Groups Sue Over Formosa Plastics’ Permit Extensions

Groups Sue Over Formosa Plastics' Permit Extensions

Suit challenges the fourth extension of air permit based on an outdated analysis

Contacts

Dustin Renaud, [email protected]

Gary C. Watson, [email protected]

Today, groups filed a lawsuit against the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ), challenging the agency's decision to grant a fourth extensionof a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) preconstruction permit for Formosa Plastics' massive plastics manufacturing facility proposed for St. James Parish, Louisiana. RISE St. James, Healthy Gulf, Sierra Club-Delta Chapter, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Earthworks, and the Center for Biological Diversity are represented by Earthjustice.

"Formosa wants the state to keep this project on life support, even though it would double toxic air pollution in an already overburdened parish, and LDEQ keeps extending the permit as if our lives don't count. How many of our neighbors have to die? We're still here, we're still fighting, and St. James Parish is not a sacrifice zone," said Sharon Lavigne, Executive Director of RISE St. James.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, asks the court to invalidate the permit extension and require Formosa Plastics to apply for a new permit if it wishes to proceed.

"A fourth permit extension when the company is not ready to build is unheard of-serving as an example of how far LDEQ will go to serve industry over community health," said Mike Brown, senior attorney at Earthjustice. "In the six years since LDEQ granted the first permit, EPA has updated the standard for fine particulate matter (or soot) pollution to be more protective of human health. Modeling shows Formosa Plastics simply cannot meet the new standard."

The plastics facility, if constructed, would emit large quantities of hazardous air pollutants to an already overburdened industrial corridor. The mega plastics facility could emit more climate-warming greenhouse gases than 2 million gas-powered cars. Residents in the surrounding area have long raised concerns about asthma, respiratory illness, and other pollution-related health harms.

"LDEQ needs to stop providing Formosa Plastics with permit extensions and do their job of enforcing the law." Matt Rota, Senior Policy Director at Healthy Gulfadded. "It is clear that Formosa needs to go through the permitting process again, ensuring they are using the most protective standards. Communities surrounding the proposed Formosa industrial facility have been overburdened by wetland destruction, water contamination, and air pollution. This permit should not be hanging over their heads."

"Formosa Plastics was announced eight years ago," said Anne Rolfes, Director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade."It was a bad idea then, and it's a worse idea now. We do not need a massive plastics plant polluting the air and the water in St. James Parish, yet the state has given this disaster another extension. The Department of Environmental Quality should put away its rubber stamp and send Formosa back to the drawing board."

"We won't stand by while Louisiana gives Formosa a free pass to pollute with this illegal permit extension," said Lauren Parker, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute."Nothing is worth taking away people's clean air and good health. This proposed polluting petrochemical project should be canceled, not given more time to menace communities, wildlife and the climate."

Additional Resources

• Formosa PSD Permit Extension Petition for Judicial Review

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