Supreme Court is meant to protect the world’s largest delta from further degradation...Read More

U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy are among a congressional group introducing the Conservation of America’s Shoreline Terrain and Aquatic Life (COASTAL) Act to increase the amount of offshore energy revenues Louisiana, and other Gulf states, receive. Read more here…Read More

A report from researchers at Louisiana State University predicts an annual hypoxic or “dead” zone in the Gulf of Mexico covering 8,717 square miles this summer, the second largest since monitoring of the phenomenon began in 1985. Scientists define hypoxia as a decrease in the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the water column to a...Read More

A Louisiana-based conservation group has filed a lawsuit in federal court in California challenging a rollback of offshore drilling regulations by President Donald Trump’s administration that relaxed the requirements on blowout preventers and real-time monitoring. Healthy Gulf, formerly known as the Gulf Restoration Network, is one of 10 environmental groups that filed suit last month...Read More

The Lafourche Parish Council last week voted to sell $14.5 million in bonds from expected federal offshore revenue. The money, stemming from the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, will be used to pay for eight major projects in the parish. Selling bonds from the annual payments allows the parish to receive the $14.5 million...Read More

Jefferson Parish will build 17 rock jetties along the northern shore of Grand Isle, completing a project designed to help protect the island from storm surge and reduce coastal erosion. Using a $6.5 million grant, the parish will put the 350-foot-long breakwaters along the bay side of the island, using 62,426 tons of rock and...Read More

Moody’s Corporation has purchased a controlling stake in a firm that measures the physical risks of climate change, the latest indication that global warming can threaten the creditworthiness of governments and companies around the world. The rating agency bought a majority share in Four Twenty Seven, a California-based company that measures a range of hazards,...Read More

Several Louisiana members of Congress are leading the effort to funnel more of the federal money generated in the Gulf of Mexico to the coastal states that so much to support the offshore industry. “Louisiana is battling the largest historical, ongoing and prospective loss of coastal wetlands we’ve ever seen, and it’s a national crisis,”...Read More