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“Federal overreach” might sound like a scary political boogeyman, but can it really hurt us?

Well, for the more than 200 Louisianans who get up every morning and head to work at Denka Performance Elastomer’s LaPlace Neoprene production facility, federal overreach could mean their jobs disappear overnight. And that’s scary.

Denka Performance Elastomer and its team produce a synthetic rubber product that is integral to athletic clothing, consumer goods, medical and military supplies.

This facility is important—not just to those employees, but to all of us. It’s the second-largest employer and one of the largest taxpayers in St. John the Baptist Parish, and it’s the only U.S. producer of critical materials otherwise only available from manufacturers in Asia.

But to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, DPE has for years been the proverbial guinea pig on which it tests strategies to push the limits of its power.

Over the past 10 years, EPA has used enforcement actions, lawsuits, emergency orders and new rules in an attempt to strong-arm the facility into spending millions on emissions reduction and monitoring equipment—or shut down. The company worked in good faith with EPA to update site equipment and practices. Meanwhile, the agency publicly shamed the company, stirred up fear among its neighbors, and left local officials hanging without clear information or guidance.

EPA has done this to a company that has, by all accounts, been a model partner. Within a couple of years of purchasing the facility, DPE reduced the sites’ emissions to 15 percent of historical levels voluntarily. The company also instituted baseline and continuous air monitoring and funded the development of a study on the potential impacts of its operations using the best available methodology.

Even without these efforts by DPE, there is no evidence to suggest increased health impacts near its facility. In fact, the only justification for EPA’s actions has been one erroneous and debunked lab study the agency used to suggest a high health risk related to company operations.

DPE and its employees’ livelihoods are safe, for now, thanks to Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill. They came to the company’s aid in filing legal challenges and intervening in EPA’s lawsuits against the company. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality also recently granted DPE a 2-year reprieve from a new EPA rule, giving the company more time to fight back against EPA’s overreach and insist the best available science be used to regulate its operations.

Federal regulations should advance safety, environmental quality, and sound science. None of those are true for EPA’s actions against Denka Performance Elastomer.

Along with our governor and attorney general, we’ll continue fighting on the side of common sense. But, absent a major political shakeup, we can expect EPA will expand its overreach tactics to other Louisiana companies and the hardworking men and women they employ. Unchecked, these actions could threaten the livelihoods of thousands and the foundation of our state’s economy.

Greg Bowser is president and CEO of the Louisiana Chemical Association

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