The US government has placed further delays on a proposed multibillion dollar plastics plant in south Louisiana, marking a major victory for environmental activists and members of the majority Black community who have campaigned for years against construction.
The planned $9.4bn petrochemical facility, owned by Formosa Plastics, would roughly double toxic emissions in its local area and, according to environmentalists, release up to 13m tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, the equivalent of three coal-fired power plants, to become one of the largest pollution-causing plastics facilities in the world. [Oliver Laughland]
The 14 separate plastic plants, spread over a gargantuan 2,300 acres of land in St James Parish, could also emit up to 15,400 pounds of the cancer causing chemical ethylene oxide [which would make the plant the second largest air emitter of ethylene oxide in the state and third largest in the nation, according to TRI data and DEQ permit filings. For benzene, Formosa would be allowed to release 73,160 pounds per year, which would make it the second largest air emitter in the state, only behind the Shell Norco chemical facilities.-- David Mitchell].
No comments:
Post a Comment