Maybe it does not seem like it in America’s culture of filing lawsuits, but there are strict rules about intervention by parties that don’t have what is called “standing,” or a reason to sue, because of some harm that justifies a trial.
By David J. Mitchell
June 1, 2021 9:36 AM CT
Maybe it does not seem like it in America’s culture of filing lawsuits, but there are strict rules about intervention by parties that don’t have what is called “standing,” or a reason to sue, because of some harm that justifies a trial.
Law School 101, which apparently the attorney generals of several northeastern states and the District of Columbia are completely unfamiliar with.
The Democratic attorneys general in states like Connecticut have nothing to do with Louisiana. Their letter nevertheless urged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to scrutinize a wetlands permit, now in dispute, for a Louisiana petrochemical manufacturer.
David Dismukes, of LSU’s Center for Energy Studies, noted the AGs distance from St. James Parish, where an affiliate of Formosa Plastics seeks to build a $9.4 billion plant.
"That is something that took me aback. I mean to have a collective group of attorneys general in other states, essentially, injecting themselves into a sovereign issue in another state is quite unprecedented," Dismukes said. "I mean what if we were all circling up, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, in order to file jointly to stop permitting windmills? I mean it's almost the same kind of analogy, not that I would suggest we do that."
The AGs argue that what happens in Louisiana affects their states’ environment. This is a definition of legal standing from Franz Kafka.
But the ironies and outrages of the anti-Formosa agitation don’t stop there. National environmental groups seem to have an endless supply of donors to fund lawsuits and other objections to the Formosa plant and the many jobs it will bring.
Political pressure is also not neglected by the outsiders: At a meeting of the St. James Parish Council, a member held up a slickly produced pamphlet attacking the local leaders’ near-unanimous support for the new plant. It is the sort of expensive pressure-group politics that is a rarity in a largely rural parish where the economy would be greatly enhanced by the Formosa plant.
While some St. James residents do oppose the plant, most leaders are for it, from Gov. John Bel Edwards on down. And Edwards has not intervened in affairs of Massachusetts or New Jersey that we’re aware of, although our attorney general, Jeff Landry, has intervened willy-nilly in cases unrelated to Louisiana but where a Republican national agenda is involved.
But the St. James leadership hasn't weighed in on such a specific environmental issue in New York or elsewhere.
"Once again, folks outside of Louisiana are demanding jobs and economic security be stripped away from these communities to satisfy their agenda," commented U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, of the AGs letter.
He is absolutely correct.
Making Formosa into a national cause is certainly within the rights of citizens. Hatred of fossil-fuel production, and essential products like plastics that it makes possible, is becoming a commonplace agitation — misplaced, but certainly legal. And while the Formosa agitation is an extreme case, involving litigation at an extraordinary level, we do not object at all to making sure that environmental laws and emissions rules are applied to the new plant.
But we believe that the local leadership’s views should be controlling about a decision here. And for what it is worth, we agree with Edwards and many others in Louisiana: Formosa should persevere and bring high-paying jobs and long-term economic development to St. James Parish and Louisiana.
Whatever the blue-state environmental warriors have to say.
