“Plaintiffs’ lawyers had won judgments and settlements in Louisiana cases demanding the cleanup of oil field contamination. The flood protection authority hired one of them — Gladstone N. Jones III of New Orleans — and constructed arguments evocative of those used 30 years earlier against Big Tobacco: Energy companies had known…

“Eight months after a LaPlace company asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to soften its findings about the danger of exposure to chloroprene emissions, the federal agency has instead doubled down on its message that the pollutant could be putting thousands of local residents at risk. In a 54-page report released…