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President Biden has made tackling environmental justice a pillar of his climate change agenda.<\/p>\n

Now an ambitious regulation at the heart of the president\u2019s plan to use environmental rules to go after businesses accused of making poor communities unhealthy is about to be thrust under a legal microscope.<\/p>\n

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The Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> is suing to force Louisiana chemical plant Denka Performance Elastomer LLC to severely limit its emissions under the Clean Air Act to levels the company says are impractical.<\/p>\n

The case, however, has been on hold because the EPA<\/a> says it may no longer be needed.<\/p>\n

The agency<\/a> is finalizing a stringent industry-wide emissions proposal to limit the release of likely cancer-causing toxins. The rules will impact more than 200 plants that manufacture synthetic chemicals and materials like resins and polymers used in an array of everyday items \u2014 everything from baseball bats to yoga mats to hoses to automobile tires and cellphone cases.<\/p>\n

Critics say the new emissions limits are politically motivated, based on outdated data and will do more to crush businesses than safeguard public health.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s with Denka or the industry writ-large, one thing is certain: A legal battle is on the horizon for the EPA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re successful, this gives [the administration] a powerful weapon that they can use against numerous industries that are being politically targeted by activist groups,\u201d Paul Nathanson, senior principal at Bracewell, a law firm representing Denka, said. \u201cIf EPA<\/a> wants to join in and put pressure on them, this gives them a pretty powerful tool to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EPA<\/a> told The Washington Times in a statement that it sent the final rules to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review and that it \u201cexpects to issue the final regulations soon after interagency review is complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

The industry expects a final decision in the coming days.<\/p>\n

EPA<\/a> declined to comment about its litigation with Denka.<\/p>\n

Denka is prepared to resume its fight against EPA<\/a>. If it\u2019s rendered moot by industry-wide rules and dropped by the EPA<\/a>, it\u2019s also prepared to sue the agency<\/a> over its new regulations.<\/p>\n

Denka says the EPA<\/a> is relying on outdated and faulty risk assessments in trying to force further emission reductions of chloroprene, and that the government\u2019s actions could put plants and companies out of business.<\/p>\n

Chloroprene is classified as a likely carcinogen by the EPA<\/a> and is used in producing neoprene, a synthetic rubber used in everything from car parts and medical equipment to military gear and wet suits.<\/p>\n

The Denka plant, located in the \u201cCancer Ally\u201d industrial strip that borders the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, is the only neoprene-producing facility in the country.<\/p>\n

The EPA<\/a> says its proposal would shrink cancer risks for those who live near such facilities by 96%.<\/p>\n

But EPA<\/a>\u2019s case against Denka has been marred in recent months by troubling allegations that could undermine its chemical plant emissions policies, including that agency officials fabricated documents before the lawsuit to justify forcing Denka and other manufacturers to further limit emissions. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Denka says its facility has spent tens of millions of dollars since the Japanese-owned company took over the facility in 2015 to slash emissions by 85%. The EPA<\/a> says that based on its prior assessments of chloroprene\u2019s dangers from a 2010 study, the reductions are still not enough.<\/p>\n

Denka is seeking a new risk assessment, which they say would undermine the EPA<\/a>\u2018s case.<\/p>\n

A regional office of the EPA<\/a>\u2019s Office of Research and Development that covers Louisiana agreed a new assessment was warranted and in 2021 made such a request. It was denied months later by Washington, citing an email from an official at the regional office who withdrew the recommendation.<\/p>\n

That official, regional liaison Michael Morton, testified to Denka\u2019s attorneys during a deposition that he did not author that email. Metadata records showed it was crafted and sent by another EPA<\/a> official in an alleged attempt to create a fictitious paper trail after the fact to deny a new assessment.<\/p>\n

Congress inserted itself in the matter earlier this year upon learning about EPA<\/a>\u2019s apparent fabrication.<\/p>\n

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee told EPA<\/a> Administrator Michael Regan in January that it was probing EPA<\/a>\u2019s \u201cdecision to forgo a scientific review\u201d and the \u201cpotential silencing of scientists at the agency<\/a>.\u201d The Republican lawmakers leading the investigation feared EPA<\/a> \u201cmay have violated scientific integrity policies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Biden has made tackling environmental justice a pillar of his climate change agenda. Now an ambitious regulation at the heart of the president\u2019s plan to use environmental rules to go after businesses accused of making poor communities unhealthy is about to be thrust under a legal microscope. The Environmental Protection Agency is suing to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/inews24.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/66309-bidens-environmental-justice-agenda-will-soon-be-put-to-the-legal-test.jpg?fit=1440%2C960&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inews24.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inews24.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inews24.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inews24.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inews24.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inews24.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inews24.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inews24.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inews24.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inews24.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}