environmental justice

A change in the White House could have changed everything for Black communities in Louisiana's polluted "Cancer Alley." Then, federal officials walked away.

Documents show staff spent months negotiating an agreement that would have fundamentally changed Louisiana's air pollution permitting program.

It’s not easy to picture what’s in the air we breathe in Louisiana and Mississippi. But earlier this month, a researcher debuted a new tool that could help. It maps pollution in the region, and some environmental groups are already using it.

Three weeks after a state judge struck down a controversial zoning law, St. John the Baptist Parish Council is considering reinstating the same law to allow the construction of a $479 million grain elevator.

Dow Chemical says the air quality at a plant in Louisiana is safe following a July 14 explosion, but nearby residents remain skeptical based on past incidents.

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.

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.

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.

Environmental groups are more concerned there could be unmarked burials for the formerly enslaved on other parts of Air Products' 376-acre property — and in Louisiana, there’s no process for ensuring they’re found before a project breaks ground.

We talk with people working at the intersection of music and the environment and ask how one can influence the other. Grammy-award-winning Cajun punk musician Louis Michot of the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Rev. Lennox Yearwood, who leads the national environmental advocacy group, the Hip Hop Caucus, tell us about how they use music to inspire action on the climate crisis and environmental injustice.Hosted by Halle Parker and Carlyle Calhoun.