HOUSTON─In the past few years, legal hurdles have become deeply embedded in the foundation of Louisiana’s oil and gas industry. In fact, Gifford Briggs, the vice president of governmental affairs for the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association (LOGA), says lawsuits are the single biggest issue that producers in the state face.

To emphasize his point, Briggs said that Louisiana has “the second-worst legal climate in the United States,” according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Tort Reform Association.

“We’ve been the target since really 2003 of a long series of lawsuits, whether you want to call them frivolous or abusive. Certainly, it’s created a legal climate that’s driving investment out of the state of Louisiana,” Briggs said at the NAPE South summer exposition on Aug. 20.

Like a swarm of angry yellow jackets, the lawsuits are swooping in from many directions. In particular, Briggs cites legacy lawsuits, legal challenges from flood-protection authorities and legal claims filed by local governments.

According to Briggs, legacy lawsuits geared up in 2003 when a land owner was “awarded about $72 million for a 120-acre piece of property valued at about $100,000.” In legacy lawsuits, land owners claim that oil and gas operations result in contamination and pollution of their properties.

Today, 275 such lawsuits have been filed with between 10 to 20 producers named as defendants. The number of defendants is so great because plaintiffs list all parties that have been in the chain of title, Briggs said.

“This is having a tremendous impact, obviously, on investment in the state of Louisiana─particularly in South Louisiana,” Briggs said.

While some legislative progress has been made in toning down these lawsuits, Briggs says the situation still remains unsteady. “Every year we feel like we make good progress in passing legislation, and ultimately it gets in the hands of the courts. The courts end up taking the legislation and interpreting it in a way that was never intended. So we have this never-ending cycle, and we’re not able to make the progress that we really need to be able to make.”

The deluge of lawsuits, however, does not end with land owners. In 2013 the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority East, a board that governs three levee districts in the New Orleans area, filed a lawsuit against 97 oil and gas companies. The lawsuit seeks $10 billion in damages for deterioration of the coast. The plaintiffs contend that oil and gas activities have caused coastal erosion, and because of that inland areas are more prone to hurricane damage.

If the authority ultimately wins the lawsuit, “the next step would be that any damage from a hurricane in the area would be the responsibility of the oil and gas industry,” Briggs said.

The industry, at least for time being, made some headway when the Legislature passed a bill that forbids flood-protection authorities from filing lawsuits. “It puts back into law what we believe was already there in the first place,” Briggs said, adding that legal challenges to the legislation have since been filed. “It’s in a federal court now. It will probably be a year or two, if not longer, before we have a final ruling.”

The oil and gas industry in Louisiana is also dealing with lawsuits from local governmental entities, according to Briggs. Last year, Plaquemines and Jefferson parishes, which snuggle up next to the Gulf of Mexico, filed 28 lawsuits against the oil and gas industry. The legal claims cite coastal damage.

“They are basically saying that if you have ever dug a canal in coastal Louisiana that it is your responsibility to put that canal back to the way it was before you got there,” Briggs said. The lawsuits are ongoing and name 242 defendants, he added.

LOGA, according to Briggs, is involved in writing legislation to fight this type of lawsuit. “We believe that this is the biggest potential issue for the oil and gas industry—bigger than legacy, bigger than the flood-protection authorities,” he said.

“This subject could not get a hearing in the 2014 legislative session. This is an issue we will see again, probably not in 2015 because we’re in an election-cycle time. But in 2016, those lawsuits will probably be the biggest focus of that legislative session.”

Briggs’ lawsuit lamentations ended with this tale: Remember those Louisiana Republicans who were chanting “drill baby drill” with Sarah Palin during her failed run for the vice presidency? That iconic moment happened in St. Tammany Parish, which Briggs calls “probably the most conservative parish in the state of Louisiana.”

The conservative enclave, however, has adopted the mantra of “not on my land.” The parish has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to prevent New Orleans-based Helis Oil & Gas from hydrofracking in the area.

“They don’t want oil and gas activity in their community. They don’t mind the revenue, they just don’t want the actual activity,” Briggs quipped.