APNewsBreak: Vitter pressing Jindal on lawsuits

(AP) ? U.S. Sen. David Vitter called on the Jindal administration Friday for stronger leadership in a dispute between landowners and the oil and gas industry over how cleanup of environmental damage from drilling years ago should be handled. The Louisiana Oil and Gas Association claims frivolous lawsuits over cleanup are stifling exploration in the state and killing potential job creation. The Republican senator sent Angelle a letter Friday urging him to back several provisions in legislation sought by the oil and gas industry. Legacy lawsuits, often totaling millions of dollars, are filed by landowners who leased their property to energy companies and claim environmental damage for the drilling on their land, like contamination of ground water resources. A key Louisiana industry is on one side and on the other side is the governor's former top lawyer, Jimmy Faircloth, and Jindal's big-money contributor Roy O. Martin, whose company is the largest private landowner in the state with thousands of acres and pending legacy lawsuits. Vitter said the cleanup should be overseen by the Department of Environmental Quality, rather than Angelle's department, striking at complaints that DNR would have a conflict in trying to promote and police the oil and gas industry at the same time.

moller m200x aviation software companies arinc 826