Analyze

In the years following Gov. Buddy Roemer and Paul Templet’s leadership of the DEQ, “Louisiana has not seen a governor make environmental protection a priority” (Russell 2019). Templet was replaced with Kai Midboe, an attorney who had formerly represented the gas and oil industry. The environmental scorecard program ended. In 2008, Bobby Jindal became governor and cut 300 positions from the department. 

Between 2008 and 2018, Louisiana reduced environmental protection program funding by 35% and reduced its staffing by 30% (Environmental Integrity Project 2019). A 2021 legislative audit of LDEQ found that “DEQ faces challenges related to low staffing levels, high workloads, frequent turnover of staff, and ineffective data systems that make it more difficult to perform its regulatory work. For example, DEQ’s positions dedicated to air quality regulation decreased 14.6%, from 247 in fiscal year 2010 to 211 in 2019.” (Louisiana Legislative Auditor 2021).

Today, LDEQ explicitly avoids use of the term “Cancer Alley,” according to the department spokesperson Greg Langley: “ ‘That term implies that there is a large geographic area that has higher cancer incidence than the state average. We have not seen higher cancer incidence over large areas of the industrial corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.’ ”—this, despite the data from the EPA showing that almost every census tract in the area is ranked in the top 5% nationally for cancer risk as a result of toxic air pollution (LaRose 2024).  

 “The Thin Green Line.” Environmental Integrity Project. December 5, 2019.

Russel, Gordon. 2019. “How an Environmental Regulator Became Known for Protecting Industry.” ProPublica. December 19, 2019. https://www.propublica.org/article/how-an-environmental-regulator-became-known-for-protecting-industry.

Kaare Johnson Talks. 2023. “Dr. Paul Templet, Former Head of La DEQ Joins Kaare To Discuss Lack of Enforcement And More!” Streamed on Sep 11, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-8jJtKRI2w. 

Templet, Paul H. 2001. “Defending the Public Domain: Pollution, Subsidies and Poverty.” SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.333280.

LaRose, Greg, Louisiana Illuminator February 1, and 2024. 2024. “DEQ Remains in Denial over ‘Cancer Alley’ Industry Correlations.” Louisiana Illuminator (blog). February 1, 2024. https://lailluminator.com/2024/02/01/cancer-alley-3/. 

Louisiana Legislative Auditor. 2021. “Monitoring and Enforcement of Air Quality. Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.” https://app2.lla.state.la.us/publicreports.nsf/0/bbc259a7e7a73cfa8625713b002c8e7b/$file/00001572.pdf?openelement&.7773098. 

Several political and discursive currents, including The Environmental Justice Movement, Climate Change, Political and Policy Shifts, and Community Mobilization, influence the EHC. Actors within the organization are attuned to these currents and work to navigate them to promote environmental justice and healthy communities.

Changes in government policies and regulations can impact the organization's ability to achieve its goals, requiring innovative and creative solutions to continue developing new opportunities for organizing and advocacy. Shifting public opinion and media coverage can also affect how the public and policymakers perceive the organization.

1. APEN works at the intersection of environmental and economic justice, immigrant rights, and advocating for policies prioritizing the needs of low-income Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Many of the issues in AAPI communities are rooted in a legacy of colonization and imperialism within the United States. APEN prioritizes these concerns by directly supporting the voices and leadership at the frontlines of their community's work. 

1. Climate Justice – CBE efforts are focused on the intersection of environmental issues, emphasizing the significance of the disproportionate impacts on low-income communities of color.

2. Racial Justice – The CBE is committed to amplifying the voices of Black and Brown communities in their work. Their work can be considered an effort to dismantle systems of oppression and inequality.

3. Corporate Power – CBE can be seen as a counterbalance to corporate interests and is proactive in holding polluters accountable by promoting policies that prioritize public health and environmental protection over corporate profits.

Adrian Martin is a professor of Environment and Development at the School of International Development, University of East Anglia, UK. His prior publication, Just Conservation: Biodiversity, Wellbeing and Sustainability, calls for reassessing conservation from the viewpoint of social justice. He describes the goals of his research as being centered on informing “the management of natural resources in developing countries, particularly in relation to governance of protected areas, integrated conservation and development, participatory forestry and agricultural intensification.”

The author, Chad Raphael, is the Faculty Associate for Sustainability across the Curriculum  at Santa Clara University and Co-Coordinator of the Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative. Raphael is considered a prominent scholar in political and environmental communication and has served as a consultant in designing communication campaigns for many environmental organizations. In his position as researcher and professor, Raphael remains committed to integrating his research and teaching by continually co-publishing with undergraduate students. 

Yuanni Wang is a PhD student at the Department of Sociology at Hohai University in Nanjing China and Xinhong Wang is Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK.

"What does the lack in prominence of environmental coverage in German TV tell us about the general state of environmental journalism in Germany? It is almost impossible to draw con- clusions based on hard facts and numbers.There is no national organization of professionals in the media dealing with this topic like the Society of Environmental Journalists in the USA, for instance.That means there are also no statistics about how many editors, reporters, or producers would count themselves as environmental journalists; nobody is keeping track. Communications scholars, when asked about the number of environmental journalists in Germany, reply with: “That’s something I would also like to know; tell me if you find out.”There is no formal educa- tion, and only a few training opportunities are offered for established writers and editors who want to specialize in the field. In recent years, some well-qualified and experienced reporters on newspapers with influential voices have departed (or been made to depart) the publishing houses or even journalism per se, leaving a noticeable gap." (Schrader 2020)

"Summarizing, environmental journalism in Germany appears to be in a transition phase. Many traditional media and press outlets are struggling to keep their business model or find a new one. And reporting on air quality, biodiversity, or the climate beyond their often-superficial implications for national politics is not high on the list of priorities. Much of the work might be shifting to online publishing in new contexts and organizations, but those are still forming and far from settled."