Profit for me, pollution for thee in Louisiana

Opinion>Opinions - Energy and Environment The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill Profit for me, pollution for thee in Louisiana Comments: by Ashley Gaignard and Twila Collins, opinion contributors - 06/21/26 10:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Ashley Gaignard and Twila Collins, opinion contributors - 06/21/26 10:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied

Associated Press The Marathon Petroleum Refinery is visible in Reserve, La., Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021. Environmental advocates and residents of the Louisiana chemical corridor known as Cancer Alley have spent decades calling for change in the way industrial activity is regulated there. The EPA and the Louisiana environmental agency spent months negotiating an agreement that would have fundamentally changed the state’s air pollution permitting program. It ultimately fell apart without an agreement. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

“Deregulation.” “Opportunity.” “Abundance.” Politicians and corporations love to wrap a bad idea into a happy sounding word. It’s a long-used scheme to trick the public into believing that something bad is good for us. But behind these words lies a nasty truth.

This deregulatory agenda was in action when Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) and the two most powerful men in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), joined President Trump to announce a massive Hyundai steel plant in Louisiana.

Looking at Hyundai executives, Trump assured the men, “you’ll have no trouble getting your permits.” Then, signaling his willingness to circumvent the process, he continued, “these people you’re dealing with are top of the line — but just in case, call me.”

It is our home that was targeted in that White House press conference. We are lifelong residents of Louisiana’s River Parishes. With all the industrial pollution packed into our communities, though, you may know us by our geographic moniker: Cancer Alley.

We know what happens when government rubber-stamps permits. That is why we are sounding the alarm about both Trump’s and some Democrats’ campaign of deregulation. If we are not vigilant, the proposed data centers and other facilities in the works for your home state could create the next Cancer Alley.

Until now, there has been an approval process for the construction of polluting infrastructure. Yet between the Trump administration’s promises of permits and giveaways to the industry — a campaign promise fulfilled on Day 1 — and Landry’s fast-tracking of state and local permitting, there has been nothing standing between our communities and the bulldozers. Multinational corporations, from traditional oil companies to new tech giants hunting for sites for new data centers, have free rein.

Heavy construction vehicles are already moving in and out of our neighborhoods 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Blackouts have become the new norm, as the electrical network is overhauled to accommodate industrial demand. Upgrades that were never made on our behalf are happening at what the Louisiana governor calls “lightning speed” — all for out-of-state corporations.

Contractors working on the grid have made themselves at home in our community, trespassing on our property and using our yards as parking lots. The entitlement is overwhelming.

It isn’t lost on us that the greatest impact has been in our historically Black areas. Our parish council has repeatedly allowed plants to be sited in and around Black neighborhoods. More recently, they have followed the administration and the state, approving industrial projects without a public vote.

None of this is new. Blacks were first exploited as slave labor. Now our communities are exploited by industry.

The Hyundai facility is part of an industrial monstrosity called the RiverPlex MegaPark that threatens the burial sites of our ancestors and risks destroying our community. What should alarm all Americans, regardless of race, is how quickly this is accelerating.

Make no mistake: what industry is attempting in our home they will soon try in yours — and with government backing. That’s what this White House and Republican Party represent. Meanwhile Democrats have stopped fighting for us, instead falling for the “abundance” agenda. Clearly, they can’t hear the people of Louisiana through their podcast headphones.

Meanwhile, industry, along with congressional Republicans and some Democrats, is working to gut what remains of the permitting process. The SPEED Act would further weaken or even gut the National Environmental Policy Act, which “requires federal agencies to assess how their actions affect the environment.” In other words, it would allow industry to receive permits without the government assessing the harms that would be done to our communities and our climate.

Our state government, which always had a lower bar, also continues to pave the way for industry. When corporations apply for permits, they promise new jobs and a booming local economy. The politicians they wine and dine parrot the same talking points. There’s just one problem: in our 100-year history with the gas and petrochemical industries, those promises have never panned out.

To look at our state, you would never know that oil and gas is a profitable business. Louisiana consistently ranks at the bottom in gross domestic product, education, environment and most other metrics. For all the astounding wealth industry extracts, little remains for the benefit of our people.

That same extraction comes with huge risks as well. Land, water and air pollution are commonplace, causing record-breaking levels of cancer as well as asthma and other chronic conditions — all this, before we consider the ever-present risk of explosions and leaks.

Here’s the truth: Unfettered, deregulated industry creates abundance only for executives and shareholders. For the rest of us, it is poverty, pollution and illness.

Twila Collins is an Ascension Parish resident whose home faces the site of RiverPark MegaPlex. Ashley Gaignard is an Ascension Parish resident and founder of the nonprofit Rural Roots Louisiana.