This month, the Biden Administration announced that more than 200 chemical plants across the country will be required to limit their toxic emissions. Like the administration’s pause on approvals of dirty gas exports in January, this regulation will help to fight climate change and protect communities on the frontlines. But while there is progress, Big Oil is already fighting back.

Politicians allied with oil and gas have used dog whistle attacks against the administrator of the EPA, a prominent Black federal official, and have harassed local Black-led organizations with threats disguised as administrative procedure. They know that when frontline communities—Black, brown, and Indigenous people, women, LGBTQ+ people, and young folks—are put first, we can win on climate. Now is the time to double down on investments to protect frontline communities as Big Oil tries to turn up the heat.

For decades, Black communities in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” have stood up to big oil-and-gas companies. They have led the fight against dirty gas and petrochemicals—carbon bombs that pollute the atmosphere and poison communities. On Earth Day, we must make sure President Biden’s pause on dirty gas expansion becomes a stop and prepare for Big Oil’s next pivot: petrochemicals.

Cancer Alley is an 85-mile stretch of communities from Baton Rouge to New Orleans that has the highest concentration of fossil fuel and petrochemical operations in the western hemisphere. Before fossil fuels poison the Earth’s atmosphere, they poison us—contaminating our air and water through oil, gas, and petrochemical production. Climate pollution may spawn monster storms and rising seas, but dirty oil and gas have given us the highest cancer risk in the nation and preterm births that are two-and-a-half times the national average. Because of oil, gas, and petrochemicals, we breathe dangerous air and drink contaminated water—and it’s killing us.

While America reduces its reliance on fossil fuels, Big Oil companies think they have a lifeline: petrochemicals. Those are the oil and gas byproducts used to make plastics, industrial chemicals, and pesticides that poison the environment and our bodies. A petrochemical boom would not end climate pollution; it would just hide it. It would be just as dangerous for the climate as dirty gas, and just as dangerous for the people of St. James Parish, St. John the Baptist Parish, and other communities in Cancer Alley. This month’s regulation of toxic chemicals is just the first step toward blocking Big Oil’s petrochemical pivot. 

Oil-and-gas companies are still speeding toward their ramp-up of petrochemicals. Expansion is underway for at least 19 new fossil fuel and petrochemical plants across Cancer Alley. Before Biden announced his pause on dirty gas expansion, a Louisiana court revived plans for a massive, 16-facility plant by Formosa Plastics that could triple the cancer risk in St. James Parish. If we want to stand up to Big Oil, fight for healthy air and water, and fight for a livable climate, the Formosa plant cannot be built.

We can either demand safer, cleaner energy and manufacturing, or we can allow our communities to become perpetual sacrifice zones for Big Oil profits. That should be an easy choice. Some people ask why we don’t just leave our homes and find a place that’s less polluted. We stay because our place here is earned in blood. Before these fields held factories, they held plantations where many of our ancestors were held captive, toiled, and died. We have a right to this land, and we cannot abandon it. 

The fact is, as long as big oil-and-gas companies go unchecked, no place is truly safe. East Palestine, Ohio, wasn’t safe from a derailment that released a cloud of toxic chemicals into the town. The southwest isn’t safe from deadly extreme heat caused by climate change. Even Maui wasn’t safe from a catastrophic, climate-fueled wildfire. 

We fight for our communities, but when we win, so does the world. This is why, time and again, Black and brown people have been the vanguard of the climate fight. We can’t have climate justice without environmental justice, and we can’t have environmental justice without racial justice. When we win, it means restoring years to people’s lives and protecting us all from climate destruction. 

The Biden administration’s progress could be transformative, but it might not last. As we approach the presidential election, recent progress is threatened by a climate denier who has vowed “all-out war on climate science and policies.” We cannot accept being dragged backward—not when there’s so much further to go.

Still, this is bigger than November. We need a renewed commitment to civic engagement—educating ourselves and our communities, using our power in local elections, and pushing our leaders to stand up for us. Taking our blueprint from the civil rights movement, we must mobilize, organize, and agitate for the world we believe is possible. 

We are innovating and mobilizing low-income communities and people of color. We are saying enough is enough, and we are building a better future every day, not just on Earth Day. Putting justice first, we can do just that.

Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. is president & CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus Action Fund, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, multi-issue organization that focuses on addressing core issues affecting underserved and vulnerable communities.Sharon Lavigne is an environmental justice advocate in Louisiana focused on combating petrochemical complexes in Cancer Alley. She leads Rise St. James, a faith-based grassroots organization that is fighting for environmental justice while working to defeat the proliferation of petrochemical industries in St. James Parish, Louisiana.

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