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NEW ORLEANS, May 21, 2024 — Dr. Beverly Wright, the founder and executive director of the longest serving environmental justice resource center, will be honored by the US Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Museum and Education Center which is hosting its grand opening today in Washington, D.C.
“I am deeply honored to be recognized in this permanent exhibit at the National Environmental Museum and Education Center,” said Dr. Wright. “This museum is an important reflection of the triumphs and challenges that I hope will educate and inspire more champions.”
Dr. Beverly Wright is a scholar, advocate, author, civic leader, professor of Sociology, and the Founder and Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ), the first-ever environmental justice center in the United States. Under the Biden administration, Dr. Wright was appointed to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, where she advises on how the federal government can address current and historic environmental injustices.
Born and raised in New Orleans, Dr. Wright has experienced and witnessed the polluting effects of Cancer Alley–an 85-mile stretch of land between Baton Rouge and New Orleans that is home to over 150 petrochemical plants and refineries– her entire life. She has dedicated over three decades of her life advocating for environmental justice and tirelessly addressing the disproportionate impacts of environmental issues on marginalized communities. Wright’s work has left an indelible mark on local communities, national policies and the international EJ movement.
The National Environmental Museum and Education Center, located at EPA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., which opened in April, held its official grand opening ceremony on May 21, 2024.
To learn more about Dr. Beverly Wright, please visit https://dscej.org/beverly-wright/
Dr. Beverly Wright and Dr. Robert D. Bullard released the following statements in response to EPA rule
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 26 2024
Contact:
Ginger LeBlanc
media@dscej.org
David Castillo
David.Castillo@tsu.edu
(NEW ORLEANS, LA) Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a suite of final rules to reduce pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants with the goal of protecting all communities from pollution and improving public health without disrupting the delivery of reliable electricity.
Joint Statement from the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice
While we commend the Biden administration and the EPA for heeding the concerns voiced by our environmental justice communities and taking action, we will continue to advocate for bolder pollution reductions and a transition to renewable energy.
These new rules are narrowly targeted to address mercury and coal ash pollution. Mercury from power plants is one of the main sources of mercury contamination in food and fish, which poses a serious threat to public health, disproportionately affecting pregnant people and children.
While the focus in these areas is welcome and will usher in life-saving changes for many communities, we remain deeply concerned about the use of carbon capture storage (CCS) technology as part of the solution. During this process, a power plant’s CO2 is collected, carried by pipeline, and injected underground as permanent waste storage. This three-step process aims to shift the emissions of CO2 in the air where it enters the atmosphere to disposing of it below ground.
In the atmosphere, CO2 contributes to the climate crisis by trapping heat on the planet. In a pipeline, CO2 can leak and displace oxygen with disastrous consequences for nearby communities. Once underground, CO2 can contaminate groundwater used for drinking, trigger earthquakes, and escape above ground through unplugged wells.
The industrial release of CO2 is harmful wherever it goes. Current industrial plans for deploying CCS are concentrated in vulnerable and overburdened communities in the Gulf Coast Region. In response to this injustice, communities in Louisiana and Texas are rising up in defense of their health and safety and the wellbeing of future generations. Residents are leading efforts to transition away from dirty energy to efficient and renewable solar and wind energy. This transition must be just, fair and equitable to address structural inequality that has systematically left out and left behind our most vulnerable populations and communities.
Furthermore, the new rules fall short in a clear, rigorous cumulative impacts assessment component, which is critical to addressing the health and well-being of environmental justice communities. Gulf Coast environmental justice communities have been overburdened with pollution for so long, it is high time that the laws of the land protect them and work to clean up the historical pollution. The new rules also fall short of addressing methane gas-fired power plants, facilities which also plague overburdened communities.
Quote from Dr. Beverly Wright, Founder & Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice:
“Once again, under Michael Regan’s leadership, the EPA has taken an important step forward in reducing pollution in our air and attempting to create healthier communities across the country. Carbon capture storage remains one of the biggest threats to communities of color being harmed by the polluting industries that exacerbate our climate crisis. Through our ongoing dialogue with EPA on a host of issues, we voice our opposition to CCS regularly. Along with an overreliance on CCS, the new rules do not sufficiently address methane gas-fired power plants, which are overwhelmingly located in communities with Black and brown residents. We will continue to hold policymakers accountable for enforcing these new rules and relentlessly fighting against CCS. The EPA needs to reduce climate pollution, not shift it.”
