EPA Renews Bid for Rare Shutdown Order in Denka Emissions Fight

The battle over chloroprene limits in Louisiana’s most polluted industrial corridor is zigzagging between district and appellate courts, shining a spotlight on the EPA’s emissions crackdown in “Cancer Alley” and the use of a rare Clean Air Act action that could shutter a petrochemical plant’s operations.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Sept. 17 moved to resurrect a case at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana to temporarily halt operations at Denka Performance Elastomer LLC’s Louisiana plant, utilizing the Clean Air Act’s Section 303—a little-used provision that allows the agency to order a shutdown or ask for ...