Joy Banner of The Descendants Project brought the lawsuit after the Parish Council chairman threatened her with prosecution and imprisonment for speaking during the public comment period of a 2023 meeting.
Author Archives: Delaney Dryfoos
Delaney Dryfoos covers the environmental beat for The Lens. She is a Report for America Corps member and covers storm surges, hurricanes and wetlands in collaboration with the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. Prior to joining The Lens, they reported on climate change resiliency in New York City for Inside Climate News. She holds a master’s degree in science, health and environmental journalism from New York University, where she worked as the managing editor for Scienceline and an editorial intern at Living on Earth. As a college intern for NJ Advance Media, Dryfoos covered news across New Jersey and their story about South Orange’s rainbow lampposts was republished by U.S. News and World Report. She is passionate about reporting on the intersection of health and the environment as well as working to make journalism more inclusive of disabled and LGBTQ+ sources and reporters. She studied biology, global health, policy journalism and media studies at Duke University.
Posted inEnvironment
Pairing of Arctic air and moisture from the Gulf created record-breaking snowfall
The celebrated New Orleans snowfall is twice what Anchorage has recorded all winter long. Meteorologists attributed it to a perfect dance between weather systems.
Posted inEnvironment
Getting Greenfield to pay what it promised
The Descendants Project sues, contending that public officials had no right to forgive Greenfield’s grain-elevator-project debts.
Posted inEnvironment
Alabo Wharf deal gets slippery
In the Holy Cross Neighborhood, residents obtain Port emails showing that a modest grain terminal at the Alabo Wharf includes more phases—and now includes crude sunflower oil, shipped in from Turkey.
Posted inEnvironment
City Council committee allows Entergy New Orleans to sell its natural gas system
Though Councilmembers were swayed by job creation, critics said that the jobs pale in comparison to the rate increases and environmental effects that Orleans residents will now shoulder.
Posted inEnvironment
Maurepas Swamp’s upcoming reintroduction to the Mississippi River
Reconnecting the dying swamp to fresh river water is vital for the health of the swamp’s cypress-tupelo forest, which minimizes storm surge damage for communities in St. John the Baptist, St. James, Ascension and Livingston Parishes.
Posted inEnvironment
The United Nations Global Plastics Treaty: validating the struggles of fenceline communities in Louisiana
Though the Biden Administration backtracked its support of a cap on plastic production only a week before UN negotiations begin in South Korea, Louisiana advocates see the tide turning on plastics in a way that could turn future plastic-production facilities in Louisiana into even riskier investments.
Posted inEnvironment
‘Cajun Coral’ could reshape former oil and gas platforms along the Gulf Coast
A decommissioned oil rig site off Grand Isle offers a new shallow-water template for the Louisiana Rigs-to-Reef programs. Where rigs once stood, the 3D-printed concrete could create bustling coastal reefs.
Posted inEnvironment
Lead pipes, another New Orleans legacy
As the federal government announces a rule to eliminate all lead pipes within the next decade, tests by the Water Collaborative found lead within drinking water at 88% of New Orleans homes tested.
Posted inEnvironment
The majority-Black districts that became Cancer Alley
Lifelong residents of St. James Parish will speak in federal court on Monday about how parish officials and ordinances have, for generations, explicitly directed industrial plants into predominantly Black neighborhoods.