Each time, the bill died.
“I got so frustrated because every year this was opposed by industry for no good reason,” said Fields.
He said the petrochemical industry argued the bills would cost too much. “Well, what is it costing people?
It’s costing them their lives.”
State senator Royce Duplessis, a New Orleans Democrat, tried again in 2024 with a bill requiring perimeter monitors at facilities emitting toxic pollutants.
That measure also failed. The Louisiana Chemistry Association (LCA), representing 70 chemical industry companies, and other groups repeatedly fought these efforts.
The LCA helped draft the 2024 Community Air Monitoring Reliability Act (Camra), which prohibits using air pollution data for enforcement unless captured by EPA-approved monitors – equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars, beyond most community groups.
Critics say the law has stifled community air-quality reporting efforts.
Camra’s sponsor, Republican state senator Eddie Lambert, chairs the state senate environmental committee, which repeatedly killed air pollution monitoring bills.
Lambert has received more than $28,000 in political contributions from petrochemical, oil and gas, and other polluting industries since 2020 and has reported investing in major oil companies.
In 2024, the LCA covered his $450 hotel bill for a conference where he spoke.
Lambert told Floodlight neither his investments nor industry campaign contributions influenced his decisions. “I don’t take that into consideration at all,” he said.
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He added that he was surprised oil and gas companies had donated to his campaigns because he consistently backed industry positions.
