Health and Safety Risks Shouldn’t Be the Cost of Doing Business  

By Jo Banner and Dr. Joy Banner | Word In Black (WIB) – For generations, our family has lived in Wallace, Louisiana, 50 miles upriver from New Orleans. Our community is steeped in history, culture, and, most of all, love handed down through our ancestors, many of whom settled in the area we live in today. Even with a backdrop of plantation homes, the very plantations some of our ancestors were enslaved to, our family found a way to create a happy life by buying land, building communities, and recounting parts of our story that will never be told in the history books.  RELATED:& The Oil and Gas Industry Loves Louisiana’s New Carbon Capture Plan Far too often, however, the talk of our family is centered around the threats brought on by heavy industry, whether through potential industrial development or disasters at current industrial plants.& After a Marathon Petroleum refinery across the Mississippi River from our homes& erupted into flames& one Friday morning in August, we watched a tower of black smoke drift across the river toward us. We stood by for a signal to evacuate, for sirens, alarms, or responding fire trucks. We heard nothing.& Last year, a chemical...