NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill says the first day of oral arguments in Plaquemine Parish’s case against Chevron centered on whether the case could stay in federal court and what would happen if it does.

Previously, a state jury ordered Chevron to pay upward of $740 million to clean up damage to the state’s coastline, one of multiple similar lawsuits. Backed by the Trump administration, Chevron and others had asked that the lawsuits be considered in the federal court system. They said that allegations raised by Plaquemines Parish pertained to World War II-era oil production, when the industry was working to quickly increase the supply of aviation gasoline for the U.S. government.

In April, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the case should be heard in federal court. 

Murrill spoke to members of the New Orleans news media outside the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Wednesday afternoon after arguments were held for the civil case.

"Chevron obviously wants to wipe out the judgment we obtained in state court and we think whether we're in federal court or not, that judgment still survives," Murrill said. "There's still sticky procedural questions that we talked about today."

She said the core issue goes beyond court procedure.

"But the truth is, Chevron has never denied that it dumped 4 billion gallons of toxic wastewater in our marsh and that is really what they're trying to avoid is responsibility for what they don't deny they did," Murrill said.

Murrill said the state already proved its case at trial and Chevron has not been able to explain its position.

"Our statute requires us to show that they engaged in unlawful conduct both before and after the permitting regime came into effect and we proved that at trial and they still never been able to explain why they don't want to take responsibility for the toxic waste they dumped into our marsh," she said.

Murrill believes the procedural questions being argued will not change the outcome of the judgment the state already obtained against Chevron.

Gov. Jeff Landry, who also attended the oral arguments, commented on the timing of Chevron's defense of the lawsuit.

“It's amazing to me at a time when Americans are paying obnoxious amounts of money for gasoline, companies like Chevron are raking in billions of dollars of profit and that they’re going to spend millions of dollars on lawyers here in federal court, never denying that they polluted Louisiana’s marshes, only that they should not foot the bill for the cleanup, that the Louisiana tax payers should,” Landry said.