At Zulu this year, riders threw coconuts, plushies — and petitions to stop Formosa plant

By Drew Costley
Contributing Writer

(Veritenews.org) — Most of the throws that members of the Krewe of Zulu flung from their floats on Mardi Gras were decorative and lighthearted: chunky bead necklaces, giant stuffed animals and of course their coveted coconuts. But there was one that came with a call to action: encouraging parade-goers to help preserve the environmental health of the residents of St. James Parish.

The throw was a cloth bag that read “Say No to Formosa” – referring to the chemical company Formosa Plastics, which is planning to build a massive facility in the parish – along with the web address for RISE St. James, an environmental justice group in St. James Parish that fights to stop more petrochemical plants from being built in the heavily industrialized community.

Inside the bag, there were glass beads and postcards with a QR code that, when scanned with a phone, leads to a petition asking Citibank, a potential funder of the so-called Sunshine Project, to denounce and not invest in the facilities Formosa Plastics Group plans to build in St. James.

FG LA, a subsidiary of Formosa, wants to build a sprawling $9.4 billion dollar complex with 10 chemical manufacturing plants in St. James to make chemicals used in a range of products like N95 masks, antifreeze and artificial turf. In 2020, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality approved permits that would allow the facility to emit 13.6 million tons of greenhouse gases and 800 tons of toxic air pollution a year. That’s double the amount of toxic pollution in the air of the parish, which is located in “Cancer Alley,” an industry-heavy 85-mile corridor located between New Orleans and Baton Rouge that has among the highest cancer risks and poorest air quality in the United States.

In January, Louisiana’s 1st Circuit Court of Appeal overturned a district court’s 2022 decision invalidating the permits. That news came as St. James residents were dealing with fresh cancer diagnoses and a recent death amid the revelry of Carnival season, said RISE St. James founder Sharon Lavigne.

“I just found out yesterday one of the members in our community was diagnosed with colon cancer. And two weeks ago, I found out that a young girl in her 30s was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Saturday, we buried a lady with cancer,” Lavigne said. “Formosa would kill us off. We wouldn’t have anybody left, just the industries, if they allow this plant to come in.”

RISE St. James is asking Citibank not to fund the Formosa Plastics complex because the multinational bank is a frequent financier of these types of projects. Citibank is the second largest funder of fossil fuel projects behind JP Morgan Chase, according to a 2023 report called “Banking on Climate Chaos,” which was produced by a coalition of environmental groups including the Sierra Club and Rainforest Action Network.

The demand from RISE St. James follows an October 2023 meeting between Citibank, environmental justice organizations and indigenous communities, during which the bank was asked not to fund more fossil fuel projects that would exacerbate environmental racism and climate change. But the bank has yet to respond to that request. Verite News contacted Citibank and Formosa Plastics for comment for this story but didn’t receive a response by publication time.

Lavigne said trying to get people to sign the petition during the Zulu parade was perfect timing because, in addition to being a religious holiday, Mardi Gras is about celebrating the communities that helped form Louisiana’s culture. Large parts of that culture, including some of the customs of Mardi Gras in Louisiana, were created by people of African descent in and around New Orleans – some of the same communities threatened by pollution from petrochemical facilities like the ones Formosa is planning to build. The areas where Formosa is planning to built is majority Black.

In addition to handing out petitions, RISE St. James is calling for local leaders to create a Mardi Gras sustainability committee. On Friday (Feb. 16), they plan to send a letter to New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and presidents from St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Charles, Jefferson and Ascension parishes asking them to look into practices that will limit pollution and environmental degradation during the region’s busiest time of the year.

One example of this is to replace the use of plastic beads with glass ones, like the ones included in the throws that came from the Zulu float whose riders carried the “Say No to Formosa” bags.

“We are trying to get away from all of this plastic,” Lavigne said, “because the chemicals used to make the plastic are cancer-causing chemicals.”

This article originally published in the February 19, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.