louisiana

A legal settlement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the town containing the census tract with the worst air pollution in the country could significantly reduce harmful emissions in the area known as “Cancer Alley.”  The proposed agreement was posted on the Federal Register Tuesday and would settle two lawsuits brought by members […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is investigating whether the Louisiana state departments of Environmental Quality and Health illegally discriminated against black residents in permitting decisions regarding two chemical plants and a grain export terminal. Petitions to the EPA seeking an investigation allege the state departments failed to provide proper notice and comment opportunities to […]

The plume stretched more than 56 miles across Louisiana and was the most severe concentration of methane found by satellites in the U.S. since October. Geoanalytics firm Kayrros SAS estimates an emissions rate of 105 tons of methane per hour was needed to generate the plume, which could have the same short-term climate impact as […]

Thousands of animals have died after a pipeline spilled more than 300,000 gallons of diesel fuel into a Louisiana wetlands.  The oil spill was discovered December 27 east of New Orleans and came from a 16-inch diameter pipeline operated by Collins Pipeline Co. that had significantly corroded, officials said Wednesday. In fact, an October 2020 […]

An extensive analysis by ProPublica reveals a detailed map of more than 1,000 American communities that are hotspots for carcinogenic air pollution. The worst three are in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” five of the top 20 are in Texas, and predominantly Black areas experience double the cancer risk of white areas. “Go read this investigation on […]

More than six weeks after Hurricane Ida made landfall on Southeast Louisiana, coffins are still strewn across the community of Ironton. Hurricane Ida’s storm surge left the multiple-ton vaults strewn around the town, “like they were cardboard boxes,” Rev. Haywood Johnson Jr. told the AP. The lingering coffins are a visceral illustration of the trauma […]

As the accounting of, and recovery from, Hurricane Ida drags on, nearly 10% of all schoolchildren are still stuck at home as school systems and local officials struggle to recover from Hurricane Ida. The 70,000 students still unable to go back to school are mainly located in just five parishes in the southeastern part of […]

Hurricane Ida shut down all of Entergy’s electricity transmission into New Orleans and left hundreds of thousands across the region to suffer a week — or longer — in the heat and darkness. But the Hazlett family’s 37 rooftop solar panels made the blackout caused by Entergy’s failures after Ida bearable. While not powerful enough […]