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A U.S. district court granted the federal authorities’s request to indefinitely pause a trial regarding a major petrochemical plant in Louisiana, regardless of the Biden administration’s insistence that the power poses an imminent well being menace.
In a ruling late Friday, Judge Carl Barbier of the U.S. District of Eastern Louisiana abruptly canceled oral arguments within the case scheduled for this week and the next trial which had been set for mid-March. The Department of Justice, which is litigating the case on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), requested Barbier to delay the case on Feb. 9 after arguing for months concerning the risks of the plant.
Following the court’s resolution, synthetics producer Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE), the defendant within the case, blasted the EPA for misusing sources in pursuit of the case in opposition to it. The ruling comes one yr after the EPA first sued DPE, searching for to compel the corporate’s LaPlace, Louisiana, facility – the only real home plant that produces neoprene, an artificial rubber frequent in navy tools – to vastly cut back emissions of chloroprene.
“EPA’s request to delay the trial indefinitely belies the ‘emergency’ that the government claims in this unprecedented action,” DPE counsel Jason Hutt stated in a press release shared with Fox News Digital. “EPA’s lawsuit has come at great expense to both this country’s only Neoprene facility and its dedicated employees.”
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The Denka Performance Elastomer facility in LaPlace, Louisiana, on Aug. 12, 2021. The plant is the one U.S. plant to produce neoprene, an artificial rubber frequent in navy tools, wetsuits and medical expertise. (Emily Kask/AFP through Getty Images)
Hutt added that EPA’s case has been pursued “solely for political gain.” And he stated the federal authorities is poised to withdraw the lawsuit altogether in mild of a regulatory proposal that will require manufacturing services to conduct further testing of sure chemical emissions, together with chloroprene, and which the White House is ready to finalize within the coming weeks.
“DPE is prepared to litigate this case and address the unfounded fears fomented by EPA, including a clear showing that the science underlying EPA’s allegation is outdated, contorted and based upon an overly conservative risk assessment,” Hutt continued. “Since purchasing the facility in 2015, DPE has invested more than $35 million in chloroprene emissions reductions.”
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“As a result, chloroprene emissions are at historical lows today, as confirmed by DPE’s continuous dual monitoring systems,” he stated. “DPE will continue production at this facility, which employs hundreds of Louisiana residents and provides tremendous economic benefit to the local and state economy.”
After the EPA filed its criticism in opposition to DPE on Feb. 28, 2023, EPA Administrator Michael Regan stated he was dedicated to taking robust motion to shield Louisiana residents from the LaPlace neoprene plant’s emissions and added that DPE hasn’t “moved far enough or fast enough” to cut back stated emissions. The motion was taken as a part of the administration’s “environmental justice” agenda.
“When I visited St. John the Baptist Parish during my first Journey to Justice tour, I pledged to the community that EPA would take strong action to protect the health and safety of families from harmful chloroprene emissions from the Denka facility,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan stated final yr. “This complaint filed against Denka delivers on that promise.” (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
According to the criticism, the plant’s emissions pose a most cancers danger to residents in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, and subsequently current an “imminent and substantial endangerment to public health and welfare.”
Then, one month later, the Justice Department filed a movement for preliminary injunction within the case, asking the court to implement a shutdown of DPE’s facility if the corporate failed to instantly implement substantial emissions reductions. Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim stated the movement “shows our determination to address environmental justice concerns.”
DPE argued in a response movement that the federal authorities’s actions are “tantamount to a shutdown order that would have catastrophic consequences for DPE,” including that it might lead to “complete loss of revenue streams, substantial loss of work force, supply chain disruptions and contractual impacts, and regulatory challenges.”
President Biden and EPA Administrator Michael Regan (Getty Images)
The firm additionally characterised the Biden administration’s efforts in opposition to it as politically pushed, unsupported by real-world science, and outdoors its authorized authority below the Clean Air Act. DPE pointed to how its LaPlace facility has sharply curbed its chloroprene emissions and complied with environmental permits, as Hutt famous.
DPE additional pointed to Louisiana Tumor Registry information displaying that St. John the Baptist Parish, the area the place its neoprene facility is positioned, has recorded one of many lowest most cancers charges of any area within the state.
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Additionally, DPE revealed late final yr that it uncovered proof throughout discovery within the case that EPA officers appeared to manufacture a paper path to make it simpler to litigate the case, revelations that sparked a House Science, Space and Technology Committee probe.
EPA did not reply to a request for remark.
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