EPA Administrator Michael Regan, center, talks with Brenda Bryant, left, and other members of the group Rise St. James, as he tours a neighborhood next to the Nu Star Energy oil storage tanks, in St. James Parish, La., Nov. 16, 2021. The Biden administration is granting Louisiana's request to administer its own permit program for wells that store carbon dioxide. It will be just the third state to take over that job from the EPA. The EPA said the Louisiana agreement includes safeguards to protect poorer, often majority-Black communities that live near those facilities. Regan said Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023, "It can be done in a way that builds in environmental justice principles that allow for the community to participate in the process and ensures that these communities are safe." (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
