Pascagoula residents sue EPA to halt production of Chevron’s plastic fuel
In this file photo, a portion of a shipyard is visible from a now-closed road near Barbara Weckesser’s home in the Cherokee Forest subdivision neighborhood in Pascagoula, Mississippi, on December 17, 2022. Weckesser and her neighborhood group, Cherokee Concerned Citizens, are suing the EPA to try and stop Chevron from producing new chemicals from plastic waste at its refinery that's also near Cherokee Forest.
A neighborhood group filed a lawsuit on April 7 to stop the production of new chemicals in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Last August, the Environmental Protection Agency approved for Chevron to produce fuel from plastic at its refinery just a few miles away from the Cherokee Forest neighborhood. The area is surrounded by shipbuilding yards and other oil refineries and chemical plants.
Residents are concerned that this latest decision will hurt their air quality even more by increasing their cancer risks.
“I was told they’re going to lower emissions on a lot of these places but, in turn, they’re going to let them now release a chemical that they don’t even know anything about,” Barbara Weckesser, a Pascagoula resident and member of Cherokee Concerned Citizens, said.
Weckesser said her group filed the lawsuit with Earthjustice after a ProPublica report showed concerns about the new chemical. They hope the lawsuit will lead to better regulation of air emissions.
Cherokee Concerned Citizens are continuing to survey residents on relocation. They’re working with other agencies, like Thriving Earth Exchange, to find a solution.
This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration among Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama and WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.
Judge demands to know if White House is helping return wrongly deported Maryland man
The hearing is the first about Abrego Garcia's case since El Salvador's president told reporters he is not going to "smuggle a terrorist into the United States."
Trump signs executive action to lower drug prices
The action is intended to build upon the existing program for Medicare drug price negotiations, which was created by the Inflation Reduction Act that passed during the Biden administration.
Top House Democrat says DOGE data access at NLRB may be ‘technological malfeasance’
A top House Democrat is asking independent agency watchdogs to investigate after NPR reporting revealed DOGE may have taken sensitive data from the National Labor Relations Board.
New Israeli ceasefire offer demands Hamas discuss disarming, but group rejects it
Hamas is rejecting a new Israeli proposal to pause the war in Gaza, a Hamas official told NPR. Earlier, officials mediating talks had expressed optimism that a deal could be reached within weeks.
Higher ed war heats up as Trump threatens Harvard’s tax-exempt status
The president's comments came after the administration froze $2 billion in federal grants for Harvard after the university rejected what it saw as illegal government demands.
U.S. Army libraries target books with a focus on DEI or ‘gender ideology’ for removal
Books "overtly promoting DEI, gender ideology, and critical race theory" are under new scrutiny following a memo issued by acting Assistant Secretary of the Army Derrick Anderson.
