A coalition of Louisiana environmental groups is suing the state over a law they say violates their free speech rights by restricting them from sharing information about air quality.

On days of heavy pollution in Sulphur, a southwest Louisiana town surrounded by more than 16 industrial plants, Cynthia “Cindy” Robertson once flew a red flag outside her home so her community knew they faced health hazards from high levels of soot and other pollutants.

But she stopped flying the flag after Louisiana passed a law last May that threatened fines of up to $1 million for sharing information about air quality that did not meet strict standards.

On Thursday, Robertson’s group Micah 6:8 Mission and other Louisiana environmental organizations sued the state in federal court over the law they say restricts their free speech and undermines their ability to promote public health in heavily industrialized communities.

  • AmidFuror@fedia.io
    111·
    12 hours ago

    The giveaway was someone named the town Sulphur.

    Under the Biden administration, the EPA tightened regulations for these pollutants, though the Trump administration has committed to rolling them back.

    The Biden administration’s EPA also injected funding to support community-based air monitoring, especially in neighborhoods on the “fence-line” with industrial plants that emitted pollutants that they were not required to publicly monitor under federal law. Some groups say they lack confidence in the data the state does provide and embraced the chance to monitor the air themselves with federal funding.

    Both parties are beholden to their corporate overlords. In this case, Biden was obviously trying to help Big Community Monitoring.