On May 23, 2024, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed into law the Community Air Monitoring Reliability Act (CAMRA), which prohibits the use of air pollution data from technologies not approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The law, which was supported by petrochemical industry trade associations, prohibits data from community monitoring programs from being used in enforcement or regulatory actions related to the Clean Air Act.
Marginalized communities use local air quality monitoring to help push elected officials to hold polluting industries accountable for harmful emissions. Community advocates argue that the new bill protects polluting industries by undermining those efforts and that the law is a de facto ban on their work and a violation of their First Amendment rights to free speech. “The petrochemical industry is working with Louisiana legislators to inhibit community air monitoring because they know full well that they are polluting the air,” said Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, which since 2000 has offered low-cost air monitoring equipment to residents living near industrial facilities.