By Mathy Stanislaus
Recent political attacks against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and environmental justice have extended far beyond those terms’ original meanings and stated goals. Instead, the Trump Administration and chemical industry lobbyists are using them as cover to shield the industry’s worst actors from accountability for their actions.
In a troubling move, the Administration recently dropped an ongoing lawsuit against the Denka Performance Elastomer plant in Reserve and LaPlace, Louisiana. The U.S. Enviromental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) suit had sought to compel Denka to address what the Agency deemed an “imminent and substantial endangerment” to public health. The plant emits roughly 18 tons annually of chloroprene—a suspected carcinogen—at concentrations 14 times higher than what EPA considers safe.
The original EPA complaint highlighted a dire warning: “Infants born today in the communities surrounding the facility who are exposed to the highest measured levels of chloroprene from Denka’s neoprene manufacturing operations will exceed an estimated lifetime of acceptable excess cancer risk within approximately their first two years of life.”
The data paints a bleak picture. Roughly 20% of the population living within two-and-a-half miles of the Denka facility are children under the age of 18, with 800 to 1,000 under the age of five. More than 300 of these children attend 5th Ward Elementary School, located just 450 feet from the plant. LaPlace is about 50% African American and 40% white, while the adjacent community of Reserve is approximately 64% Black, 10% Latino, and 26% white.
But this March, the Department of Justice claimed its decision to drop the case was made based on a commitment to enforcing environmental laws “without regard to race.” At the same time, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin asserted that the Agency’s goal is to ensure “clean air for all Americans,” but “without improperly implementing so-called ‘environmental justice.’”
This contradiction is both glaring and dangerous. EPA’s own data showed disproportionate, measurable harm to children and communities of color due to the facility’s emissions. Yet the Justice Department dismissed the case under the pretense of ending “radical DEI programs”—even though the complaint was grounded solely in public health risks and never once referenced DEI or environmental justice.
To make matters worse, Administrator Zeldin issued a March 12 memo that bars EPA enforcement staff from even considering whether impacted populations are minority or low-income: “No consideration may be given to whether those affected by potential violations constitute minority or low-income populations.” This willful blindness to demographic facts effectively strips the Agency of one of its most important tools for protecting vulnerable communities—especially where enforcement might interfere with industry operations.
Simultaneously, the Trump/Zeldin EPA moved to pause a rule regulating the 12,000 chemical facilities covered under the Agency’s Risk Management Program (RMP). This critical safeguard protects emergency responders, plant workers, surrounding neighborhoods, and local economies.
Roughly 134 million people in the U.S. live within range of a worst-case chemical release, including 3.8 million people in so-called “fenceline” zones—areas located closest to high-risk facilities, with the least time to respond to a chemical disaster. These communities are disproportionately low-income, and nearly half of their residents are Black or Latino.
The rollback of the RMP rule followed a January 30, 2025 letter from industry trade associations—including the American Chemistry Council (ACC)—which misrepresented the risks posed by these facilities and conveniently ignored the human cost.
Over a five-year span, chemical industry data reveal the devastating consequences of poorly regulated operations:
- 18 worker deaths
- 575 injuries to workers
- 6 fatalities among public responders
- 5 additional responder injuries
- 134 residents seeking medical treatment
- 64,739 evacuations
- 84,808 individuals sheltering in place
These incidents led to $178 million in property damage to local communities and $2.3 billion in industry losses. The RMP rule, finalized last year but now targeted for a rollback, helps prevent such disasters by requiring facilities to plan for climate-related hazards like hurricane-induced power outages—critical foresight in an era of intensifying weather events.
During my time chairing the Obama Administration’s Interagency Chemical Facility Safety and Security Working Group (2013–2016), I traveled across the country to meet with community members, plant employees, first responders, and industry representatives. These visits revealed a pattern of ongoing risk to fenceline communities—of all races and disproportionately low-income and Black or Latino—at the fenceline of chemical plants.
We worked closely with the chemical industry to develop a balanced rule—one that protected communities without imposing undue burdens on businesses. Yet when that rule was ready to be implemented, the ACC and its allies lobbied aggressively to dismantle it. Later, in collaboration with frontline community organizations and the Biden Administration, the rule was restored.
For years, industry lobbyists have treated regulatory change as a profit opportunity, weaponizing political shifts to avoid responsibility. But at what cost? When legal maneuvers strip already overburdened communities of their constitutional right to equal protection, the damage is more than environmental—it’s moral and democratic. The ACC is apparently doubling down. In a letter entitled: “Powering the Great American Comeback Fact Sheet.” ACC seeks to waive limitations and monitoring on releases of a host of hazardous pollutants tied to cancer and other illnesses, including chloroprene, ethylene oxide and benzene, and required monitoring of six of these chemicals.
The question now is whether leaders in the chemical industry will stand silent while their trade associations leverage anti-DEI and environmental justice rhetoric to shield bad actors. Or will they defend the companies that are doing things right—those that do invest in safety, accountability, and the health of their workers and neighbors?
The time to choose is now. Public health, environmental protection, and the integrity of our democratic institutions hang in the balance.
Mathy Stanislaus is a former Senate-confirmed U.S. EPA Assistant Administrator under the Obama Administration, and a former chair of that Administration’s Interagency Chemical Facility Safety and Security Working Group.