petrochemicals

April 24, 2020 - A decade after the BP oil spill set off an environmental health disaster in communities across the Gulf Coast, the company and the rest of the U.S. oil and gas industry continue to inflict pain on vulnerable populations across the South — and they're now implicated in raising the death rate from the novel coronavirus in African-American communities across Louisiana.

March 10, 2017 - President Trump is cheering Exxon Mobil's plans for a $20 billion expansion along the Gulf Coast. But what will that mean for the people who have to live with the pollution given Trump's other plans to gut the EPA and close its environmental justice office?

August 25, 2014 - Following the $16 billion Justice Department settlement with North Carolina-based Bank of America for financial crimes, Dirt Diggers Digest looks at prosecution of corporate crime of another sort -- and finds less-than-vigorous prosecution for environmental offense.

August 30, 2012 - The chemical industry is promoting a type of petrochemical plant known as an "ethane cracker" as a job creator for North Carolina once it begins fracking for natural gas in a couple of years. But such plants produce high levels of toxic pollution that take their toll on the health of nearby residents.

August 1, 1998 - Boosters lured chemical companies to southeast Louisiana for “economic development.” What they got was a public health nightmare and charges of environmental racism. Welcome to what residents call “Cancer Alley.”