Bill seeks to make Louisiana ‘fossil fuel sanctuary’ in bid against Biden’s climate plans

Republicans and Democrats are introducing bills to push against Biden's new restrictions on oil and gas companies

Just south of Oil City, where Louisiana representative Danny McCormick is from, is the predominantly Black city of Shreveport. Residents there breathe some of the most toxic air in the country. Oil refineries owned by UOP and Calumet contribute to the town's toxic emissions, according to the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory.

But McCormick, a Republican, introduced a bill at the Louisiana capitol last week that would protect oil companies and not residents in his district who have to breathe in that air. The bill would establish Louisiana as a fossil fuel sanctuary state" and ban local and state employees from enforcing federal laws and regulations that negatively impact petrochemical companies.