Quote from Dr. Robert D. Bullard, Founder & Executive Director of the Bullard Center for Climate and Environmental Justice:
“We applaud the toxics and hazardous waste reductions at power plants proposed by the EPA. These new rules are an important step toward justice for our most disadvantaged communities. Yet, the new rules are not enough. The EPA must incorporate consequential cumulative impact assessments of pollution and other environmental stressors, and truly address the inequity that persists in our frontline communities. We are also gravely disappointed that the vehicle for greenhouse gas reductions is through carbon capture and sequestration. Carbon capture and sequestration is a ruse and has no place in our discussion of a justice-centered transition away from fossil fuels pollution.”
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About the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice
Families in the Gulf Coast deserve to live in communities that are free from deadly air and are more resilient to climate change and extreme weather. The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) works to empower and engage communities to put environmental justice and equity at the center of all climate action. Led by environmental justice scholar and advocate, author, civic leader, and professor of Sociology Dr. Beverly L. Wright, the DSCEJ uses research, education, and community and student engagement to advocate for policy change, lead health and safety training for environmental careers, develop social and emotional community wellness programs, and create new and environmentally healthy opportunities for the residents of communities disproportionately impacted by historic environmental injustice.
About Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice
The Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University addresses longstanding issues of systemic inequality and structural racism that cause disproportionate pain, suffering, and death in Black and other people of color communities. The Center is directed by environmental justice scholar Dr. Robert D. Bullard and is housed in the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs. It strives to be a leading force for transformative environmental, climate, and racial justice using rigorous science, community-driven research, policy, civic engagement programming, and effective advocacy.
WASHINGTON, DC (April 9, 2024) – Today, Dr. Beverly Wright, Founder and Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, joined US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan to announce groundbreaking requirements for reduced air pollution at petrochemical facilities concentrated in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, the Texas Gulf Coast, and operating throughout the U.S.
“Today’s action by Administrator Reagan to significantly cut toxic pollution and cancer risk is an historic breakthrough that can change Cancer Alley,” said Dr. Wright. “We are thankful for his leadership and commitment to environmental justice.
”Louisiana community advocates, Robert Taylor, Executive Director of Concerned Citizens of St. John, and Sharon Lavigne, Executive Director of RISE St. James, spoke of their struggles with governmental inaction on industrial pollution, and expressed their gratitude for this historic moment.
The new EPA regulations force the Denka (formerly DuPont) neoprene facility in St. John Parish and other petrochemical plants to reduce chloroprene emissions by 80 percent. Overall, the required reductions include 6,200 tons of chloroprene, ethylene oxide and other toxic air emissions each year, which are expected to lower cancer risks in fenceline communities. The significantly lower emission requirements would also apply to Formosa if it pursues renewals of air permits next year. Communities and the public will have access to data from new fenceline air monitoring imposed by the EPA rule which establishes action levels for robust environmental enforcement.
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA established new HON regulations requiring significant reductions of chloroprene, ethylene oxide, and volatile organic compounds. HON stands for Hazardous Organic NESHAP, and NESHAP stands for National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants.
Long-term exposure to ethylene oxide and chloroprene can increase the risk of certain types of cancer, such as lymphoma, leukemia, breast cancer, and liver cancer. EPA expects the rule to better protect children, who are more exposed and more susceptible to the effects of these toxic chemicals.
The EPA announcement follows the EPA’s Journey to Justice in Louisiana that brought Administrator Regan to communities in St. John Parish and St. James Parish, where he promised to hold polluting industries accountable for their actions in overburdened communities.
“For decades, regulating agencies have completely abdicated their responsibility to the communities they are supposed to protect,” said Dr. Wright. “Unfortunately, that meant generations of families losing loved ones to cancer. Administrator Regan promised community members that he would take action and today is a major step in fulfilling that promise. There is no doubt that the EPA’s HON rule will save lives.”
Read Dr. Wright’s Official Statement
Watch the EPA Press Conference
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From Louisiana Against False Solutions
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Sulphur, Louisiana — Last night, there was a leak in a high-pressure carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline owned by Denbury Inc. and ExxonMobil, in Sulphur, Louisiana. Pipeline operator representatives arrived at the scene almost two hours after Calcasieu Parish’s Ward 6 Fire Department. This pipeline is just one of a multitude of proposed CO2 pipelines that threaten Louisiana communities as part of a rapid build-out of the dangerous carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry. Carbon dioxide displaces oxygen and can cause asphyxiation in high concentrations, yet sufficient safety and emergency preparedness plans are not in place in communities that are located near dangerous pipelines.
