Edward Smith, edward.smith@sierraclub.org
Baton Rouge, LA – Last Friday, Sierra Club petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reject the air permit approved by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality for the proposed Magnolia gas plant in Iberville Parish. The issues raised by Sierra Club with the EPA are substantially similar to those submitted to LDEQ this past January.
The petition outlines five reasons that justify why the EPA should reject the permit. Three reasons are related to improper evaluation and assessment of air pollution that will be released from the facility, the fourth reason details how the permit fails to include emissions limitations, monitoring, or reporting needed to enforce the permit, and the final reason is that the permit fails to analyze the adverse and negative impacts of air pollution on public health, particularly in Black, Latine, and Indigenous communities.
Sierra Club’s petition to the EPA can be found here.
Statement from Darryl Malek-Wiley, Senior Organizing Representative for Sierra Club in Louisiana:
“LDEQ is broken. Its air pollution program only serves the interests of politically influential polluters, not the people it's meant to protect. We saw this unfold last week when a judge ruled against the Formosa air pollution permit. Now it’s my hope the EPA will rebuke LDEQ’s rubber-stamp of the Magnolia air pollution permit based on the legal deficiencies raised by Sierra Club.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.