Rise St. James v. Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality

Reversing a district court’s 2022 decision, the Louisiana Court of Appeal reinstated 15 permits for a chemical manufacturing complex in St. James Parish. The appellate court found that the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) did not violate the Clean Air Act when it issued permits for the plant’s construction and that issuance of the permits did not violate Louisiana’s public trust doctrine. Regarding DEQ’s public trust doctrine analysis, the appellate court said it could not find that DEQ’s analysis of whether there were alternative sites or alternative projects that would be more protective of the environment was arbitrary and capricious. The appellate court also rejected the argument that DEQ violated the public trust doctrine and acted arbitrarily and capriciously because it failed to consider the impacts of pollutant emissions, including greenhouse gas emissions. Regarding greenhouse gas emissions, the court found that the record reflected that DEQ considered such emissions and their impact on the environment and minimized such emissions to the maximum extent practicable by requiring best available control technology and setting maximum allowable emission rates. The court also upheld DEQ’s conclusion that the project’s social and economic benefits outweighed its environmental impact costs, as well as DEQ’s environmental justice analysis, which determined that nearby communities would not bear a disproportionate share of negative environmental impacts.