In Washington, D.C., Friday, the Justice Department was proud to announce that it had dropped a federal lawsuit against a Louisiana petrochemical plant that was accused of raising cancer risks for people in a mostly Black neighborhood. The department said that the decision showed that they were “delivering on President (Donald) Trump’s promise to dismantle radical DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs and restore integrity to federal enforcement efforts.”
Justice said in a statement that the Trump administration’s decision to drop the two-year-old case on Wednesday showed its determination to “eliminate ideological overreach and restore impartial enforcement of federal laws.”
The Environmental Protection Agency also took back its official request to send the case to the Justice Department at the same time. The agency said the move was in line with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s promise to stop using “environmental justice” as a way to enforce the law. Zeldin was accused of using this tool too often to achieve liberal political goals.
The case was thrown out, which hurt one of former President Joe Biden’s most visible environmental justice targets. The goal of this effort was to improve conditions in places that have been hurt more than others by decades of industrial waste. In early 2023, Biden’s EPA sued the Denka Performance Elastomer plant, saying it was too dangerous for workers to get cancer and asking them to cut down on harmful emissions of chloroprene, which causes cancer.
The case was brought in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, but it was officially dropped on Wednesday.
This is one of many steps the Trump administration has taken to quickly turn away from Biden’s focus on environmental justice. About 170 staff members who worked on that issue have been put on paid leave. The company has been fighting government lawsuits and investigations for years over its effect on public health. Dropping the Denka case takes some of the pressure off of them.
Ten years ago, Denka, a company based in Japan, bought the old DuPont plant in LaPlace, Louisiana. It is in a town about 30 miles outside of New Orleans, close to an elementary school.
Neoprene is a type of synthetic rubber that is made at this spot and can be found in things like wetsuits and laptop sleeves. In early 2023, the Justice Department sued the company, saying it was giving off too much chloroprene, a chemical that is especially bad for kids. A bench hearing was set to happen in April by a judge.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson, who is in charge of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said that the case’s dismissal shows the department’s “renewed commitment to enforce environmental laws as Congress intended—consistently, fairly, and without regard to race.”
Zeldin, a former Republican congressman who took over the EPA at the end of January, said that firing the official was “a step toward making sure that environmental enforcement is in line with the law.” As part of the EPA’s main job, they make sure that all Americans have access to clean air. They can do this within the limits of the law and without breaking what is called “environmental justice.”
Denka said that the dismissal was “long overdue” and that the lawsuit, which it said had no scientific or legal basis, was over. The company said the case was a “attack that drains our business.”
The company said in a statement, “The focus should be on the real-world data that shows no adverse health effects, even at quite high emission levels.”
In its case, the government said that long-term concentrations of chloroprene in the air near the Denka plant are up to 15 times the amount that is safe for long-term exposure.
Under Biden’s leadership, the EPA released a related rule to cut down on pollution from factories. This rule gave Denka a short deadline to lower its emissions. The company said that it was being singled out and that other makers had a lot more time to follow the rules. Additionally, the business said that since the sale in 2015, the plant has greatly cut its pollution. The company was able to get its date pushed back.
The Denka plant is in the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor, which is an area of Louisiana with a lot of factories that runs from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. It’s called “Cancer Alley” because so many people who live near the industrial area, which is home to about 200 fossil fuel and petrochemical plants, get cancer. About 25% of all the petrochemicals made in the United States are made in this area.
