Discriminatory outcomes of industrial air permitting in Louisiana, United States

Overwhelming evidence indicates that communities of Color in the United States are disproportionately harmed by pollution. Yet, state environmental regulators, who permit industrial polluters under the U.S. Clean Air Act, do not universally recognize these disparities. In Louisiana, regulators have denied the existence of pollution disparities and have suggested that infrastructure explains why heavy industry is concentrated in certain neighborhoods. We used a multi-part approach to determine if there is a racial disparity in Louisiana’s industrial emissions and, if so, whether infrastructure or state permitting drives this disparity.