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by mac01021 2603 days ago
Perhaps the state of LA has the power to stop this pollution, but the residents lobbying for help from regulators, as depicted in the article, seem to be focusing their attention on the federal EPA. Unless I accidentally skipped a paragraph that talked about lobbying at a regional level.

If the state doesn't lack the teeth to fix this, why would they choose to compete for federal attention with an order of magnitude more people?

1 comments

==If the state doesn't lack the teeth to fix this, why would they choose to compete for federal attention with an order of magnitude more people?==

I'm not sure, Louisiana does have a Department of Environmental Quality [1]. In Illinois we had a similar issue play out this year. The Governor is the one who ended up banning the plant's use of ethylene oxide [2]. It looks an obscure state law allowed for that action:

"Invoking rarely used authority in state law, Illinois EPA Director John Kim prohibited Sterigenics from pumping ethylene oxide gas into massive chambers used to sterilize medical equipment, pharmaceutical drugs, spices and food."

[1] https://deq.louisiana.gov/

[2] https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-pr...