Crucial climate push by Biden in Louisiana's 'cancer alley' is under fire from environmentalists

Activists are afraid Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations regarding carbon storage in Louisiana's "cancer alley" could perpetuate fossil fuel industry.

That's one of the main thrusts of a story by Timothy Puko in recent editions of The Washington Post.

Carbon capture, according to the Post, is a process that has experts fighting one another. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said "developing new technology to capture or remove carbon is essential for limiting rising world temperatures in line with the 2015 Paris climate accord."

Many environmental-justice advocates, the article also notes, "object to carbon capture projects, especially in a region where petrochemical plants often sit next to black churches and schools, and high cancer rates have led to the nickname 'Cancer Alley.'"

The Biden administration sees carbon capture "as a key tool to reduce emissions from businesses that have few other options," the Post piece reports.

Beverly Wright, PhD

Puno's story quotes Beverly Wright, PhD, a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice in east New Orleans, as saying, "What they're trying to do to Louisiana now is I think the worst of anything we've been exposed to because of all the uncertainly. In the real world, this is an experiment, and this experiment is going to be conducted on the same communities that have suffered from the oil and gas industry."

On the other hand, just last month a different U.S. climate supervisory panel postulated that some of "these technologies are unproven and 'pose unknown environmental and social risks.'"

Additional information on EPA regs can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.