WEBVTT - S6 Part 1 | Plastic Pipelines | Ep2: Erasing the Imaginary Line 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:12.039 Previously on drilled. 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:17.279 My only regret is that I did not try hard 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:22.680 enough to keep them out, and they need to try 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:26.720 everything to keep them up. They do not want Formosa 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:27.240 in there. 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:32.320 That was Diane Wilson in Texas talking about her thirty 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:38.479 year battle with Taiwanese petrochemical company for Mosa. In Diane's defense, 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:43.280 she didn't know Formosa was coming to her town. She 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:45.519 didn't know about them at all until they'd been there 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:50.360 a while and started planning a massive expansion in Louisiana, 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.920 where the company is hoping to build a nine billion 0:00:54.040 --> 0:01:00.120 dollar complex with fourteen different plants. It's a different story. 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:05.800 Residents and activists knew about the project almost immediately because 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:11.000 they were already fighting the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:12.240 all over the region. 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:14.800 So I worked with the Bucky Brigade, and we were 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:17.840 working in Saint James Parish in regard to the Value 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:18.720 Bridge pipeline. 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:23.399 So when Formosa came to Saint James Parish, Louisiana, the 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:25.360 community was ready for them. 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:30.000 There is a drive to build and expand more petrochemical 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.520 plants all over the country, and certainly Louisiana is ground 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:36.560 zero for that, and within that, Saint James is in 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:39.200 the bullseye, and so they built the southern leg of 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:41.920 the Dakota Access pipeline in Saint James Parish. I was 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:44.840 already working on that, and then in the midst of that, 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:47.960 this is this, you know, horrible idea of formost and 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:48.960 last coup job. 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:52.880 That's our story today. I I mean Western Love. This 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:58.920 is drilled season six, the bridge to nowhere. Today the 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:02.080 continuation of one plastic. 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:05.560 Pipelines, and we gotta fight for most of them. We 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:08.480 will not allow them to pick our ancestors out of 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:11.640 his ground and put them somewhere else. We're gonna stand 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.079 up for Saint James Pear. This is our home. We're 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:17.720 not going anywhere for Massa have a have a fight 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:42.280 on their hands. 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:47.440 The Triumphant music you hear is the soundtrack to a 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:52.320 twenty three minute promotional video for Most of Plastics posted 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:57.240 to YouTube in January twenty twenty one. Here's how they 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.680 describe this project in Saint che Parish. 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:06.680 FPG will continue to build downstream petrochemical plants and also 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:11.320 plans to invest nine point four billion US dollars to 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:17.960 build a large petrochemical complex in Louisiana. FPG will also 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:22.840 evaluate the feasibility of expanding its investments in the future. 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:28.480 So, like we talked about last episode, Formosa's taking advantage 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:32.280 of cheap shale gas in the US to fuel its 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:37.160 buildout of petrochemical plants. Shale gas is another term for 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:41.600 natural gas, or fract gas or fossil gas. It's the 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.720 stuff a lot of US companies have been drilling out 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.720 of rocks over the past decade. Part of the reason 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.720 for MOSA is expanding so much in the US is 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:55.360 not just because of all the cheap gas. It's also 0:03:55.760 --> 0:04:00.440 because the government in its home country, Taiwan, refuge to 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:05.240 give the company permits. It's violated so many environmental regulations 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:09.480 over the years that it's considered a bad actor. So 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.840 Formosa looked around the world for a place to expand, 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:19.120 maybe somewhere with weaker environmental regulations, and they found it 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:24.080 in the American South. But while state officials welcomed them 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:29.320 with open arms, they may have underestimated local residents. 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:31.839 And this isn't just any plans, but it's being called 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:35.000 the largest facility in the States producing products like plastic 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:37.919 bottles and grocery bags. So what's at stake for people 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:40.360 like Sharon, who have called Saint James home all our 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.920 life and who really benefits from the petrochemical industry. 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:48.880 Almost immediately, the community in Saint James Parish started asking 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:53.279 questions about how exactly this new plant for Moosa was 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:58.120 planning was going to benefit them. Sharon Levine saw nothing 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:00.960 good about the plan right from the jump. 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:03.960 When I heard that for most was coming into Saint Jane. 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.159 The governor announced it in the spring of twenty eighteen, 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.599 That's when I first heard about it. And then in 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:13.479 the fall of twenty eighteen, that's when I started righting 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:17.360 the James. I started in my house. It was about 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.080 almost ten of us in here, and we were all 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:22.960 roused up because we wanted to do something about it. 