Is the giant petrochemical industry facing an existential threat from a tiny group of Louisiana community environmentalists insisting on that safety?

If you’re a prominent political or business leader in Louisiana, the answer to both is often “Yes!”

The story behind those answers goes a long way to explaining why. U.S. News and World Report ranks Louisiana worst among all states for total pollution and third from the bottom in industrial toxins and health risks from pollution. And the American Medical Association reports that Louisiana citizens have one of the shortest life spans in the United States — and hence in the western world.

That story began decades ago when Louisianians began electing politicians who sell public safety to industry. They protect them from environmental regulations, and spent $23 billion in Louisiana taxpayer giveaways over 20 years to invite and keep the poisoners here.

And they are poisoners. Their environmental permits are really pollution permits. They are allowed to spew toxins at levels which, when diluted over enough landscape, research predicts will have only a low risk of causing sickness or death.

But these very complex facilities sometimes emit levels that can be life-threatening during accidents.

Now, you would think our government — whose first responsibility is to our safety — would want each plant to have monitors at its borders sounding alarms to alert nearby residents when those limits are breached. But the state Department of Environmental Quality has only 64 monitors across the state to monitor emissions at more than 450 plants.

For years, communities pushed for regulation requiring each plant have a monitor, but they were always defeated by industry lobbyists. Then this year seemed to be different when such a bill moved out of Senate committee.

Then it was killed by Senate Finance Committee chairman Mack “Bodi” White, R-Central.

White, whose home parish of East Baton Rouge earned a failing grade for air pollution by the American Lung Association, said the annual $18,000 cost per plant estimated by the state was just too high for these wealthy companies.