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☆ Environmental Protection Agency Limits Pollution From Chemical Plants
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-09 | by ( Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

More than 200 chemical plants across the country will be required to curb the toxic pollutants they release into the air under a regulation announced by the Biden administration on Tuesday. The regulation is aimed at reducing the risk of cancer for people living near industrial sites. This is the first time in nearly two decades that the government has tightened limits on pollution from chemical plants. The new rule, from the Environmental Protection Agency, specifically targets ethylene oxide, which is used to sterilize medical devices, and chloroprene, which is used to make rubber in footwear. They are considered a top health concern in an area of Louisiana so dense with petrochemical and refinery plants that it is known as Cancer Alley.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Environmental Protection Agency Locations: Louisiana

The gubernatorial election was decided in October when Jeff Landry, a Republican backed by former President Trump, won outright and avoided a runoff. Voters will cast ballots this weekend to determine the winners of a slew of other races, including three vacant, statewide offices: attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer. Democrats hope to gain a statewide office in the reliably red state as the GOP tries to retain its current offices. The secretary of state race will be closely watched after GOP incumbent Kyle Ardoin declined to seek reelection. Republican Landry is a former state representative from Lafayette and has worked in Ardoin’s office for four years.

Persons: Donald Trump, runoffs, Jeff Landry, Trump, didn't, Republicans “, ” Trump, John Fleming, Dustin Granger, Kyle Ardoin, Nancy Landry, Gwen Collins, Greenup, Republican Landry, Democrat Collins, Alice Lee Grosjean, Huey P, Long, State James Bailey, Landry, Liz Murrill, Joe Biden's, Lindsey Cheek, Cheek Organizations: —, Democratic, Republican, GOP, Republicans, Louisiana Republican Party, Democrat, Ardoin, State, of Elementary Locations: BATON ROUGE, La, Louisiana, Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge

For more than a year, the Environmental Protection Agency investigated whether Louisiana officials discriminated against Black residents by putting them at increased cancer risk. As attorney general, Landry fought the EPA’s investigation. Health officials, for example, wanted the unilateral power to decide if and when they had to do the EPA-proposed analysis. The AP reviewed a draft agreement edited by state health officials and sent to EPA in May, reflecting negotiations at the time. It has not reviewed any draft agreement that would show what Louisiana's environmental agency might have been willing to accept.

Persons: Biden, Eric Schaeffer, it’s, Schaeffer, Republican Jeff Landry, Landry, Deena Tumeh, Tumeh, “, ”, ” Tumeh, Kevin Litten, VI, Sharon, Lavigne, James, Michael Regan, It's, Stacey Sublett Halliday, Beveridge, Diamond, ” Sublett Halliday Organizations: Environmental Protection Agency, The Associated Press, EPA’s, Civil, Louisiana, Republican, EPA, Louisiana Department of Environmental, Louisiana Department of Health, Health, AP, Cancer, Associated Press, Walton Family Foundation Locations: Louisiana, chloroprene, St

☆ New Top Cop at the E.P.A. Aims to Get Enforcement Back on Track
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

And last month, the E.P.A. In his first interview since his July 20 confirmation, Mr. Uhlmann said he was intent on increasing the number of administrative actions as well as the criminal and civil cases that the E.P.A. brings for violations of environmental law. intends to announce enforcement priorities, with a new emphasis on greenhouse gas emissions. The agency said it would focus on making sure that oil and gas wells, landfills and other facilities did not leak methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Persons: Uhlmann, ” Organizations: University of Michigan Law School Locations: Louisiana, E.P.A, America, United States

☆ 'We are being poisoned': Black residents living in Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' say the state is guilty of 'genocide' and environmental racism
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Trisha Gopal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Black residents living in the area have a disproportionate lifetime cancer risk. The complaint alleged that the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality discriminated against Black residents by issuing permits that authorized new industrial facilities. Last year, the EPA announced a critical civil-rights investigation into Louisiana, looking into whether the state had violated the rights of Black residents in Cancer Alley. Smoke billows from a chemical plant in the area along 'Cancer Alley', October 12, 2013. "Once we came up with Cancer Alley, industry hated it, and they've been trying to prove that it's not a reality," he said.

Persons: Sharon Lavigne, James, Lavigne, " Lavigne, Andrew Lichtenstein, Michael Regan, Regan, Matthew, Giles Clarke, Deena Tumeh, Earthjustice, Darryl Malek, Wiley, they've, Kimberly Terrell, Terrell, I'm, James Parish, Pamela Spees, Spees, Malek, " Malek, I've Organizations: EPA, Service, Cancer, Getty, Civil, Inclusive, Brigade, Louisiana Department of Environmental, Center for Public Integrity, Environmental, Sierra Club, Atomic Workers Union, Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, Louisiana Tumor, Shell Oil Co, Cancer Alley, Formosa Plastics, Center for Constitutional Rights, Mount Triumph Baptist Church, Local Locations: Louisiana, St, James Parish, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Inclusive Louisiana, Black, Cancer Alley, Baton Rouge, Cancer, Formosa

☆ Opinion | Communities of Color Have Suffered Environmental Injustice for Far Too Long
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Nick Tabor | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

For decades, Democrats have talked about using a “whole-government approach” to reduce the environmental hazards that so many minority communities face. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed an executive order to address environmental justice and ensure that low-income citizens and minorities do not suffer a disproportionate burden of industrial pollution. Federal action could also have mitigated the risks for disease in places like Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.”Instead, minority communities throughout the United States have continued to suffer disproportionately. This time around, ‌there will also be ‌an Environmental Justice Scorecard, designed to ‌concretely measure what each federal agency is doing — so the departments can be held to certain benchmarks. The White House is seizing on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as a chance to fund environmental justice projects.

Persons: Bill Clinton, Jackson, Biden Organizations: Environmental, White, Law Locations: Alabama, Flint, Mich, Miss, United States, ‌, Detroit, Jackson

☆ DOJ Sues Louisiana Chemicals Plant Over Emissions With High Cancer Risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Talal Ansari | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Denka’s facility in LaPlace, La., is in an industrial corridor sometimes referred to as “Cancer Alley,” because of the elevated cancer risks among communities there. The Justice Department sued a chemical manufacturing company in an industrial area of southern Louisiana, saying it must cut emissions of a carcinogenic material. The DOJ filed the lawsuit against Denka Performance Elastomer LLC on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency stating that the company’s neoprene plant in LaPlace, La., along the Mississippi River, disproportionately exposed Black residents to the chemical chloroprene.

“The government is obviously failing us and not protecting us,” said Taylor, who evacuated from St. John before Hurricane Ida hit. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention categorizes St. John and St. James as a community with high levels of Covid-19 transmission. Prior to Ida, at least 16% of residents in St. James Parish and St. John Parish were living below the poverty line, according to Census data. One of their biggest fights was against the Taiwanese plastics manufacturer Formosa, which was set to build a $9.4 billion petrochemical complex in St. James Parish. While the battle to block the multibillion-dollar facility isn’t over, Hurricane Ida added to the community’s problems.

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