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:26.839 Sharon was born and raised in Saint James. She spent 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:29.599 most of her life as a school teacher, but today 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.359 she's the leader of the community's opposition to Formosa. I 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.720 reached her by phone on a hot day in Louisiana, 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:39.039 and she told me it was her daughter who first 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:43.160 told her about the Formosa project. They call it the 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:47.680 Sunshine Project, and then Sharon saw it on the news 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:51.640 that night. It was presented like a done deal. The 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:55.159 parish council, the governor, everyone had signed off on it. 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.080 But within weeks, Sharon had invited her neighbors over to 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:00.359 her house to talk about what they were going to do. 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:04.320 That day, she started a faith based activist group to 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:09.080 fight the project, Riise Saint James, and she's devoted every 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.919 minute of her life to the effort ever since. Rise 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.720 joined up with other groups in the area and they 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:20.960 started marching, protesting, and looking for legal help. Within a 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.400 few months, Formosa was back on the local news, but 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:27.919 this time the story was Sharon and her opposition to 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:32.600 the project. Here she is on WWLTV. 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:34.760 When they say it for Mosa was coming in looked 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:37.360 like something inside of me. Just click because it's coming 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:41.960 right next to me. It's almost two miles from where 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:42.640 they want to build. 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:48.200 Sharon lives in Saint James Parish, right in that bullseye 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:51.559 and Rolfuss was talking about. It's smack in the middle 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:55.760 of what's called Cancer Alley on the Gulf Coast, a 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:58.920 stretch of the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to New 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:03.880 Orleans that's currently home to more than two hundred oil refineries, 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:09.479 petrochemical plants and manufacturing sites, and no surprise, some of 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:13.920 the highest cancer and asthma rates in the country. Sharon's 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:17.040 a retired school teacher, and she remembers what life was 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:21.640 like before her home earned the nickname Cancer Ali. It 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:23.000 wasn't even that long ago. 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.720 When I was a little girl. We had beautiful trees 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:32.640 for corn, trees, fruit trees. My daddy raised our foods 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:38.200 and we lift off the land. Everything was full, vibrant 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:43.960 and so pretty, the green grass and everything. Then back 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:47.200 in the sixties, that's when the first industry came down 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:48.160 in Saint James. 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:51.680 The bulk of that industry is concentrated in the black 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:55.320 neighborhoods of Saint James Parish. If you look at the 0:07:55.320 --> 0:08:00.000 demographics of the parish, it seems very mixed, almost exactly 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.440 fifty percent black fifty percent white. 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:07.560 But those chemical facilities are also concentrated in the districts 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:09.960 of Saint James Parish that are predominantly black. 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:13.040 This is Jane Patten. She was born and raised in 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.160 Louisiana and now works as both a campaigner for the 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:20.400 Center for International Environmental Law and as the director of 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.160 no EAIST Louisiana. 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:25.600 So the parts of Saint James Parish that are predominantly 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:30.480 white have significantly fewer and in at least the case 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:32.240 in the case of at least one district, there are 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:36.080 no chemical plants in that majority white district. And yet 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.560 the two majority black districts in Saint James have almost 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:46.080 all of the petrochemical footprint, plastics production capacity, an aluminum plant, 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:50.400 there are several oil refineries, so this is a very 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:55.600 significant industrial footprint and it's very visible when you're driving 0:08:55.640 --> 0:09:00.840 around the parish. So as the local community in Saint 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:04.200 James likes to say, Saint James's full. 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.920 Over the past few years, local resistance has been mounting 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.760 and the region has attracted national attention from environmental law 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:15.440 groups too. Here's Julie Teal Simmons with the Center for 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:17.040 Biological Diversity. 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:21.520 You were at a meeting in Texas about the oil 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:25.080 and gas industry and the petrochemical build out, and I 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:30.040 met with Anne Rolfuss of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:34.640 was just astounded to hear about this new plastics plant 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:37.040 proposed for Saint James Parish, Louisiana. 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:42.079 Anne Rolfus is the founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.760 an environmental justice nonprofit in Louisiana. She's the woman we 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.600 heard from at the top of the episode talking about 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:51.800 the fight against Bayou Bridge, that southern leg of the 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:55.960 Dakota Access pipeline that was built through Saint James. So 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.280 Anne and Julie were talking and it didn't take long 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:03.200 for all of them and Julie, Sharon and Jane to 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:07.880 start working together. At the time, in twenty eighteen, several 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:12.240 nonprofit organizations and community groups had started fighting new permits 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:15.880 for facilities in Cancer Alley and tax breaks that the 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.920 oil industry was looking for in the area too. More 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.200 on that. After the break. 