RESERVE, La. — A bit of background: in April, the Environmental Protection Agency strengthened Clean Air Act regulations and put new restrictions on chemical plants to greatly reduce the amount of chloroprene released. The EPA says the rule would reduce the number of people at elevated cancer risk by 96 percent.
Back to Denka: the company told our Rachel Handley back in May that there was no way it would meet the deadline to reduce these emissions and may have to shut down its plant in LaPlace, putting 250 jobs at risk.
The company filed an emergency motion to extend the 90-day deadline.
According to our partners at the Times Picayune New Orleans Advocate, Denka told the court it will take two years to install the necessary equipment and other plants who emit similar chemicals were given more time to comply.
But Thursday, a judge rejected Denka’s request for more time.
A spokesperson for the company wrote in a statement,
“DPE is disappointed that the Court did not grant its request for a stay of the unworkable 90-day deadline that EPA imposed on our company in the agency’s Chloroprene Rule. DPE will continue to fight EPA’s politically motivated actions that have intentionally singled out DPE among all other chemical manufacturers in the nation. While the likelihood of a court staying a federal agency rulemaking was always low (the Court has not granted a stay of an EPA rule in a least the last 10 years), DPE has several remaining options to extend EPA’s unrealistic compliance deadline against our facility, including the extension application that we submitted to LDEQ several weeks ago.
As America’s sole producer of neoprene, a significant component of which is used in U.S. military equipment, and critical products for the automotive, healthcare, and construction sectors,DPE will continue to fight against such malicious and unwarranted regulatory overreach. We greatly appreciate the ongoing support our facility and our 250 employees have received from Louisiana’s elected officials, including Governor Jeff Landry, Attorney General Liz Murrill and members of the Louisiana Congressional delegation.”
We’re working to learn when the clock starts ticking on the 90-day deadline.
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