US Climate Fight Will Move to States, Cities After Trump’s Win

Sharon Lavigne’s life has been cloaked in pollution.

Lavigne is a retired special education teacher from St. James Parish, a region within Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, nicknamed for its high concentration of polluting industries. But that wasn’t on Lavigne’s mind when she went to a community meeting in 2015. A teacher friend had been passed over for a promotion, and she wanted to find out why.

She didn’t get an answer — but she kept going to meetings.

Then in 2018, a plastics company announced it would build a large complex near Lavigne’s home. A community-based health committee “said they couldn’t fight it because the ...