Shitstain Admin Pushes 10 Million More Tons Of Toxic Releases Across Gulf States From Plastics, Pesticides, Oil Refining

[hatrack]

Residents of the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coast are bracing for their latest environmental setback: A two-year exemption loosening emissions standards at some petrochemical plants — a move that could pump nearly 5.3 million additional tons of air pollution each year into their neighborhoods. According to an analysis by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), five petrochemical facilities planning expansions along the coast would be exempt from rules limiting emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gasses and other hazardous emissions. The facilities include two in Texas and three in Louisiana that make products ranging from pesticides to plastic resins.

Advocates say the exemption deals yet another blow from President Donald Trump to the predominantly Black and brown communities located near these facilities, which are already overburdened by pollution. “Our lives don't matter,” says Tish Taylor, a community activist and lifelong resident of the corridor in southeast Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley,” where she says residents are routinely subjected to chemical smells and “fog” from the high concentration of polluting facilities. “Nothing that Trump does says that he cares about people. Everything about his actions shows his disdain for poor and Black people specifically, but poor in general.”

Since taking office this year, Trump has made it his mission to dismantle the previous administration’s moves to improve environmental justice and lower greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change. Under this latest move, 52 chemical facilities owned by 25 different companies are now exempt from adhering to key air emissions standards outlined in the so-called HON Rule finalized last year under Biden.

Among them was the gutting of provisions that allowed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take action against emissions from tailpipes, smokestacks and the oil and gas industry. The agency also has seen massive layoffs and a rescission of then-President Joe Biden’s multibillion-dollar push for more renewable energy.

EDIT

https://floodlightnews.org/trump-petrochemical-exemption-toxic-emissions-texas-louisiana/

[GreenWave]

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