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Kaitlyn Joshua is a native of the southeast corridor of Louisiana dubbed “Cancer Alley,” and has spent the last few years leading the fight against a hydrogen and ammonia facility being built within 2,000 feet of an elementary school in Ascension Parish. Joshua says she is ‘horrified’ about the recent deregulation measures the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced for the petrochemical industry.

As EPA pulls back, schoolchildren could face the steepest risks

Communities living and learning near petrochemical plants will face more pollution and less federal protection under Trump’s new policies.

Workers install solar panels on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility in Gaithersburg, Md. Funding that had been frozen for Solar for All, a federally funded program to provide rooftop and community solar to low-income residents, has now resumed, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said. (Photo courtesy of NIST)

Coastal Desk

‘Solar for Y’all’ faces hazy future in Louisiana

Elise Plunk (Louisiana Illuminator)

The future of millions of dollars in funding to help low-income Louisiana residents access solar energy has grown increasingly uncertain as the Trump administration attempts to slash grant programs awarded under its predecessor.

Heather McTeer Toney, executive director of Beyond Petrochemicals, takes a boat tour of Corpus Christi Bay in Texas with local members of the Coastal Watch Association who are fighting against several proposed petrochemical facilities in the area. Toney says President Donald Trump’s recent attacks on climate groups and environmental justice “feels scary.”

Coastal Desk

Criminal targeting of environmental groups ‘scary,’ advocates say

Terry L. Jones (Floodlight)

Groups now worry about FBI probes as they struggle to rebound from federal spending freeze enacted under President Donald Trump.

FILE - EPA Administrator Michael Regan, left, arrives at the Fifth Ward Elementary School, which is near the Denka plant, with Robert Taylor, second left, founder of Concerned Citizens of St. John's Parish, and Lydia Gerard, third left, a member of the group, in Reserve, La., Nov. 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Coastal Desk

Trump administration to drop lawsuit against Louisiana petrochemical plant, AP sources say

The Associated Press

The Trump administration plans to drop a federal lawsuit against a synthetic rubber manufacturer accused of worsening cancer risks for residents near its Louisiana plant, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Coastal Desk

EPA says it has unfrozen billions in funds for climate-related projects

Mario Alejandro Ariza, Floodlight

The statement by an agency spokesperson comes after two judges ordered the environmental agency to pay contracts signed under Biden.

Runoff creates a visible line in the Appomattox River, a major tributary of the James River, which flows into southern Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. Credit: Kenny Fletcher, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Coastal Desk

Could the Mississippi River benefit from Chesapeake Bay’s strategy to improve water quality?

Bennet Goldstein, Wisconsin Watch

Sluggish progress on reducing nutrient runoff into the Bay marks an inconvenient truth, but offers lessons for others seeking to clean their watersheds.

ECOS President Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks instructs Fifth Ward Elementary School students as they make their own room sprays to take home during a workshop on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Coastal Desk

In heart of Louisiana’s chemical corridor, elementary students learn about ‘green chemistry’

Halle Parker

Community groups in St. John the Baptist Parish partnered with an eco-friendly business to encourage students to pursue environmentally sustainable careers.

Coastal Desk

Secrecy around gas export terminals leaves public in the dark on dangers

Pam Radtke, Floodlight

As liquefied natural gas terminals grow exponentially along the U.S. Gulf Coast, experts raise alarm on low-risk, high-consequence events

Hunter’s Field Playground sits beneath the Claiborne Expressway in New Orleans on July 18, 2023.

Public Health

In fight to remove divisive Claiborne Expressway, activists turn to new strategy — an EPA study

Drew Hawkins

The Claiborne Avenue Alliance hopes a study on the health impacts caused by the expressway will support efforts to remediate and potentially remove the highway.

LDEQ Secretary Chuck Carr Brown, far right, looks at new radiation equipment with the agency's senior environmental scientist, Daniel Lambert, (far left) and Jerry Lang, the agency's emergency response and radiation administrator in January 2023.

Coastal Desk

Louisiana's top environmental regulator resigned; here's what he says about the agency's future

Halle Parker

After seven years at the helm, the head of Louisiana’s Department of Environmental Quality announced his resignation last week as Gov. John Bel Edwards’ term nears its close.