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T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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S at u r d ay, a p r i l 5, 2025
Jury orders Chevron to pay $745 million
Money to restore area of coastal wetlands
$2.00X
Markets plunge for second day S&P 500 down 6%, Dow down 2,200 after China retaliates against Trump tariffs BY STAN CHOE Associated Press
NEW YORK — Wall Street’s worst crisis since COVID slammed into a higher gear Friday. The S&P 500 lost 6% after China matched President Donald Trump’s big raise in tariffs announced earlier this week. The move increased the stakes in a trade war that could end with a recession that hurts everyone. Not even a betterthan-expected report on the U.S. job market, which is usually the economic highlight of each month, was enough to stop the slide. The drop closed the worst week for the S&P 500 since March 2020, when the pandemic ripped through the global economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 2,231 points, or 5.5% and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 5.8% to pull more than 20% below its record set in December. So far there have been few, if any, winners in financial markets from the trade war. Stocks for all but 14 of the 500 companies within the S&P 500 index fell Friday. The price of crude oil tumbled
ä See MARKETS, page 4A
STAFF FILE PHOTO By MARK SCHLEIFSTEIN
Oilfield and navigation canals cut through wetlands on the the west bank of Plaquemines Parish. BY ALEX LUBBEN
Staff writer
A Plaquemines Parish jury ordered Chevron to pay $745 million in damages on Friday to restore an area of Louisiana coastal wetlands, a landmark verdict likely to have wider implications on dozens of other similar lawsuits. The case was the first to go to trial among 41 parish lawsuits against oil companies seeking to hold them accountable for coastal damage. The verdict may influence how other cases proceed as Louisiana struggles to find badly needed money to address its accelerating land loss crisis in the years ahead. While coastal advocates welcomed the verdict as fair and a boost for wetlands restoration, oil and other business groups in Louisiana harshly condemned it, arguing it will harm the state’s economy in the long run. The total cost could be more than $1 billion once interest is calculated. Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration has been largely supportive of the oil and gas industry, but it intervened in the case on Plaquemines’ behalf opposing Chevron. Landry’s spokesperson referred questions to Attorney General Liz Murrill, who called the verdict “fair” and thanked jurors for their work.
STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Shrimper Acy Cooper said the industry has been struggling for 20 years.
La. shrimpers praise tariffs STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Attorney John H. Carmouche, front row second from right, and his team pose at the Plaquemines Parish Courthouse on Friday. The verdict was the culmination of a monthlong trial that played out at a courthouse in Pointe a la Hache. It pitted the Plaquemines Parish government, represented by lead attorney John Carmouche, of Baton Rouge-based law firm Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello, against oil giant Chevron, which was represented by a team of lawyers led by Mike Phillips. The lawsuit had been initially filed
After struggling to compete with imports, advocates optimistic
BY JOSIE ABUGOV
Staff writer
in 2013. “I think this was a great win for our community,” said Phil Cossich, an attorney on the team that represented Plaquemines Parish. “It’s been a long time coming. This could be a great step in saving our coast.” Chevron plans to appeal “to address the numerous legal errors that led to this unjust result,” Phillips,
After decades of plunging prices and a dwindling workforce, Louisiana shrimpers are cheering President Donald Trump’s tariffs on countries supplying the U.S. with almost all of its shrimp. The coastal industry has for years struggled to compete against cheap foreign imports and a pattern of fraudulent mislabeling at seafood restaurants. But shrimpers and advocates feel renewed optimism in Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs announced Wednesday. The shrimp industry’s reaction was one of the
ä See JURY, page 7A
ä See SHRIMPERS, page 4A
Edwards reaches tax revenue agreement with St. George Deal must be approved by council
BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer
East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sid Edwards has reached an agreement — which must still go before the Metro Council — with the new city of St. George on how to share tax revenue.
WEATHER HIGH 88 LOW 64 PAGE 8A
Edwards’ proposed intergovernmental agreement, made public Friday, would disburse sales tax revenue collected in St. George’s boundary since April 2024 and end a long back-and-forth of tense negotiations between the two governments. But it leaves unresolved the issue of whether Baton Rouge owes St. George $100 million in taxes reaching back to 2019, when voters approved creating the city.
Last year, that issue caused talks between then-Baton Rouge MayorPresident Sharon Weston Broome and St. George leaders to crumble. St. George Mayor Dustin Yates Edwards and City Councilman-elect Andrew Murrell have consistently maintained that their
city was incorporated in 2019 — a position that, if acknowledged in the agreement, could require East Baton Rouge Parish to pay St. George an estimated $100 million in sales tax collected from that year to 2024, Broome’s administration maintained. Since then, Edwards — who defeated Broome last December and took office as East Baton Rouge Parish’s mayor-president this year — resumed negotiations. His pro-
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posal avoids specifying an incorporation date — a move that would leave the door open for St. George to pursue that revenue through legal action. Edwards’ proposal instead addresses tax revenue collected since April 2024 as well as the transfer of services provided to St. George by the city-parish. “This Agreement is not intended
ä See EDWARDS, page 7A
100TH yEAR, NO. 279