Environmental Justice Issue Heats Up In Louisiana, Sparking Yet Another Battle Against Fossil Fuels

By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – The recent growth in natural gas usage has generally been seen as a positive development for the Louisiana economy, but Black Louisianans know that the growth in this industry has frequently led to negative impacts for Black communities. This is why it’s particularly concerning that new developments in the fossil fuel pipeline industry may lead to even fewer protections for communities of color around Louisiana.

The most recent concerns stem from the construction of the Louisiana Energy Gateway pipeline by Williams, an Oklahoma-based energy company. Williams’ project is a large diameter, 150-mile long pipeline that will transport natural gas across Louisiana. Yet despite the pipeline’s size and length, Williams has classified this new pipeline as a gathering line, which are smaller pipelines generally used to move gas over small distances near a drilling site.

On the surface, such a classification might seem unimportant – until one realizes that gathering lines are reviewed and regulated much differently than the large transmission pipelines.

Unlike transmission pipelines, gathering pipelines do not require approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). As such, proposed gathering lines do not have to go through the rigorous FERC review process which includes evaluations of the environmental, cultural, and socio-economic impacts of the pipeline project.

The FERC process also includes a public notification and comment period so that residents can know exactly what is being proposed near their homes and businesses, and have an opportunity to have their concerns heard and addressed. In avoiding this process, companies thus have greater license to build what they want, where they want, without public input.

The implications of these actions could be severe for Louisiana’s Black communities. After all, our state is already home to Cancer Alley, the 85 mile stretch along the Mississippi River that is home to predominately Black communities and has some of the world’s highest concentration of petrochemical plants. The residents of these communities face disproportionately high rates of cancer and other diseases brought on by high exposure to toxic chemicals.

The NAACP has long been at war against fossil fuels, which have sparked controversies around the nation.

“Poor air quality due to fossil fuel combustion kills 350,000 people every year. Black communities are exposed to more particulate matter – a driver for poor air quality – compared to the overall U.S. population,” the organization reports at NAACP.org. “Fossil fuels account for nearly 75% of all greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions cause extreme weather and issues like sea level rise. Black communities are disproportionately harmed by natural disasters due to the high level of emissions in Black communities…Fossil fuel economy creates ‘sacrifice zones’ which are places to concentrate the pollution. These zones are disproportionately in Black and people of color communities.”

Fortunately, we are starting to see some progress in issues related to environmental justice. Black communities throughout the United States have been effective recently in pushing back on potentially dangerous projects that could threaten their public health.

Union Hill, Virginia, a small community founded by former enslaved people, had enough resident opposition toa proposed Dominion Energy pipeline project that the company eventually cancelled their plans. In Memphis, Tennessee, a Black neighborhood successfully organized opposition to a proposed pipeline that could have contaminated the area’s drinking water. And Brooklyn, New York residents recently defeated a company’s plan toconstruct a new natural gas pipeline underneath their neighborhood.

These examples demonstrate the power of community voices, but those voices will be most effective only when there is sufficient public notice and information shared about new projects. In the case of the Louisiana Energy Gateway pipeline, there is none.

What’s most concerning about this project is that it may not be an isolated event. If other companies see Williams effectively bypass the public notification and review process by purposely misclassifying their own project, they are likely to follow suit.

Louisiana’s Black communities already have a well-deserved distrust of energy projects being built in backyards. Unless FERC intervenes in the Louisiana Energy Gateway pipeline, this distrust is only going to grow.