Chemicals

"A fire burned for a third day on Sunday at Shell Plc's chemical plant in the Houston suburb of Deer Park, Texas, a company spokesperson said."

"A West Virginia logging company’s bid to establish a toxic-spewing facility in the picturesque Allegheny Mountains is drawing stiff pushback ahead of a public hearing planned for Thursday evening."

"After residents of America’s “Cancer Alley” in Louisiana put a national spotlight on their fight for a healthy environment, the state’s economic interests and petrochemical giants are backing the creation of a new “sustainability council” to counter grassroots activists, documents show."

"As the Biden administration moves to curb health threats caused by toxic chemicals, the debate hits home for families living near petrochemical plants."

"Three months after the devastating East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment, senators are optimistic they can pass a bipartisan rail safety bill to prevent similar disasters."

"Vinyl chloride, the cancer-causing chemical released in the February train derailment disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, contaminates many communities in the U.S. due to pollution from plastics manufacturing plants, according to a new report."

"The plastics industry says heating and treating plastic waste with chemicals enables it to make new plastics. But environmentalists say that process, emitting large amounts of climate and air pollution, isn’t recycling and isn’t green."

"When Shell Chemical Appalachia announced the start of a massive plastics manufacturing facility last November in western Pennsylvania, [it] ... touted the company’s “strong and innovative safety focus.” But now, just six months later, the plant has been the site of multiple malfunctions, including the leakage of benzene, a known carcinogen, along with other pollutants last month."

"Think of them as speed cameras, but for methane. Just like roadside instruments used to identify drivers breaking traffic rules, new powerful satellites are starting to catch oil and gas operators releasing the planet-warming gas into the atmosphere."

"Regulators repeatedly documented — but did little to address — problems at a Houston-area tank farm before a disastrous fire struck in March 2019. The fire released toxic chemicals into nearby communities for weeks."