ArcaMax

They call it "Cancer Alley." It's an 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that connects Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The name stems from the fact that the area's residents have a 95% greater chance of developing cancer than the average American. Some 200 petrochemical and fossil fuel operations are located in the area. About 25% of the petrochemical production in the United States takes place in the area. Want to move there? Its residents are disproportionately poor and Black.

The Biden administration Environmental Protection Agency launched a pioneering effort to advance environmental justice by targeting plants that pollute low-income neighborhoods that people can't afford to flee. One of those plants was the Denka Performance Elastomer chemical plant, a Japanese company whose plant in LaPlace, Louisiana, produces neoprene, a kind of synthetic rubber that is used in laptop sleeves and wetsuits. In a case referred to the Justice Department by the EPA, the United States in early 2023 sued Denka, claiming the plant emitted forbidden levels of chloroprene, a cancer-causing chemical that is particularly dangerous for children. The government alleged in the suit that air monitoring showed that long-term concentrations near the Denka plant are as high as 15 times the amount recommended for long-term exposure to chloroprene. The plant was located near an elementary school, which was finally closed. A trial was supposed to begin in April.

Last week, the Justice Department, at the request of the Trump Administration EPA, dropped the two-year-old case.

No more DEI means no more environmental justice. All of the employees of that division of the EPA -- some 170 people -- have been fired, and its cases are being dropped.

According to the Associated Press, the Justice Department "celebrated" the decision to drop the lawsuit, claiming that it showed that they were "delivering on President (Donald) Trump's promise to dismantle radical DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs and restore integrity to federal enforcement efforts."

In a statement, the Justice Department went on to say that the dismissal of what was a signature example of the Biden environmental justice initiative signified the Trump administration's commitment to "eliminate ideological overreach and restore impartial enforcement of federal laws." For its part, the EPA hailed its formal withdrawal of the referral of the case to the Justice Department as an example of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin's pledge to end the use of "environmental justice" as an enforcement tool that Zeldin has said was too often used to advance liberal ideological priorities.

Sometimes, I would say most of the time, DEI is not about giving extra advantages to women and minorities. It's about reversing a long history of disadvantaging them. Environmental justice is a clear example of that. The air that these Black children are breathing makes them 95% more likely to develop cancer later on than white children. Chemical plants aren't located in the fancy parts of town. Air this dirty next to a school isn't something affluent white parents would put up with. Black families have been putting up with it because they had no choice and because government didn't adequately protect them. President Joe Biden, rightly, tried to do something about it. In the name of impartiality and integrity, this administration is telling Black children to take a deep breath.

Saving the lives of Black children who breathe the dirtiest and most dangerous air in the country -- and whose health has been too often ignored -- should not be dismissed as a "liberal ideological priority." There is nothing "radical" about it. That it's being treated that way, and tossed on the DEI trash heap, is my winner for the outrage of the week.

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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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