Sierra Club: LDEQ Must Not Expedite Hyundai Steel Permit Due to Significant Flaws & Inconsistencies in the Application

Baton Rouge, LA - Today, Sierra Club and its Delta Chapter submitted another round of comments to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality after identifying additional errors, inconsistencies, and misrepresentations in Hyundai's air permit application for its proposed steel plant. The comments highlight why LDEQ should not expedite a permit for this new steel plant.

Sierra Club uncovered significant flaws in Hyundai's application, including major discrepancies in the potential emissions and proposed limit of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (estimates of potential emission range from 1.9 million tons per year to 18 million tons per year), and Hyundai's failure to consider electrified components and pollution controls that would significantly reduce the facility's public health harms.

The letter calls on LDEQ to require Hyundai to submit proper and accurate analyses in an updated application and to "facilitate a public information session about the plant, hold multiple public hearings, and allow the public at least 60 days to comment on any draft air permit."

These new comments sent to LDEQ are in addition to another letter submitted by Sierra Club in February that revealed Hyundai failed to provide any details about its carbon capture and sequester plans, nor did it provide any details about its plans to utilize green hydrogen despite public promises.

In reaction, Sierra Club released the following statements:

Angelle Bradford Rosenberg, Sierra Club Delta Chapter Chair, said: "The people who would live near the Hyundai steel plant deserve the whole truth about the plant's potential pollution impacts. They were promised a clean, green facility, but the air permit application tells a different story. We urge Hyundai to live up to its promise of innovation, and work with the community to chart a new path forward for clean steel that takes the health and future of its neighbors into account. LDEQ must hold the company to that commitment, and the law."

Andrea Issod, Sierra Club Senior Attorney, said: "Based on the glaring errors and inconsistencies in the application, staggering pollution estimates, and shoddy technical analysis, LDEQ should drop any thought of rushing through Hyundai's air permit. Instead, the agency must ensure the company complies with the legal requirements in the Clean Air Act and Louisiana Public Trust to reduce harmful pollution impacts as much as possible on the surrounding community, which already bears a 96% percentile burden of toxic releases as compared to the national average. The community deserves a transparent, thorough, and accurate assessment of information about the plant with the opportunity to weigh in on the process."

###