The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a new rule requiring over 200 chemical plants across the country to reduce toxic emissions that can cause cancer. This rule aligns with President Joe Biden's commitment to environmental justice and aims to protect communities burdened by industrial pollution. The affected facilities are located in Texas, Louisiana, the Ohio River Valley, West Virginia, and the upper South, benefiting a majority-Black town in Louisiana visited by EPA Administrator Michael Regan in 2021.
Updated: 16 minutes agoThe Fifth Ward Elementary School and residential neighborhoods sit near the Denka Performance Elastomer Plant in Reserve, La. By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press
Areas that will benefit from the new rule include majority-Black neighborhoods outside New Orleans that EPA Administrator Michael Regan visited as part of his 2021 Journey to Justice tour. The rule will significantly reduce emissions of chloroprene and other harmful pollutants at the Denka Performance Elastomer facility in LaPlace, Louisiana, the largest source of chloroprene emissions in the country, Regan said.
Democratic Rep. Troy Carter, whose Louisiana district includes the Denka plant, called the new rule “a monumental step” to safeguard public health and the environment. The new rule will slash more than 6,200 tons of toxic air pollutants annually and implement fenceline monitoring, the EPA said, addressing health risks in surrounding communities and promoting environmental justice in Louisiana and other states.
“EPA’s rulemaking is yet another attempt to drive a policy agenda that is unsupported by the law or the science,” Denka said in a statement, adding that the agency has alleged its facility “represents a danger to its community, despite the facility’s compliance with its federal and state air permitting requirements.”
Regan said the rule issued Tuesday was separate from the civil rights investigation. He called the rule “very ambitious,’’ adding that officials took care to ensure “that we protect all of these communities, not just those in Cancer Alley, but communities in Texas and Puerto Rico and other areas that are threatened by these hazardous air toxic pollutants.’’
EPA Chemical Plants Toxic Emissions Cancer Environmental Justice Industrial Pollution Chloroprene
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