In a setback for environmental justice advocates, the Biden administration has closed a civil rights investigation of two Louisiana state agencies without finding discrimination in how the agencies regulated chemical plants in area known as “Cancer Alley.”
about the chances novel legal initiatives have of surviving court challenges. That may have played a role in the EPA’s decision, but it also raises the risk of emboldening Republican-led states to resist Biden administration efforts to enforce civil rights law, Simms said.
“It will not help the residents here. They know that we are the targets of these industries,” Taylor said, adding that chemical companies and their political supporters “brag that we are the low-hanging fruit. We have the least protection. And now the federal government can’t provide protection.” The area known as Cancer Alley winds for 85 miles along the Mississippi between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Black schools and churches frequently sit near petrochemical plants and industrial sites, which are often built on former plantation land and situated to take advantage of access to oil, gas and major ports.
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