What has Louisiana’s governor done his first month in office? Boost fossil fuels | Louisiana

In his first four weeks in office, Louisiana’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry, has filled the ranks of state environmental posts with executives tied to the oil, gas and coal industries.

Landry, who has labeled climate change “a hoax”, has also taken aim at the state’s climate taskforce for possible elimination as part of a sweeping reorganization of Louisiana’s environmental bureaucracy. The goal, according to Landry’s executive order, is to “create a better prospective business climate”.

And in his first month, Landry has hinted a new focus for the department of natural resources, the state agency with oversight of the fossil fuel industry, after changing the title to include the word “energy”.

While the US and other countries have vowed to move away from fossil fuels, Landry is running in the opposite direction.

The newly elected governor wants to grow the oil and gas industry that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs in Louisiana. Environmentalists blame the industry for the pollution they say has harmed vulnerable communities in the state.

A key indicator of where Landry is headed is the choice of Tyler Gray to lead the state’s department of energy and natural resources. Gray enters the new administration after spending the past two years working for Placid Refining Company as the oil company’s corporate secretary and lobbyist.

For environmentalists, these are worrying signs for a state that is the site of a boom in proposed liquified natural gas facilities and carbon capture projects that they say threaten to increase Louisiana’s already high contribution of climate-changing greenhouse gasses.

Louisiana’s ‘sacrifice zone’

Landry’s moves weren’t unexpected, advocates say, given his past actions as state attorney general and his combative stance toward environmental justice issues.

Gray’s appointment is “disappointing but not surprising”, said Jackson Voss, climate policy coordinator for the Alliance for Affordable Energy.

“Unfortunately, from our perspective, the history of the [Louisiana] department of natural resources has always been very deeply connected with the oil and gas industry,” said Voss.

In its latest report, Human Rights Watch highlighted the environmental harms and health-related issues the oil and gas industry is accused of inflicting on predominantly Black communities in the south-east Louisiana corridor known as Cancer Alley.

Researcher Antonia Juhasz interviewed dozens of residents living in Cancer Alley who talked about miscarriages, high-risk pregnancies, infertility, respiratory issues and a multitude of other health impacts in their communities. They attribute the maladies to years of pollution and dangerous emissions from the high concentration of polluting industries.

“The fossil fuel and petrochemical industry has created a ‘sacrifice zone’ in Louisiana,” Juhasz said in a prepared statement. “The failure of state and federal authorities to properly regulate the industry has dire consequences for residents of Cancer Alley.”

Fossil fuel executive leads environmental agency

Gray, Louisiana’s new natural resources secretary, spent seven years with the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association (LMOGA), his final two years as the lobbying group’s president. During his tenure with LMOGA, Gray helped draft the controversial 2018 law that criminalizes protesting near the oil and gas pipelines and construction sites.

Anne Rolfes with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, a grassroots non-profit focused on accountability in the petrochemical industry, has a grim outlook on Louisiana’s future – and its past.

”The state has never stood up to the oil industry,” Rolfes said. “Under every administration, there is this myopic idea of destroying our state via the oil and gas industry is somehow economic development.”

Not surprisingly, Landry’s pick of Gray was lauded by his successor at LMOGA.

“This appointment marks the start of a new era for our state’s oil and gas industry,” the group’s president, Mike Moncla, wrote In a prepared statement, adding: “We know that he will be an incredible asset for our industry.”

Neither Landry nor Gray’s office responded to multiple requests for comments.

Landry picks have oil, gas and coal ties

Gray is one of several former fossil fuel executives Landry has selected to lead Louisiana’s environmental efforts.

Tony Alford, the former co-owner and president of a Houma-based oilfield service company that was accused of spilling toxic waste in a Montana lawsuit, is now the chairman of the governor’s Advisory Commission on Coastal Protection. And Benjamin Bienvenu, an oil industry executive and petroleum engineer, is serving as the commissioner of conservation within the department of energy and natural resources.

Landry also tapped Aurelia Giacometto to lead the state’s department of environmental quality. Giacometto, former head of the US Fish and Wildlife Service under Donald Trump, sits on the board of a coal company.

And Landry’s pick for the state’s new leader for the department of wildlife and fisheries, Madison Sheahan, doesn’t have a background in wildlife – or fisheries. She formerly worked as the executive director of the South Dakota Republican party and managed Trump’s re-election campaign in that state. The agency led by Sheahan is one of the state entities responsible for investigating oil spills.

As the state’s attorney general, Landry sued the Environmental Protection Agency over its “disparate-impact” rules designed to better regulate emissions in communities of color in areas such as Cancer Alley. A Trump-appointed federal district judge in western Louisiana recently sided with Landry on that lawsuit.

Angelle Bradford, a spokesperson with the Delta chapter of the Sierra Club, said Landry’s moves show “Louisiana is not taking the climate crisis seriously”.

Bradford added: “It’s once again the usual Good Ol’ Boy mentality where we’re putting people in positions who not only won’t follow the rules but create rules that make it harder for the other side, which is us.”

Floodlight is a non-profit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action.