Governor announces near‑settlement with ConocoPhillips to unlock coastal restoration funding

Governor (Office of the Governor) announced to the Governor's Advisory Council in Lafourche Parish that the state is "words away" from resolving long‑standing coastal litigation with ConocoPhillips, a deal he said would unlock major funding, grant the state access to strategic coastal acreage held by a ConocoPhillips subsidiary, and accelerate shoreline restoration and storm‑surge protections.

The announcement, delivered at the meeting by the governor, named three concrete outcomes: access to about 150,000 acres held by a ConocoPhillips subsidiary (referred to in the transcript as Louisiana Land and Exploration); the prospect of roughly $480,000,000 in federal funding the governor said would flow to coastal projects; and advancement of a large coastal land‑bridge and storm‑surge barrier, which he described as a 94‑mile project with an estimated cost of $2,000,000,000.

"This resolution will unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in coastal investment," the governor said, adding that ConocoPhillips would contribute to the Coastal Trust Fund and that the agreement would expand access to nearly 50 coast‑wide reference monitoring sites across five parishes. He told the council the state has more coastal projects in concept, engineering and construction than at any prior time in state history and framed coastal restoration and hurricane protection as linked goals.

The governor framed the agreement as the product of negotiations involving state officials, the attorney general's office and private energy companies. He cited prior settlements with Shell and Apache and said he has "put my signature on it," while urging leadership from the 12 coastal parishes to complete "the final signatures" required to move projects into construction and permitting. He emphasized federal and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers partnership on permitting and delivery.

The announcement did not record a formal vote or a council action to approve the settlement. Several implementation items the governor listed — land access, federal funding, permitting and parish sign‑offs — remain contingent on signatures, permitting decisions and follow‑through by partner agencies. The governor said projects were "shovel ready" once those steps were complete.

The council proceeded to roll call after the governor's remarks. No additional formal actions on the settlement were recorded on the transcript during this session.

Next steps: parish signatures and standard permitting by federal and state agencies, the governor said, are required before the projects move from planning to construction.