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Residents of Cancer Alley have fewer protections against environmental discrimination

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Louisiana holds one of the country's largest hot spots for toxic air. It's known as Cancer Alley. And after a recent federal court ruling, the state's residents now have fewer protections against environmental discrimination than the rest of the U.S. From member station WWNO, Halle Parker reports.

HALLE PARKER, BYLINE: Robert Taylor grew up in the rural community of Reserve, Louisiana, along the Mississippi River, before it became Cancer Alley.

ROBERT TAYLOR: I grew up, most of my friends and relatives still worked on the sugarcane fields. You know, we were two or three generations, maybe, from slaves.

PARKER: Over his 84 years, he watched chemical plants sprout up around his community, up and down the river for almost 100 miles.

TAYLOR: We were in the worst zone, you know, fence line.

PARKER: Taylor says as more chemical plants were built, his white neighbors moved away. He now thinks it was because of the air pollution from the plants. Decades passed before he learned the pollution made it far more likely for his family to have serious health problems. His community's risk of cancer is 50 times higher than the national average, according to federal data, and he's not alone.

TAYLOR: If you go up and down Cancer Alley, these plants are located in places that are occupied by Black people.

PARKER: In 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency found that the state of Louisiana had likely discriminated against people like Taylor as part of a groundbreaking civil rights investigation. The case hinged on a bedrock of civil rights law called disparate impact. It's supposed to protect minority communities from being harmed more than others, no matter if it's intentional or not.

DEBBIE CHIZEWER: Everyone is entitled to breathe clean air. When our environmental laws fail, the civil rights laws should kick in to protect people.

PARKER: Earthjustice attorney Debbie Chizewer works with communities in Cancer Alley. Those communities lost that protection in a recent court ruling after Louisiana sued the EPA over its findings in Cancer Alley. Environment attorney Hannah Perls, with Harvard University, says Louisiana argued the EPA overstepped its powers, that the Civil Rights Act only protects people from intentional harm.

HANNAH PERLS: So they paint this picture of really, you know, federal government on the rampage to dismantle any and all programs that don't meet the standard of environmental justice.

PARKER: She says the state also argued that you shouldn't consider race when you permit a chemical plant.

PERLS: What that equates to is this idea of discrimination that says, if we're thinking about race, if we're considering race in any capacity, we are discriminating.

PARKER: And the judge agreed with this colorblind approach. It's similar to the reverse discrimination argument that overturned affirmative action in college admissions last year. In his ruling, the judge said pollution doesn't discriminate. Residents like Taylor were shocked at the logic.

TAYLOR: Of course pollution doesn't discriminate. Judges discriminate. The petrochemical industries discriminate. They are the polluters. That's who my fight is against.

PARKER: Louisiana's governor, who brought the lawsuit as attorney general, declined to comment for the story. Right now, this ruling only applies to Louisiana. But the state has asked the court to expand it nationwide, a move supported by attorney generals from nearly two dozen Republican states. The EPA says the agency is determining its next step to prevent discrimination. It still has until the end of this month to appeal the ruling. For NPR News, I'm Halle Parker in New Orleans. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Halle Parker