Court sides against EPA, extends emissions deadline for facility in Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley'

A U.S. circuit court this week sided with a Louisiana rubber manufacturer and the state in denying a request from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to hold the facility to a tighter deadline to comply with limits on a carcinogenic compound.

The three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled to give Denka Performance Elastomer until 2026 to comply with restrictions on chloroprene, a chemical compound used in rubber production that the agency says likely causes cancer.

The EPA had asked the court to impose a much closer October deadline, citing the facility’s proximity to an elementary school. An earlier ruling by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with the EPA.

The panel of the Fifth Circuit, which has become known for its conservatism, includes Reagan appointee Jerry Smith, Trump appointee Kurt Engelhardt and Obama appointee James Graves Jr. Graves was the only member to write that he would grant the EPA’s request to dismiss the petition.

Republican attorneys general and industry allies previously sued in the Fifth Circuit over the EPA’s “good neighbor” rule regulating air pollution from upwind states, one of several lawsuits that kept the rule in limbo until the Supreme Court ruled against it this summer.

The facility is sited in an area colloquially known as “Cancer Alley” for its large number of petrochemical processing plants, which have been linked to above-average cancer rates in the largely Black and low-income area. The Biden administration has frequently clashed with local and state regulators over the area.

In June, researchers from Johns Hopkins University determined the area had much higher levels of the carcinogenic chemical ethylene oxide than previously thought. In 2023, the EPA officially closed an investigation into whether civil rights violations were committed against local residents.

An EPA spokesperson told The Hill the agency is reviewing the decision.

— Updated at 4:06 p.m.