Page 16 - Sunshine Bridge News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

‘One Oppressive Economy Begets Another’ Anya Groner © Stacy Kranitz Sharon Lavigne was teaching a special-education class when her daughter called to tell her about the Sunshine Project. Named for its proximity to Louisiana’s Sunshine Bridge, the operation, helmed by the Taiwanese behemoth Formosa Plastics, was on track to build one of the world’s largest plastic plants. Already the air Lavigne breathed in her native St. James Parish was some of the most toxic in the United States. Now Formosa planned to spend $9.4 billion on facilities that would make polymer and et...

The Atlantic ‘One Oppressive Economy Begets Another’ Louisiana’s petroleum industry profits from exploiting historic inequalities, showing how slavery laid the groundwork for environmental racism. Share Sharon Lavigne was teaching a special-education class when her daughter called to tell her about the Sunshine Project. Named for its proximity to Louisiana’s Sunshine Bridge, the operation, helmed by the Taiwanese behemoth Formosa Plastics, was on track to build one of the world’s largest plastic plants. Already the air Lavigne breathed in her native St. James Parish was some of the ...

DeSmog Human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council issued a statement on March 2 raising concerns about the further industrialization of Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.” This largely Black-populated stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is lined with more than a hundred refineries and petrochemical plants. The experts said additional petrochemical development in this region, which U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data shows has some of the country’s highest cancer risks from air pollution, constitutes “enviro...

Staff Report BATON ROUGE – A resolution approved Monday at the State Capitol asks Congress to funnel money from proposed federal infrastructure legislation for construction of a Mississippi River bridge to begin by 2029. Members of the multi-parish Capitol Area Road and Bridge District request Gov. John Bel Edwards and state lawmakers appropriate and direct the allocation of the funds for the planning, specifications and full funding to bring to fruition the long-desired plans for a bridge that would connect La. 1 along the Iberville and West Baton Rouge parishes with La. 30 along the St. G...

Black Americans have disproportionately suffered from pollution. It’s time for a new policy. Vox.com 2/26/2021 Rachel Ramirez © Julie Dermansky for Vox Environmental justice activist Sharon Lavigne stands outside her home in St. James, Louisiana, on February 23, 2021. Sharon Lavigne has lived in St. James Parish, Louisiana, a predominantly Black community, all her life. She remembers when the air wasn’t covered with thick gray smog, when the water was still safe to drink, when the gardens were productive and fertile. But now, she says, “we are sick and we are dying...