Controversial $2.5B Oil Terminal Moves Forward In Plaquemines Parish

"Export terminal would be built on slave cemetery, emit 566,466 tons of greenhouse gases per year"

"Even as President Joe Biden and Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards take on climate change, a Midwest energy company and Plaquemines Parish officials are reviving efforts to build an oil pipeline and Mississippi River export terminal that would emit more than 500,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year.

The developers say they would invest $2.5 billion and create 35 permanent jobs. But their Plaquemines Liquids Terminal, in addition to its air pollution, would be built atop a 19th century cemetery for enslaved people and might interfere with Louisiana’s $2 billion proposal to restore storm-buffering wetlands in Barataria Bay.

For more than a year, the Plaquemines Liquids Terminal project has stalled, much like past industrial plans for the same West Bank site at the former St. Rosalie Plantation. Now, however, the developers are moving forward with their application for an air pollution permit, one of several permits they will need to start construction once they finish commercializing the project."

Halle Parker reports for the New Orleas Times-Picayune April 18, 2021.

Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, 04/21/2021