In South Louisiana along Bayou Point Aux Chene separating Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, Anesie Verdin’s daughter and granddaughter prepare shrimp to be boiled, then dried as he takes us on a boat ride.

He shows us how coastal erosion is destroying his community and his way of life.

He points to a wide canal of water and says, “Right over here, you could barely pass with a pirogue,” 40 years ago when he was younger.

Verdin, a commercial fisherman, says back then, some places here were so thick with trees you could barely see through them.  When the oil industry cut canals into this area to get to its drilling sites, he says, things started changing.

He says those canals brought the equivalent of poison into the marsh:  saltwater from the gulf.

“The water flows in and bring all that saltwater,” Verdin says.

Dead oak trees in the marsh are skeletons of the past that Verdin describes.

The saltwater has killed their root systems as it destroys the marsh, turning canals into open waterways.

“Years back when I was younger, I remember every year they had some cuts all over,” Verdin says.   “And the cuts got wider and wider,” eating up more and more of the marsh.  

Many scientists say the army corps of engineers caused a lot of the destruction here when it leveed the Mississippi River, cutting off the sediment that used to flow in and build land.

But Tulane law professor Oliver Houck says the destruction turned more aggressive when oil was discovered in Plaquemines Parish.

“Before oil and gas, even after the main river levees, we were holding our own,” Professor Oliver Houck says. “Once we started drilling, we started collapsing.” 

You can see the damage from the air.  

You see vast, open waterways that began as canals, sliced into the marsh.

“There are ten thousand miles of those canals thru the marshes now,” Professor Houck says.  

Hurricane Gustav reminded South Louisiana that the loss of those wetlands has opened the door to the kind of storm surge that the marshes used to knock down before it led to flooding in our streets and homes.

“Oh they knocked it down enormously, knocked it down enormously,” Houck says.  “I mean three miles of wetlands is easily a foot in storm surge, easily.” 

Professor Houck argues the oil and gas industry is responsible for a big share of that land loss.

“Conservatively, total Louisiana, 50 percent of the total coastal loss being at the door of the oil and gas industry, and about 50 percent at the door of the (U. S. Army) Corps of Engineers, the Tulane law professor says. 

And he believes the oil and gas industry should pay a share of the tens of billions of dollars it will cost to fix the damage.

“Well I think it’s sort of an accepted maxim of American life, you break it you fix it,” says Houck.  “I mean somebody runs into your car, he pays for it.” 

However, the industry did not do anything illegal when it cut those canals into the marsh.

The government gave the industry permits to do it.

But Houck says this is no different than strip mining or hazardous waste sites.   They too were once allowed, and have now been ordered cleaned up.

“So we’ve set up a fund from today’s coal industry to pay for the damages that they’ve caused Appalachia and other well known regions of the country.  Weve done the same with hazardous chemicals, professor Houck says.  “We’ve got something called the superfund in which the industry pays into the fund and we try to clean up old sites.”  

He says the destruction of Louisiana’s wetlands and storm protection makes this region a superfund site.

“It’s catastrophic.  And this is what makes it so urgent today,” according to Houck. 

Anesie Verdin and the Principal Chief Brenda Dardar Robichaux of the United Houma Nation, whose people live in these coastal areas, agree that industry should help pay to fix this destruction.

“They have played a major role in saltwater intrusion, in the erosion that we’re seeing here,” says Chief Robichaux.   “They should be made to fix the damage that they’ve caused.”

How does the oil and gas industry respond to that?

“The fact of the matter is we are paying,” says industry spokesman Chris John. 

The industry pays billions of dollars in taxes to help in whatever, and it goes into the state coffers.

Chris John, a former congressman and now the president of Mid-Continent Oil and Gas, says the industry has paid Louisiana $17 billion in taxes over the past 20 years.

Of course, all businesses pay taxes.

And critics believe the oil and gas industry should pay directly to fix what it destroyed.

But John says, “I think they are paying in so many ways.  I mean this American Wetlands initiative where all of the oil and gas companies have partnered,” is just an example. 

Industry has joined with environmental groups and is bankrolling the America’s Wetlands Foundation campaign to raise awareness about the need to restore and protect what they describe as “America’s Energy Coast.”

But professor Houck is not impressed.

“It’s an industry lobby to get taxpayers to take the industry off the hook,” Houck says.  

Industry spokesman John argues Louisiana won’t succeed in repairing the eroding coast until people get past what he calls “finger pointing” and start working together to fix the damage.

But isn’t it true, he is asked, that the industry has been very involved in the destruction of the wetlands?

“Yeah well, I think you can certainly look at other industries that have been.  I mean the Corps of Engineers,” John says.  “I mean agriculture, urbanization.”

It is fair to say that Louisiana’s political establishment -- including Gov. Bobby Jindal -- agrees with the oil and gas industry.

Jindal’s point man on coastal issues -- Garret Graves -- even uses the same expressions as the industry.

“Look we’re not pointing fingers at this point in time,” Graves says.  “We have a huge problem in terms of being able to restore our coast and protect our citizens. We’re working with the energy industry, together trying to try to get this done.”

Why isn’t the industry pressed to pay directly to repair damage that it caused?           

“Well I think they are,” says Graves. “Again Congress has enacted these programs, and they are derived 100 percent from offshore oil and gas energy royalties rents, bonus bids.  And they are paying funds.”

What he refers to is money the industry pays to government for the right to drill.

But Chief Brenda Dardar Robichaux says, “I don’t think that’s enough.  It’s pretty obvious that they haven’t done enough, you know, just look around” at the eroding marsh.

Louisiana’s political establishment argues that partnering with industry is the smart response to the state’s catastrophic losses.

But Chief Robichaux’s husband, former state senator Mike Robichaux disagrees.

He says political leaders are going along with the industry “because the oil industry is so powerful if you don’t do it, they’ll give money to your political opponents.  There’s just no question about that.”

Yet industry has a vested interest in making repairs:  a vast network or pipelines increasingly exposed and vulnerable to damage.

And at a time when oil and gas is making tens of billions in profits, and the U.S. economy is in critical condition, Professor Houck believes now more than ever industry must pay for its damage.

“The new urgency is the federal government doesn’t have the money,” he says.   “They’re collapsing as fast as our coast.”

And yet Chris John makes it clear industry would wage war against any effort to make it pay.

“You try to blame someone,” he says.  “You’re not going to get anywhere, it’s going to be in court.”

He knows as well as the people whose way of life is vanishing, Louisiana doesn’t have time for a prolonged court fight.

Chief Robichaux says, “I think about that little girl that was sitting on the bank,” preparing shrimp to be boiled.  “Will there even be a community left that she can share stories about growing up here.  I feel that it’s that fragile.”

Since Katrina, the state estimates repair work has restored a little more than 20 square miles of wetlands.

Environmentalists say Katrina, other storms and daily erosion have washed away 300 square miles in the same period.

That means an increasing the threat of flooding from storm surge.