BATON ROUGE (AP) — U.S. Sen. David Vitter called on the Jindal administration Friday for stronger leadership in a dispute between landowners and the oil and gas industry over how cleanup of environmental damage from drilling years ago should be handled.

More than a dozen bills have been filed on the issue of “legacy lawsuits,” with the first measures set for a hearing next week.

The Louisiana Oil and Gas Association claims frivolous lawsuits over cleanup are stifling exploration in the state and killing potential job creation.

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s natural resources secretary, Scott Angelle, has said he’s trying to hammer out a compromise. Vitter said Angelle’s approach has been “pretty one-sided,” supporting trial lawyers who represent landowners and who stand to profit from ongoing litigation.

The Republican senator sent Angelle a letter Friday urging him to back several provisions in legislation sought by the oil and gas industry.

“I think it’s imperative that we solve this problem during this legislative session. Failure to do so will confirm many people’s impression that the current discussions are just a delaying tactic on the part of some to protect the legal status quo,” Vitter wrote in the letter.

“That status quo is nothing more than trial lawyer bonanza and an economic development disaster for our state,” he said.

Legacy lawsuits, often totaling millions of dollars, are filed by landowners who leased their property to energy companies and claim environmental damage for the drilling on their land, like contamination of ground water resources.

The issue puts Jindal uncomfortably in the midst of a dispute between multiple sets of powerful lobbying groups and campaign donors.

A key Louisiana industry is on one side and on the other side is the governor’s former top lawyer, Jimmy Faircloth, and Jindal’s big-money contributor Roy O. Martin, whose company is the largest private landowner in the state with thousands of acres and pending legacy lawsuits.

“I’m sure Scott Angelle will give the senator’s advice the consideration it deserves,” said Frank Collins, a spokesman for the governor. He said talks are close to an agreement that will make polluters, not independent producers, responsible for cleanup.

This isn’t the only issue this legislative session on which the state’s top two Republican leaders have been at odds. A day earlier, Vitter criticized Jindal’s proposal to use $230 million in one-time money to pay for ongoing state expenses in the upcoming 2012-13 budget year. Vitter called that poor fiscal policy, similar to budgeting maneuvers in Washington.

Vitter, who also had copies of the letter sent to state lawmakers, said he hoped his letter to Angelle would provoke more meaningful negotiations.

“I get the impression that Scott’s approach is pretty one-sided. I think Scott’s sided with the trial lawyers so far,” Vitter said in an interview.

Lawmakers, who had hoped a compromise brokered by the Jindal administration could be reached behind the scenes, are planning a public hearing Monday in the Senate Natural Resources Committee to hash out the issues.

Vitter suggested the hands-off approach, trying to get an agreement between two sides that are sharply divided on the issue wasn’t an appropriate route.

“This is a problem. I think it should be solved. On big issues, we rarely demand that everybody who has a strong opinion on it hold hands on a solution,” Vitter said.

Six years ago, lawmakers gave new power to the state Department of Natural Resources in devising cleanup plans and the costs associated with that.

Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, or LOGA, said that new authority hasn’t helped settle cleanup disputes.

He said more than 270 lawsuits are pending with over 1,500 defendants, and he accused trial lawyers of dragging out cases to force companies — particularly small and independent producers — to settle rather than pay for the legal costs of continuing litigation.

Landowners say they want to remediate property, but also want to preserve legal rights over damage claims. They disagree with LOGA’s push to center primary jurisdiction for these cases in Baton Rouge, rather than in local courts, arguing it was an attempt to manipulate the outcome of litigation.

Vitter said the cleanup should be overseen by the Department of Environmental Quality, rather than Angelle’s department, striking at complaints that DNR would have a conflict in trying to promote and police the oil and gas industry at the same time.

In his letter, Vitter also said legislation should encourage site operators to take responsibility for cleaning up contamination in a process in which DEQ would develop the cleanup plan. That plan would then be admissible in court if landowners pursue separate lawsuits for damage liability.

Landowners don’t want those cleanup reports submitted as evidence unless the state decides to intervene in a lawsuit.