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:37.240 In twenty sixteen, the governor, in response to a lot 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:41.959 of organizing and advocacy, the Louisiana Governor John Bell Edwards 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:47.520 issued an executive order changing the way that the exemptions 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:51.080 for local property taxes were granted. So instead of having 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:53.800 a state board do it and they always got a 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.440 rubber stamp, they then had to get approval from each 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:01.120 local permitting authority, and the industry didn't like that so much. 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:03.000 This is Jane Patten again. 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:05.600 And so since that executive order has been put in place. 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:10.160 They've been trying to push legislation through the state legislature 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:15.080 to centralize the decision making, to try to actually put 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:18.440 the original terms of the taxi emption program back in place. 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.760 There was a whole constitutional amendment that was voted on 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:27.079 last year that tried to put the actually a more 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:30.600 generous version of the pre existing taxes emption program in place, 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:35.360 and they lost, and that again was due to really 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:38.640 significant local organizing. It was actually really tied in by 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.760 that time with the campaign against Formosa because the Formosa 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.720 plant is within its first ten years of existence supposed 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.400 to get approximately a billion dollars in local tax breaks. 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:53.520 A petrochemical plant that the community doesn't want that will 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:57.080 be a significant source of income for the company and 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:01.120 of pollution for the region is getting a one billion 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:05.960 dollar tax break over its first decade of operating. That's 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.359 after tightening the laws around tax breaks to industry. 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:11.600 And they're going to be building in a parish that 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.360 is really strapped for cash, a parish that is having 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:18.680 to fire thirty of its public school teaching staff this 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.360 school year because they don't have enough funds to pay them. 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:26.200 And Formosa is actively trying to not have to pay 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:28.959 their local property taxes, and of course they're not more 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.719 guilty of that than any other industry actor. They all 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.319 don't want to pay their property taxes, but that doesn't 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:35.480 help a local community. 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:39.600 Julie Teel Simmons organization had been working on various issues 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.200 in the Gulf Coast ever since the deep water oil 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:44.960 spilled back in twenty ten, but it hadn't gotten involved 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:47.960 in any of the Cancer Alley fights until the FOREMOSTA 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:49.600 proposal came along. 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:53.679 This foremost a plastics plant proposed for Saint James Parish, 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.720 is on a twenty four hundred acre site and the 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.959 build out of the facilities it will have fourteen different plants. 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:06.400 It literally is bigger than some many Louisiana towns and 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:08.880 it really is an industrial city that we're. 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:12.360 Talking about over in Texas. Diane Wilson heard about it too, 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:13.960 and she was worried. 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:18.719 Those people in Louisiana, in Saint James Parish, in that 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:20.840 little that's what they got to look for. 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:22.640 They got no idea. 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:24.800 It will destroy everything. 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:32.200 They got everything. Sharon Levigne has already seen her community 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:36.040 emptied out as industry has come in and with Formosa, 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:41.480 enough was enough. Sharon's deeply religious, and she says God 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:43.600 told her to fight this one. I feel like you 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:45.760 guys have been a lot more successful than many other 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:49.000 communities fighting these things. Why do you think that is? 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:52.840 I think because he's God's combined. 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:56.320 It's a little hard to hear Sharon in this recording, 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.680 but she says Rise has been successful because they've been 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:03.200 clued to God and what they're doing. Early on, the 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:07.480 community groups opposing FORMOSA linked up with environmental law groups 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.320 like Julie Peel Simmons group, the Center for Biological Diversity. 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:14.040 We started looking into it, and we've worked with golf 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.240 groups a lot, for example on the BP oil spill. 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:21.560 And this facility, though, just presented such an intersection of 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:24.359 all the issues that we care about. So this facility 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.440 would not only be built on top of wetlands and 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.880 adjacent to the Mississippi River and adjacent to really important 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:35.240 national estuary, but it also would create a massive amount 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.360 of air pollution. It's going to be it's the single 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:42.200 largest proposed source that we've been tracking of greenhouse gas 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:44.760 emissions in the country. It's going to be permitted to 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:48.880 it has been permitted to emit thirteen point six million 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.480 metric tons of CO two every year. It's the equivalent 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:53.960 of three and a half coal fired power plants. Just 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:55.280 to give you some context. 