Louisiana Regional Haze Plan Must be Revised to Comply with the Clean Air Act & Address Environmental Justice

New Orleans, LA -- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must reject Louisiana’s Regional Haze plan if it is not fundamentally changed to comply with the Clean Air Act. The plan is insufficient in many ways, including a failure to review environmental justice impacts for communities disproportionately impacted by air pollution. That is the message Sierra Club and National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) sent to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) and EPA on Monday as the public comment period for the draft plan expired. 

The Louisiana regional haze program is enforced under the Clean Air Act with the goal of reducing pollution to achieve natural visibility conditions in many of the nation’s most iconic and treasured national parks and wilderness areas, like the Breton National Wilderness Area in Louisiana and Caney Creek and the Upper Buffalo River in Arkansas. One of the largest contributors of poor air quality in national parks, also known as regional haze, are dirty old coal-burning power plants that lack modern pollution controls.   

There are cost-effective, achievable pollution reductions possible at Entergy’s Nelson coal plant and Cleco’s Brame Energy Center and Big Cajun II coal plants. Reduced emissions would improve air quality for fence-line communities near these facilities and in national parks and wilderness areas in Louisiana and Arkansas. 

EPA's guidance makes clear that if a state declines to impose cost-effective controls based on anticipated coal plant shutdowns, which Louisiana proposes in the draft, those retirements must be made enforceable. The LDEQ draft plan lacks enforceable shutdown dates. For Rodemacher 2, this would mean a binding commitment to cease burning coal no later than 2028; Big Cajun II Unit 1 would need to cease burning coal by 2025 and Unit 3 cease burning coal by 2032 at the latest. 

Documents outlining our positions are linked below, and include the Sierra Club and National Parks Conservation Alliance comment letter submitted to LDEQ and expert testimony from Victoria Stamper and D. Howard Gebhart. 

Statement from David Stets, Chair of the Sierra Club Delta Chapter: 

“A strong regional haze plan is the most practical way Governor Edwards will reach the interim greenhouse gas reduction goals he announced earlier this year while reducing the pollution burden for majority Black communities.

“It’s the Governor’s job to ensure LDEQ is enforcing the Clean Air Act, and as it stands, the EPA could create and enforce its own federal plan if Louisiana’s final plan is ultimately found to be insufficient. We are asking Louisiana to reduce harmful air pollution in compliance with federal laws that are meant to protect human health and public land. Doing anything less is a disservice to our state and our people.”  

Statement from Stephanie Kodish, Senior Director and Counsel, Clean Air and Climate Programs:

“Louisiana is responsible for doing its part to protect our public lands and communities from air pollution in the state. Disappointingly, Louisiana’s regional haze plan, which ignores key sources of air pollution and does not sufficiently curb emissions, will not get the job done.

“Under the Clean Air Act, the state is mandated to do better for its national parks and its people, including disproportionately impacted communities near sources of pollution. President Biden has made it clear that clearing the air, and doing so equitably, is a top priority, and Louisiana must rise to the occasion and improve its plan.”