It’s one of those stories we know all too well. A company prone to spreading environmental hazards also spreads cash to politicians and gets cited and modestly fined for violating protective rules it has fought to keep from being imposed. The piddly fines don’t deter it from keeping on doing what it was doing, and along comes a disaster that “nobody could have foreseen.” And we now have in place, in Washington, D.C., and Texas, government officials who seek to make life even easier for such companies.
In this instance, it’s Arkema, a global giant operating in 50 countries manufacturing a wide array of industrial chemicals. The company has six production plants in Texas, including one in Crosby, about 25 miles northeast of Houston. Flooding as a result of Hurricane Harvey compromised the plant, causing two explosions Wednesday, and fires from chemical interactions sent smoke high above the facility on Thursday. The company has reported that fires are now out. But more could start. Even if they don’t, it’s likely not the end of troubles there. A second container of chemicals ruptured at the site late Thursday.
Despite worries about toxic emissions from those fires, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that it has detected none. Officially then, there’s no reason for concern that the situation will cause harm to people in the area. Believe that if you wish.
Who are those people? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 1,278 households exist within a five-mile radius of the plant, 909 of whom are below the poverty line. The EPA estimates that about 4,000 people live within five miles of the plant. Expendables in the view of too many of the powers-that-be.
Arkema, however, has gotten better treatment than those expendables could ever expect. That includes $8.7 million in subsidies from the state’s taxpayers. And for 10 violations earlier this year—eight of them serious—the federal government fined it $90,000. In 2016, the company earned a record profit of $1.4 billion from its worldwide operations.
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2gpqYiK
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