Retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré called on Gov. John Bel Edwards and Louisiana’s Legislature to force oil companies to seal the roughly 4,600 abandoned oil wells around the state, during a demonstration in Lafayette last week.
Honoré also said Edwards should remove a number of appointees from the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, as well as remove Louisiana’s Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association from the Oilfield Site Restoration Commission, which oversees the state’s abandoned well program, The Daily Advertiser reports.
Honoré, a Pointe Coupée Parish native who led the military response to Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago, has been an advocate for protecting Louisiana’s environment since his retirement from the Army in 2008. Earlier this year, he was appointed to lead an investigation into the U.S. Capitol Police’s response to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
Honoré insisted that taxpayer money not be spent to seal the wells. To that end, he argued that oil and gas companies should not be allowed to shift the wells to shell companies that can then file bankruptcy and dump the burden of sealing the wells onto the state’s Oilfield Site Restoration Commission. Read the full story.