0:14:56.160 --> 0:15:02.000 Today, there are several different lawyers fighting FORMOSA on multiple fronts. Simmons' 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:05.400 group is focused on a federal complaint against the Army 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.960 Corps of Engineers, which was in charge of issuing Formosa 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:12.280 permits to build on wetlands in Saint James. 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:16.000 Obviously, this project sits right on the Mississippi River, right 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.960 next to the levee, and there are wetlands on site 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:23.400 and adjacent to the property that connect to this national estuary, 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:27.080 and fishing grounds and recreational grounds that folks like to use, 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:30.400 and obviously will also impact the Mississippi River, and they 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:33.400 want to build a dock and do a lot of 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.520 work that will impact waters and wetlands. So the Army 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:40.600 Corps still has jurisdiction over that that is not delegated 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:45.480 to the States. So we commented on the proposed permit, 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:48.320 obviously opposing it for a whole host of reasons. 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.800 Then there were the local permits that Louisiana's Department of 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:56.160 Environmental Quality had to issue for the project. 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.800 So we were approached by a local resident who has 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.760 lived in Saint James all her life and was concerned 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:09.200 about particularly the environmental justice aspect of Formosa's proposed plan 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:14.480 because her community, which is predominantly African American, has been 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:16.520 overburdened with industrial pollution. 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.800 This is Kimberly Terrell with the Tulane University Law Clinic. 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.320 The woman she's talking about there isn't Sharon Levin, but 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:27.440 she is a member of Sharon's group Rise Saint James. 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.080 The first chance the public got to formally voice their 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:35.000 opposition to the project came when Formosa applied for its 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:35.840 air permit. 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:39.680 So the first thing we did was the attorneys at 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:45.920 the clinic submitted comments on Beverly's behalf regarding environmental justice 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:50.000 concerns for Formosa's air permit. You know, that was important 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:54.520 to raise those issues before DEQ made its decision in 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:56.720 order to be able to challenge that decision. 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:02.240 One of the things that Terrell and her colleagues argued 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:06.880 was that Louisiana's Department of Environmental Quality ld EQ had 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:11.920 looked at outdated information to determine the environmental justice impact 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:16.400 of the Formosa plant. Here'sterrell's colleague Devin Lowell. 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:23.080 This petition just challenges deq's environmental justice analysis that they 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:26.800 did and put in analysis there in air quotes. DQ 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:31.560 in this decision used outdated cancer risk information to the 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:36.080 claim that there was no evidence that the nearby community 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:40.400 already faced a disproportionate burden from air pollution, but that 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.359 information was outdated when they made the decision. There was 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:47.879 updated information that showed that in fact, the community of Welcome, 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:52.760 which is closest to the proposed facility, actually faces cancer 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.880 risk in the eighty six percentile from air toxics, which 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:58.360 is much higher than the state average. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:04.080 And Rolfus is involved in that suit too, as is Simmons, 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.640 who's working on both the state and federal fights. Despite 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:12.840 a lot of opposition, the Army Corps approved Formosa's permit 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:16.560 to build on those wetlands in September twenty nineteen. 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:20.800 This decision was one of the worst I've seen. They 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.280 issued a very very short decision document that just had 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.280 so many holes in it. And so in January of 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:30.199 twenty twenty, we went to federal court. We actually filed 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:33.399 in the District of d C where the headquarters for 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:37.480 the Army Corps is, and we filed a lawsuit challenging 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:41.840 the Army corps issuance of this permit on many many grounds, 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:45.320 and there are violations of law under the Clean Water Act, 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:49.080 but also the National Environmental Policy Act and the National 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:50.400 Historic Preservation Act. 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:54.800 Both the federal and state cases are ongoing, but Formosa's 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.800 opponents have stacked up some wins. A judge just ruled 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.600 in the state case that Luisiana de Eq has to 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:04.919 go back and look at current information to make a 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:09.119 decision on the environmental justice impact of the plant, and 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:11.760 the Army Corps has put a halt to building on 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:15.840 those wetlands because the facility wasn't just planned for wetlands, 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:18.840 it was planned for old plantation sites. 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:23.160 There was a discovery that there are at least two 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:28.840 cemeteries of former slaves unmarked burial sites on that site, 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.320 and there are several other anomalies on the property, which 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:35.879 is the word archaeologists used to define areas that can't 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:40.320 be ruled out as significant historic properties. So we also 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:43.600 had a claim in our lawsuit stating that the Army 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:48.639 Corps violated the National Preservation Act by failing to adequately 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:50.360 assess and protect those sites. 