Cancer Alley Residents Confront Banks Funding Fossil Fuel Projects

The "Toxic Billionaire Tour"

• 🎯 Activists from Louisiana's "Cancer Alley" are in New York to confront the financial backers of destructive natural gas projects.
• 🏦 Protests target major banks like Barclays, Bank of America, and City Bank, as well as the homes of executives, for their role in funding fossil fuel infrastructure.
• 🗣️ Roishetta Ozane, founder of The Vessel Project, describes the tour as a way to bring the community's reality to the decision-makers who refuse to visit.

Defining "Cancer Alley"

• 📍 "Cancer Alley" is traditionally known as an 85-mile stretch between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• 🏭 Residents, like those in Sulfur, Louisiana, live near numerous chemical, LNG, oil, and gas polluting facilities.
• 🌍 The Ozanes state that the entire state of Louisiana has become "Cancer Alley" due to the pervasive pollution.

Health Impacts of Pollution

• 😷 Kamea Ozane, 12, suffers from asthma and eczema, exacerbated by the toxic air and water.
• 🤢 She describes the smell of "rotten eggs" and the visible industrial fires from her front yard, making it unsafe to play outside.
• ⚠️ Roishetta Ozane shares that her seven-year-old son also complains about the smell, and her brother has epilepsy linked to the industrial pollution.
• 💧 Boil water advisories due to E. coli and recent deaths from waterborne bacteria highlight the severe water quality issues.

Demands for Financial Institutions

• 💰 Activists demand that banks like City Bank stop funding fossil fuel plants, especially in low-income and minority communities.
• ✊ They call for investments in renewable energy, community development, small businesses, schools, and green spaces.
• 🚫 Kamea emphasizes that these plants are intentionally placed in vulnerable communities because residents are perceived as unable to resist, calling the practice racist.
• 🤝 The demand is for banks to listen, understand that these communities are not "sacrifice zones," and invest in resources that help communities survive and thrive.