Five AGs Filed Comments Urging Army Corps of Engineers to More Carefully Evaluate Formosa Plastics Plant

New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of five attorneys general in submitting comments to the Army Corps of Engineers regarding the agency’s reevaluation of the permits granted to the Formosa Plastics petrochemical plant in St. James Parish, Louisiana. In November 2020, the Corps suspended the plant’s Clean Water Act Section 404 and Rivers and Harbors Act Section 10 permit, but did so with no mention of environmental justice or greenhouse gas contributions. The coalition urged the Corps to broaden the scope of the reevaluation, specifically by considering the plant’s contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and by focusing on the disproportionate impacts the plant would have on low-income, Black communities in the area.

On August 18, 2021, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it will prepare an environmental impact statement for plant. The multi-year review will analyze the public health, environmental, climate, environmental justice, and cultural impacts of the plant.