James Hiatt, a resident of Calcasieu Parish and Executive Director of For a Better Bayou, said, “Last night’s carbon dioxide (CO2) leak from an ExxonMobil-owned pipeline in North Sulphur reiterates grave concerns about carbon capture and storage infrastructure’s safety. Coupled with a previous serious incident in Satartia, Mississippi, which necessitated evacuations and medical treatments due to a similar pipeline failure, these events underscore the perils tied to handling and moving CO2 in large volumes.”
“This wasn’t the first incident at the North Sulphur site, highlighting a troubling pattern of safety lapses,” Hiatt continued. “Given the proposals for extensive new CO2 pipelines across South Louisiana, these repeated incidents serve as a stark warning. It’s crucial that these risks not be ignored or minimized, especially when the stakes for public safety and health are so high.”
When firefighters arrived at the scene, a high-pressure leak of carbon dioxide was discovered at the pumping station. A shelter-in-place was issued by the Calcasieu Police Jury for residents within 1/4 miles of the incident. Despite carbon dioxide’s tendency to travel at ground level, no warning was given to residents to seek higher ground in their homes. The shelter-in-place was lifted at 9:15 p.m. when the readings suggested the area was clear.
“This pipeline represents just a small fraction of the massive number of CO2 pipelines that are proposed to slice through our communities in Louisiana,” said Breon Robinson, organizer with Healthy Gulf. “If we’re already having these dangerous incidents such as last night with existing CCS infrastructure, we must pump the breaks on this industry before we subject even more people to even more danger.”
Roishetta Sibley Ozane, founder and CEO of The Vessel Project of Louisiana, said, “I never imagined that my own home in Sulphur, Louisiana, would become a dangerous place to be due to a CO2 leak, but I’m not surprised. As an environmental justice leader, I have been fighting against the constant threat of new fossil fuel buildout in our community, including the newly proposed false solutions of carbon capture. This CO2 leak was a stark reminder of the environmental injustices we face daily.”
“Sheltering in place became not only a matter of personal safety but also a symbol of our ongoing struggle,” Ozane continued. “We were not only dealing with the immediate danger of the leak but also the long-term impacts of living in an area heavily burdened by industrial pollution. It felt like we were trapped, both physically and metaphorically, as the very air we breathed posed a threat to our health.”
This morning, the Louisiana House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment was hearing a discussion on two bills on carbon capture and storage. The bills, HB 289 and HB 398, respectively, are related to whether carbon dioxide injection wells should be permitted in certain areas. One of the bills specifically included a provision on emergency response — an area that lawmakers are grappling with as dozens of carbon capture projects and pipelines are proposed across Louisiana.
Monique Harden, Director of Law and Public Policy at the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, said, “Industrial releases of carbon dioxide not only warm the planet but are also hazardous to communities. We can expect more CO2 disasters in communities with plans for more and more gas plants, CO2 pipelines, and underground injection of CO2 waste. The only effective protection is a transition away from dirty energy that ensures environmental justice.”
“Southwest Louisiana is once again the victim of two realities,” said KD Minor, Founder of Forever Calcasieu and Community Solutions Coordinator at the Alliance for Affordable Energy. “While the White House announces billions of dollars in industry investments, the people still recovering from record-breaking hurricanes are now faced with sheltering in place for toxic emissions from those same industries. It is long past time that we put our priorities in the people that make this state great, and begin our transition away from the practices that continue to decrease the quality of our lives.”
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Media Contacts:
Eloise Reid, LAFS Manager
504-249-8748
eloisereid@gmail.com
Stephannie Kettle, Healthy Gulf Communications Manager
407-361-9432
skettle@healthygulf.org
Louisiana Against False Solutions (LAFS) is a coalition of more than 20 organizations leading in Louisiana and nationally for environmental, racial, and social justice. LAFS includes expertise across a range of disciplines: law, environmental science, geology, steel and materials scientists, traditional and Indigenous knowledge-holders, experienced campaigners, fisherfolk, and frontline communities. Learn more at https://www.lagainstfalsesolutions.org
The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice is a member of the LAFS Coalition.
