Robert Taylor Jr. lives just a couple blocks away from Denka Performance Elastomers in Reserve, Louisiana. The facility produces a chemical called neoprene polychloroprene, used in products such as wetsuits and koozies. It also releases air pollutants ethylene oxide and chloroprene, which has long worried environmental advocates and members of the community.
The Trump administration has started letting companies apply for two-year exemptions from compliance with nine rules from the Clean Air Act that were intended to curb pollution.
This means companies like Denka might not have to monitor or reduce their emissions.
The offer comes after the Trump administration dropped a federal lawsuit against the company, accusing it of increasing cancer risks for residents.
“Now they've come up with a whole new scheme and it is just maddening what the people here have to go through just to be able to breathe clean air and have drinkable water,” Taylor said.
Taylor, a longtime “Cancer Alley” activist, worries this could undermine the work he and others have done to improve air quality and hold companies accountable. He said he feels abandoned by the state and federal government.
“There is no protection,” he said. “We're definitely left to fend for ourselves.”
Just ask the president
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set up an electronic mailbox, where facilities can request presidential exemptions. In a statement to WWNO, the EPA said the Clean Air Act allows the president to offer these exemptions if it’s in the interest of national security, and the technology to implement the rule isn’t available. The deadline to apply was March 31.
“Basically, the federal government is going to just give a wide, free pass for industries, with a record of polluting to continue to pollute, with very hazardous chemicals,” said Sarah Vogel, the Senior Vice President for Healthy Communities at the Environmental Defense Fund, which opposes the move.
Industry groups are taking the Trump administration up on its offer. The American Chemistry Council and American Petrochemical and Fuel Manufacturers have already submitted a request for exemptions for a large swath of companies to a rule finalized under the Biden administration, which aims to lower emissions of ethylene oxide and chloroprene.
If approved, the 218 plants the rule applies to no longer have to monitor or reduce emissions of those chemicals. According to an analysis by the Environmental Defense Fund, Denka is one of 51 petrochemical facilities in Louisiana that could receive that exemption.
In the letter, the trade associations said the industry needs more time to acquire technology to monitor and reduce emissions, writing “there is no existing technology to implement the requirements of the Rule, or technology is not available in time to meet the Rule’s compliance deadline.”
The deadlines to meet the Biden-era requirement range from 90 days to two years, depending on what aspect of the rule is being enforced and the facility’s emissions.
Neither Denka nor the trade associations responded to requests for comment.
Not just ‘Cancer Alley’
Ethylene oxide has been linked to lymphoma and leukemia, while chloroprene has been linked to lung and liver cancer. Some researchers are worried about the health risks associated with their emissions, especially in Louisiana.
“There's about 200 different toxic air pollutants that are emitted by industrial facilities in Louisiana. Ethylene oxide first and chloroprene second, far and away are the biggest risks,” said Kimberly Terrell, a scientist studying air quality at Tulane University.
She explained that Louisiana has high amounts of these chemicals in the air, and they pose serious health risks. According to a 2020 EPA analysis, ethylene oxide is 1,000 times more carcinogenic than benzene, a chemical in tobacco.
In a 2022 study, Terrell found that high cancer rates in marginalized communities in Louisiana— like Reserve — are linked to toxic air pollution.
Terrell also noted the two chemicals are lightweight substances, meaning they can travel from Denka’s facility in Reserve to as far as New Orleans and Kenner.
“If you talk to residents of Kenner, they probably would not think that they live in Cancer Alley,” said Terrell. “But they're still being put at significant risk because of emissions from a plant, you know, probably 30 miles away."
