Sierra Club Steps in as Watchdog After Trump's EPA Uses COVID-19 Crisis to Stop Enforcement of Pollution Laws

NEW ORLEANS, LA -- The Sierra Club announced a new national “polluter watchdog” program yesterday by issuing Freedom of Information ACT (FOIA) and state-based open records requests to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. The environmental organization decided to launch the program soon after the Trump Administration chose to use the coronavirus pandemic as justification to suspend EPA’s enforcement of pollution standards. With the program’s launch, Sierra Club is pledging to hold violating polluters accountable to state and federal laws, and to protect vulnerable communities from illegal levels of pollution.

“The Trump EPA policy comes at a time when direct links are being made between high levels of air pollution and advanced cases of COVID-19, which attacks the lungs,” said Michael Brune, Sierra Club’s Executive Director. “Eliminating EPA’s enforcement of pollution standards at a time when millions of people’s lungs are under attack by the coronavirus is a disgrace that will only exacerbate the public health crisis. We refuse to stand by and let polluters take advantage of communities at a time when the Trump Administration should be doing everything possible to protect people’s health.”

The new Trump EPA policy lets companies use the coronavirus as an excuse to “self-monitor” air and water pollution, with little oversight or enforcement from the agency. Trump’s policy also assures companies that EPA may not penalize companies if they violate air and water pollution limits (many of which control highly toxic substances). Instead, the Trump EPA policy merely asks companies to “act responsibly,” essentially giving polluters free rein to evade requirements designed to protect the public health of our communities.

The Sierra Club will target states and companies that represent some of the worst sources of pollution in the nation, such as coal plants and oil and gas operations that already threaten the health of thousands of communities across the country with pollution, including in Louisiana. “Coal plants in Louisiana are only 12% of electric sector but account for 42% of carbon pollution, 46% of Nitrogen Dioxide (NOx) pollution, and 99.7% of Sulfur Dioxide (SOx) pollution; two pollutants known to cause damage to people’s lungs and autoimmune systems,” said Cherelle Blazer, Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign Representative in Louisiana.

The open records requests in Louisiana include the following businesses and facilities: 

• Cleco Power’s Dolet Hills Power Station, located at 963 Power Plant Rd, Mansfield, LA 71052;

• Cleco Power’s Brame Energy Center, located at 963 Power Plant Rd., Mansfield, LA 71052;

• Entergy’s RS Nelson Coal Plant, located at 3500 Houston River Rd., Westlake, LA 70669; 

• Cleco Cajun’s (formerly Louisiana Generating, LLC), Big Cajun 2 plant, located at 9951 Cajun 2 Rd. (Highway 981) New Roads, LA 70760; 

• Ampirical Solutions, LLC., New Orleans Power Station, located at 12550 Gentilly Rd., New Orleans, LA 70000; 

• Chalmette Refining, LLC’s Chalmette Facility, located at 500 W St. Bernard Hwy, Chalmette, LA 70044

• Entergy Louisiana LLC’s Little Gypsy Generating Plant/St. Charles Power Station, located at 17420 River Rd, LA Highway 628, Montz, LA 70068; 

• Entergy Louisiana LLC’s Ninemile Point Electric Generating Plant, located at 1617 River Rd, Westwego, LA 70094; 

• Denka Performance Elastomer’s Pontchartrain Facility, located at 560 Highway 44, Laplace, LA 70068. 

• E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co Pontchartrain Site, located at 586 Highway 44, Laplace, LA 70068; 

• ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge Refinery, located at 4045 Scenic Hwy, Baton Rouge, LA 70805; 

• Formosa Plastic Corporation Louisiana’s Baton Rouge Facility, located at 166 Gulf States Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70805; 

• Sasol Chemicals (USA) LLC’s Lake Charles Chemical Complex, located at 2201 Old Spanish Trail, Westlake, LA 70669; 

• Occidental Chemical Corporation’s Taft Plant, located at 266 Highway 3142, Hahnville, LA 70057; 

• Dow Chemical Louisiana Operations’ Plaquemine Cogeneration Plant, located at 21255 Highway 1, Plaquemine, LA 70764.

The EPA Region 6 FOIA requests can be found here and here.

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