La. Pollution Cases Remanded for Failure to Satisfy Federal-Officer Removal Statute

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge has remanded seven pollution cases filed against various oil and gas producers and refiners, ruling that removal under the federal-officer removal statute was improper because defendants failed to show that the federal government asserted the requisite “subjection, guidance, or control” over their activities.

In a Dec. 13 order, Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana further found “defendants did not show their alleged conduct in oil production has anything more than an attenuated connection to their actions under the direction of a federal officer.”

The …