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After long-awaited updates to Louisiana’s building code, the Department of Energy announced Wednesday that the state will receive more than $1.6 million to implement them and build more energy-efficient houses that will be more equipped to survive hurricanes.
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Less than two weeks into the official start of summer, record-breaking heat has already swamped Louisiana and much of the South. And forecasters say the dangerous heat will likely continue.
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Residents from across the state flocked to Baton Rouge this week to weigh in on Louisiana’s attempt to gain authority for regulating a new class of injection wells that are used to bury carbon beneath the ground.
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The Environmental Protection Agency kicked off a three-day public hearing in Baton Rouge on Wednesday as they consider granting the state control over permitting wells used to inject carbon underground.
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Lake Charles residents say the Biden administration has given them an opportunity to remedy those needs as trillions of dollars from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act funnel into disadvantaged communities like Lake Charles.But they also believe federal agencies need to ensure that money goes to the area’s most vulnerable residents, who say they haven’t seen the same level of local investments.
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Louisiana’s top coastal restoration official declared his plans to resign during a speech at one of the state’s largest coastal conferences on Wednesday. Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority chairman Chip Kline marks the latest of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ appointees to step down from their position as the Democratic governor’s term nears its close in January 2024.
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Thirty years ago, a report called out Louisiana’s petrochemical industry for building plants in areas with a large Black population. On Monday, a new update to the report found that little had changed, and new plants in the state’s chemical corridor are still disproportionately planned near Black communities, according to an analysis by a New Orleans-based environmental justice nonprofit.
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The House natural resources committee was divided on Tuesday after hearing the first round of bills that would tighten restrictions on carbon capture projects in Louisiana.Republican lawmakers from the Florida Parishes filed nine bills this session in response to local backlash against a major project that would store carbon dioxide about a mile beneath Lake Maurepas, a recreational and cultural hub for the area. On Tuesday, the committee heard five of those bills.
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Louisiana is on the cusp of a carbon capture bonanza. For many, that is cause for concern. In turn, lawmakers from across the Florida Parishes — especially those representing Livingston, Tangipahoa and St. Helena — have filed nine bills to respond to their residents’ concerns. It’s the most legislation filed on issues related to carbon capture and storage since the state first legalized it by passing the Louisiana Geologic Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide Act in 2009, to little fanfare.
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Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” has no shortage of Black communities overburdened by pollution. But years of protest have begun to bear fruit. We travel the Mississippi River to learn what has allowed industry to flourish on its banks, see how the tide might turn in one neighborhood’s fight for clean air, and ask what’s next for a growing environmental justice movement.