Louisiana is being slowly devoured by water. Hardly anyone disputes that. But beyond a shared sense of creeping panic, there’s little common ground in the state.

As over 2,000 miles of coast have been eaten away over the last 80 or so years, the state and federal government, oil and gas companies, activists and residents battled and bickered over funding the future of the state’s coast. So far, little has been accomplished.

John Barry, an author cum activist, hopes to change that.

Last July, Barry — then a member of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority–East (SLFPA-e), a small Louisiana agency that oversees flood protection systems around New Orleans — helped lead the authority in filing suit against nearly 100 oil and gas companies. He and his cohort alleged that the companies, which ranged from state-based pipeline service providers to subsidiaries of multinational corporations like ExxonMobil, were responsible for decades of degradation to Louisiana’s coast. They said through exploration, canal dredging and drilling, the companies destroyed much of the state’s coast. And they claimed that as the governmental body tasked with overseeing flood protection for the New Orleans area, they had a responsibility to restore that coast in order to better prevent Louisiana's low-lying areas from being inundated during storms.

Over the last seven months, the lawsuit has burgeoned from a shot in the dark to a symbol of Louisiana’s future. Supporters say the suit proves that Louisiana is ready to move beyond an era when Texaco’s flag flew above the state Capitol. Detractors say it will scare away investment from the state.

Now as Barry waits for a federal judge to decide whether the suit should proceed in federal or state court, the government of Louisiana is in a race to stop the lawsuit in its tracks. With a new legislative session beginning this week and several bills that would kill the lawsuit slated for votes, he and his supporters fear they are running out of time. They say their only hope is that a judge gets to the lawsuit before legislators do.

“This is what the law is for,” said Barry, whose former life as a mostly reclusive author has been overtaken by his current role as the lawsuit’s most vocal defender. “The principal of American society is everybody is equal before the law. The idea that the legislature could intervene and kill the lawsuit — that, frankly, is a little daunting.”