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Gov. Jeff Landry appeared at one of the country’s most controversial chemical plants on Monday to announce his administration’s legal challenge to a new federal rule aimed at reducing cancer risks, but which he says will unnecessarily hurt jobs and the economy.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule, announced by the Biden administration in April, would require major emissions reductions from plants up and down the Mississippi River and elsewhere in the state and nation.
The rule would cut emissions of six likely human carcinogens from 51 chemical plants and refineries in Louisiana and, across the nation, eliminate tens of thousands of tons of toxic and smog-forming air pollutants. The smog reductions alone would save nearly $770 million in health costs, federal regulators say.
Flanked by the state’s attorney general, environmental chief and others, however, Landry decried EPA’s application of the new rule on Denka Performance Elastomer, a Reserve chemical plant that has been the frequent focus of the Biden administration. He also detailed new legal action against the federal agency.
NOLA.com