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:54.800 That made this a constitutional case too, and the Center 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:58.200 for Constitutional Rights came on board to help. 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:02.960 And so we've been assisting Rise Saint James in other 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:06.560 ways or helping them unnurse the information about the burial 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:10.800 site on the property make sure that they can have 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:12.280 access to those sites. 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:17.040 This is Pam Speace, senior staff attorney with the Center 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:21.040 for Constitutional Rights. She filed a public records request to 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.320 see if she could figure out if Formosa knew about 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.760 the graveyard before it submitted its plan. 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.120 What we know from the public records request is that 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:35.239 the company was actually wanting to remove cemetery if they 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:39.680 found it on the Acadia plantation, because where that site 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:42.200 was located is where they wanted to place a utility 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:46.480 plant that would power the because this complex is so massive, right, 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:49.240 it's going to need its own utility plant, and that's 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:51.600 exactly where it was going to be located. 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:53.080 So if they found. 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:55.800 Graves on that site, they were in the position of 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:59.520 having to either reconfigure all of the site plans or 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.199 seek permission to remove those remains, which would have been 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:06.720 a really big deal. So I would imagine it's because 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.440 either they just didn't think about it and didn't think 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.560 it's worth reporting out and nobody would care, or they 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:16.680 realized that people would care a whole lot and didn't 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:18.919 want to call too much attention to it. 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:23.240 Whatever happened, it was good enough to pause the project 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:27.040 at least a bit that the Army Corps permitted until 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:31.160 next year. But it was more than just a delay. 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:34.639 This news also brought a lot of negative attention and 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:38.399 national press to the project. When Sharon Levine wanted to 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:41.560 have a Juneteenth celebration at the site of the graveyard, 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:45.200 her petition was initially denied, but she fought that decision 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:48.480 and she won. She and her group had that celebration 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:51.639 first in twenty twenty and again this June. 0:21:53.000 --> 0:22:01.280 Oh, we're saying we had a whole agenda insane and 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:03.840 opening prayer and like to turn. 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:07.760 This into sacred ground by a blessing with holy water. 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:14.359 The minister's just the grave site. Some people give some 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:19.439 accountability of what they experience in Saint Change, and some 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:21.679 are little history of different things in Saint James. 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:26.200 For Spees, it's sent a powerful message. 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.879 Well, I think the graves have done something very profound. 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:36.520 They have really erased what was an imaginary line between 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:37.479 the past and present. 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:39.719 M I. 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:44.720 You know, I think it made it. It's all, it's 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:48.919 all very present right now. That's the you know. And 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:52.159 I certainly think for folks and Rhymes and in the community, 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:59.640 the rediscovered connection to these graves is so profound and 0:22:59.680 --> 0:23:06.080 it it gives them more strength and courage and commitments 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:08.760 to the struggle, and they certainly I don't think there's 0:23:08.840 --> 0:23:12.720 any way you can divorce what's happening now in terms 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:15.119 of the sighting of these facilities and who's burying the 0:23:15.160 --> 0:23:19.359 biggest burdens from the history of slavery in that area. 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:20.240 It's all. 0:23:21.640 --> 0:23:23.760 There's a straight line connecting at all. 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:31.400 Next time on drilled what happened when the pandemic made 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:33.640 plastic a little more appealing. 0:23:34.119 --> 0:23:38.080 There's a remarkable instance of this where you have an 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:43.719 industry representative actually fantasizing, and I'm using this word very advisedly, 0:23:43.960 --> 0:23:46.080 fantasizing that they'll be able to get the public to 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:50.840 rep bananas and apples in plastic packaging in the name 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:54.280 of hygiene and finding the COVID canda and if there's 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:58.119 any And I think that that is a testament to 0:23:59.119 --> 0:24:04.200 how oh, really optimistic the industry is about how it's 0:24:04.240 --> 0:24:07.800 going to be able to exploit COVID nineteen to fill 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:09.639 that gap in plastic demand. 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:21.240 Drilled as an original production of the Critical Frequency Podcast Network. 0:24:21.560 --> 0:24:25.800 The show is reported, written, and hosted by me Amy Westerveldt. 0:24:26.119 --> 0:24:30.520 Additional reporting this episode from Sarah Dern in Louisiana. Our 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:35.240 producer this season is Juliana Bradley. Our editor is Julia Ritchie. 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:39.280 Our theme song this season is Death Song by b Beamon. 0:24:39.680 --> 0:24:43.640 Additional music for the season composed by Elliott Peltzman. Our 0:24:43.800 --> 0:24:47.880 artwork for the season is done by Matthew Fleming. Our 0:24:47.960 --> 0:24:52.120 First Amendment attorney is James Wheaton at the First Amendment Project. 0:24:52.640 --> 0:24:56.600 You can find additional reporting and photos for this season 0:24:56.720 --> 0:24:59.880 on our Twitter feed at we Are Drilled or online 0:25:00.080 --> 0:25:03.800 at drillednews dot com. If you're a fan of the show, 0:25:03.880 --> 0:25:08.399 please consider supporting us in two ways. 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