The Disappearing Delta

Fault Lines investigates the role of the fossil fuel industry in Louisiana’s disappearing coastline—and examines a new frontier of oil exploration: fracking in the Gulf of Mexico.

Louisiana is a state simultaneously dependent on the fossil fuel industry and deeply impacted by climate change brought on in part by its activity.

Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, land continues to disappear from under some of America’s first climate refugees. Louisiana pledged $50 billion to save the rapidly vanishing coastline, but the state is struggling to find the money.

A series of lawsuits could change that equation and hold the world’s largest oil companies accountable for their role in the environmental crisis. Meanwhile, watchdogs say that regulators have fast-tracked approvals for fracking operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Fault Lines explores Louisiana's ambitious restoration plan, the fate of its coastal communities and how the offshore fracking boom could impact both.