My home state of Louisiana, known to most Europeans for its Mardi Gras carnival, blues, and beignets, is also a global epicentre for the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry.
Pollution from the industry explains the deadly nickname, 'Cancer Alley', an 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi river between New Orleans and Baton Rouge where communities live side by side with some 200 oil refineries and petrochemical operations.
Living in Cancer Alley means that I have a message for the European Parliament as it continues to debate the EU’s flagship corporate accountability law: do not give in to the fossil fuel industry.
The EU law, known as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, requires companies operating in the EU to address their impacts on communities and workers and to implement a plan to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Over the past year, as European companies and some member states have pushed a wider deregulation agenda, US and EU fossil fuel companies have particularly targeted the corporate accountability law.
Fossil-fuel companies have lobbied EU officials directly and have asked US president Donald Trump to weaken the law as part of trade negotiations with the EU.
As part of the EU-US trade deal, the EU also agreed to procure US fossil fuel and nuclear energy products worth $750bn [€645bn] through 2028 and to “work to provide additional flexibilities” in implementation of the EU’s carbon border tax. US officials and firms are now pushing the EU to roll back regulations that would require firms importing natural gas to the EU to limit methane emissions, a greenhouse gas and harmful pollutant.
Our experience in Cancer Alley shows why it is so important for the EU to preserve laws that require companies to tackle their pollution and climate impacts.
Nearly every census tract in Cancer Alley ranks in the top five percent nationally for cancer risk from toxic air pollution, according to a 2023 study.
My own town in 2023 had the highest risk of cancer from industrial air pollution in the country, more than seven times the national average.
The harms of pollution are disproportionately borne by Cancer Alley’s Black residents, many of whom are descendants of the enslaved people that worked on the plantations that preceded the fossil fuel industry.
Cancer Alley’s health crisis is primarily a product of state and federal government’s failure to adequately regulate the fossil-fuel industry
Friends and family members have suffered and even died from cancer, reproductive complications, and respiratory ailments. Babies are also frequently born underweight, which increases the health risks associated with premature births.
Cancer Alley’s health crisis is primarily a product of state and federal government’s failure to adequately regulate the fossil-fuel industry.
A 2011 report by the US Environmental Protection Agency attributed Louisiana’s weak enforcement of US air and water quality regulation to the state’s “lack of resources, natural disasters, and a culture in which the [relevant] state agency is expected to protect industry.”
Since taking office again, Trump has further weakened federal environmental and pollution control regulations, including proposals to limit rules on power plant emissions and industrial toxins.
So, while there are aspects of Louisiana and US culture that I would highly recommend, following their lead on climate and environmental policies that enable pollution by the fossil fuel industry is not one of them.
Fortunately, there are MEPs speaking up against weakening the EU’s corporate accountability law.
On 22 October, the European Parliament rejected proposed changes to the law that would have reduced the number of companies covered and weakened its climate provisions.
EU parliamentarians are now trying to negotiate a compromise that would satisfy the call to simplify EU regulation while preserving key elements of the law.
As these negotiations move forward, EU parliamentarians should push back against any revived proposal to reduce the scope of the EU’s corporate accountability law, weaken its climate protections, or limit access to justice for victims of corporate abuses. EU institutions should also preserve other key elements of European climate policy, including limits on methane emissions.
I know that many Europeans, like our communities in Cancer Alley, understand that pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the fossil industry are a fundamental threat to our lives and wellbeing.
They should not let fossil fuel companies tell them otherwise.
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Joy Banner is a co-founder of The Descendants Project, which works to protect the health, land, and lives of communities descended from slavery located in Louisiana’s river parishes, also known as 'Cancer Alley'.
Joy Banner is a co-founder of The Descendants Project, which works to protect the health, land, and lives of communities descended from slavery located in Louisiana’s river parishes, also known as 'Cancer Alley'.