"BATON ROUGE, La. — A proposal pushed by Louisiana’s oil and gas industry to let refineries and other industrial plants keep some environmental violations secret fell a handful of votes short of House passage Thursday, amid fierce opposition that it could hide the impacts of the state’s petrochemical industry.
Lawmakers voted 46-40 for the measure , but it needed 53 votes to pass. Rep. Stuart Bishop, the Lafayette Republican who sponsored the bill, could bring it up again this session.
The Advocate reports the proposal would create a “self-audit” system, potentially allowing 1,600 facilities throughout Louisiana to voluntarily report violations of environmental rules to state regulators. The information the companies volunteered would be kept confidential and could not be used against the companies to penalize them."
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