INSTITUTE INDEX: Big Oil aims to kill Louisiana coastal damage lawsuit

Number of oil and gas companies being sued by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East in a bid to make them pay billions of dollars to repair the damage they've done to the state's coast: 97

Percent of Louisiana's coastal land loss attributed to activities of the oil and gas industry: 36 to 80

Year in which Louisiana voters created the authority, which has an eastern and western division, to shield flood protection efforts from political interference: 2006

Percent of voters who approved the constitutional amendment that allowed the authority's creation: 81

Date on which Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), who opposes the oil industry lawsuit, announced that two authority members who supported the lawsuit wouldn't be reappointed: 9/13/2013

Rank of oil and gas interests among the largest industry contributors to Jindal's campaign: 1

Number of bills that Louisiana state Sen. Robert Adley, a Bossier Parish Republican and former wildcat oil driller, has filed in the current legislative session to kill the lawsuit: 5

Number of years Adley owned Pelican Gas Management, which manages natural gas supplies for small towns through contracts with the state gas authority: 20

Year in which Adley left that business to become a consultant for gas companies: 2012

Rank of oil and gas interests among the biggest industry contributors to Adley's campaigns: 1

Amount Adley raised at his most recent annual fundraiser held at a Baton Rouge house owned by the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association: $15,000 to $20,000

Dozens of "high priced" oil and gas lobbyists working to help Adley kill the lawsuit: 4

Year in which Adley tried unsuccessfully to pass a bill shutting down the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic after oil, gas and chemical industry representatives complained to him about the lawsuits it filed against companies: 2010

Date on which a Louisiana Senate committee chaired by Adley unanimously approved one of his bills to kill the lawsuit: 4/3/2014

Amount it will take to fund Louisiana's 50-year master plan for rebuilding the coast, which a legal settlement with the oil and gas industry could help pay for: $50 billion

If nothing is done to slow the present rate of land loss, number of years in which Louisiana will have lost all of its coastal wetlands habitat: about 200

(Click on figure to go to source.)