A booming petrochemical buildout on the Gulf Coast has drawn billions of dollars in public subsidies from state tax abatement programs despite regular violations of pollution permits, according to a new report released Thursday.
Now, companies are proposing to build an additional 42 plastics plants, 24 of them in Texas, according to the 73-page EIP Most facilities reviewed by the EIP reported repeated violations of their pollution permits, Shaykevich said, but those violations never jeopardized their tax subsidies. “The program ensures that the Texas economic miracle continues to thrive by offering quality employment opportunities for Texans and investments in our communities,” Schwertner said. The recent growth in Gulf Coast petrochemicals, which include plastics, are a result of the ongoing boom in hydraulic fracturing upstream in the Eagle Ford Shale and Permian Basin of Texas.
Powell, a former chief scientist for Shell, the global energy company, said years of rapid expansions have brought a glut of ethylene to market and left the Gulf Coast overbuilt in the short term, which he called “typical of the chemical business.” “We’re just like a dumping ground,” said Kelley. “A large number of my friends and relatives have died from cancer.”
“They seldom face penalties and never have their public subsidies revoked, no matter how frequent their environmental permit violation,” the report said. Brandy Deason, climate justice coordinator for the nonprofit Air Alliance Houston, which collaborated on the report, said public subsidies shouldn’t go to companies that harm public health beyond what their pollution permits allow.
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