Biden admin appears to fabricate paper trail in pursuit of major chemical plant shutdown: court docs

 The Biden administration's lawsuit could lead to 'complete loss of revenue streams, substantial loss of workforce, supply chain disruption.'

The Biden administration appears to have failed in a purportedly non-partisan science review while building a paper trail in support of its environmental justice efforts targeting a major chemical plant, according to court filings reviewed by Fox News Digital. Have interfered.

In stunning testimony late last year, Michael Morton—who lives in Washington, D.C. - served as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 6 Science Liaison in the EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD) in the U.S. - admitted that he had not written a single significant article in July. 2021 Email sent from their email address. That email quashed a scientific review of the health risks associated with chloroprene emissions, which is at the center of an ongoing federal lawsuit with broader economic implications.

"I didn't write that," Morton told lawyers for synthetics maker Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE) during a deposition in November. Pressed on the email, he said, "I didn't say that. As for that part, I didn't say that – I don't know it, so I don't know who wrote it."

Morton's testimony and the revelations of additional information made public in recent months could ultimately derail the Biden administration's lawsuit against DPE, which, if successful, would threaten the future operations of the company's major manufacturing facility in LaPlace, Louisiana. in, and could set a widely threatening precedent. The billion-dollar American petrochemical industry.

In February 2023, the Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit against DPE on behalf of the EPA, seeking to force the closure of the chemical manufacturer's LaPlace facility – the so-called Pontchartrain Works site, which is the only one producing neoprene, a synthetic rubber. Represents the American plant. Military equipment, wetsuits and medical technology – to reduce emissions of chloroprene. Chloroprene is a liquid raw material that is emitted during neoprene manufacturing.

According to the lawsuit, the plant's emissions pose a cancer risk to residents of St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, and therefore present an "imminent and substantial threat to the public health and welfare."

“When I visited St. John the Baptist Parish during my first Journey to Justice visit, I pledged to the community that EPA would take strong action to protect the health and safety of families from harmful chloroprene emissions from the Denka facility,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said after the lawsuit was filed that DPE "has not moved far enough or fast enough" to reduce emissions.

Less than a month later, the Justice Department filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in the case, essentially asking the court to shut down DPE's neoprene facility if the company did not immediately implement substantial emissions reductions. Failed. Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim said the proposal "reflects our determination to address environmental justice concerns."

The DPE said in a response motion months later that the federal government's action "amounts to a shutdown order that will have devastating consequences for the DPE," adding that it would lead to "complete loss of revenue streams, substantial loss of workforce, supply chains." Will happen. "Disruption and contractual impacts, and regulatory challenges."

The company called the Biden administration's efforts against it politically motivated, unsupported by real-world science and outside its legal authority under the Clean Air Act. DPE explained how its Laplace facility has rapidly curbed chloroprene emissions and complied with environmental permits.

DPE also pointed to Louisiana Tumor Registry data showing that St. John the Baptist Parish, the area where its neoprene facility is located, has recorded the lowest cancer rates of any region in the state.

And, in particular, DPE has criticized the EPA for basing its lawsuit largely on a study published in 2010 that concluded that chloroprene was "likely to be carcinogenic to humans." That study, which itself cites a 25-year-old study of female rats, led to a strict emissions standard of 0.2 micrograms of chloroprene per cubic meter of air, which the EPA wants to impose on DPE's facility in LaPlace.

DPE and Louisiana lawmakers have been calling for EPA action to reevaluate that stringent standard, arguing in favor of additional study and scientific review for years, and arguing that a 2010 study found chloroprene to be carcinogenic to humans. The threat has been underestimated.

The EPA appeared to relent in April 2021, when its Region 6 branch, based in Texas but covering Louisiana and other southern states, designated chloroprene for review to reconsider its assessment of the chemical's health risks. . But the EPA's ORD office ultimately declined to pursue the review, citing a July 2021 email from Region 6 science liaison Morton, who recently testified that she did not write that email.

Morton's email, which was sent to the senior EPA ORD, read, "We are seeking reductions in additional chloroprene emissions from the DPE facility in LaPlace, Louisiana in order to reduce the risk of chloroprene emissions from the DPE facility in the surrounding community. Can go." Official Chris Thayer.

“The estimate of cancer inhalation risk is one of the factors that EPA and Louisiana DEQ are using to determine the extent of additional emissions reductions required from the DPE facility,” it concluded.

The revelations show that, in withdrawing Chloroprene's nomination, ORD allegedly cited an email from Region 6, but it appears that it was actually drafted using Morton's email address And he himself was sent.

However, if EPA had moved forward with chloroprene's nomination and engaged in new research, its eventual lawsuit targeting DPE's LaPlace facility would have been derailed.

The EPA declined to comment, citing its policy against commenting on pending litigation.

Overall, the billion-dollar petrochemical industry in Louisiana is a major driver of jobs and investment in the state. According to the Energy Information Administration, the industry is also a central reason why the state is the third-largest consumer of petroleum and the largest consumer of petroleum per capita in the country.

However, the petrochemical industry has long been the target of environmentalists, who argue that it is responsible for harmful emissions and pollution that is negatively impacting the health of surrounding communities.