WEBVTT - S6 Part 1 | Plastic Pipelines | Ep 3: And Then There Was Covid... 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:12.559 The International Solid Waste Association estimates consumption of single use 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:16.400 plastic may have grown two hundred and fifty to three 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.560 hundred percent in America since the pandemic begins. 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:24.120 The resurgence of the thin, single use truly single use 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:26.600 plastic bags is astonished. 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:28.880 And is concerned New York's plastic bag ban is not 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:29.800 being enforced. 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.479 The lost full implementation was first delayed in February by 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:34.720 a court challenge. 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.440 And then COVID hit, so the thirty day delay became 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:39.920 a sixty day delayed to the ninety day delays. The 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:42.960 pandemic has led to a lot of confusion about whether 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.720 it's safe to bring reusable bags into grocery stores. While 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:48.760 some stores allow them, others. 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:51.920 Don't, But single use plastic is also surging in other ways. 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.760 Deliveries wrapped in plastic have soared. Coffee shops like Starbucks 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:01.760 have temporarily stopped filling we Use A cups, and some 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.800 US cities and states suspended or postponed fans on plastic 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:10.240 shopping bags. The plastics industry has lobbied for these rollbacks, 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.959 arguing that single use plastic is the safest material to 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:16.040 protect people from COVID nineteen. 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:24.000 It probably comes as no surprise to you that the 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:29.039 pandemic spurred a massive uptick in plastic. If you were 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:32.760 here in the US, you almost immediately saw it everywhere. 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:37.319 Plastic bags back at the grocery store, plastic wrapping on everything, 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:41.880 the masks, the gloves. But what you might not have 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:45.760 known was just how intentional that was on the part 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:49.600 of the industry, just how ready they were to deploy 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:53.560 a strategy that would increase the use of plastic. If 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:56.520 there's one thing I've learned from covering the fossil fuel 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:00.880 industry and its various forms over the last twenty years, 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:07.400 it's that they are prepared for absolutely everything. Shell actually 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:12.240 invented something called scenario planning back in the late eighties 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.560 and early nineties. Now all the oil companies do it, 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:20.240 and lots of other industries too. It's basically what it 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:25.000 sounds like, brainstorming all the possible future scenarios and making 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:29.040 a plan for each of them. No industry is better 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:32.520 at it than the fossil fuel industry, which is why 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:36.280 they always seem to have a response ready for everything. 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:40.480 When COVID nineteen first started to really take hold in 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:44.400 the US back in March twenty twenty, I started scouring 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:48.639 all my usual sources for evidence of the industry's response, 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:53.160 and sure enough, the American Petroleum Institute and the American 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:57.480 Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, the two main trade groups for 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:03.600 the industry, were immediately with politicians asking for regulatory rollbacks 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:07.239 and other types of support. The API tackled everything from 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:12.480 pipeline permitting to emissions regulations, while the AFPM focused on 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:15.679 all the rules that would affect the buildout of plastic 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:19.720 manufacturing facilities. But they also set their sights on getting 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:23.840 rid of something that's been bugging the industry for years, 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:29.440 plastic bag bands. As you heard at the top of 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:33.400 the episode, there was some concern early on that people 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:37.480 might spread COVID by bringing their bags to the grocery store. 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:40.520 We just didn't know how the virus was spread at 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:44.320 the time, and the industry pounced on that confusion and 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:47.720 the fear that accompanied it, and they pushed this idea 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:52.760 that plastic bags were somehow safer than reusable bags, that 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:57.640 somehow the virus wouldn't live on them. It was sort 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:01.120 of a miracle for the industry when they were starting 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:06.240 to worry that plastic demand would actually not ever be 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.480 quite what they wanted it to be. Here comes a 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:12.360 way to increase that demand exponentially. 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:16.919 Well, I think what we're seeing is just how much 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:22.680 the industry is relying on plastics to save it going forward. 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.680 This is Carol Muffett, President and CEO of the Center 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.760 for International Environmental Law. You heard from him earlier this 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:31.440 season too. 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.800 The industry has, on the one hand, been working on 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:42.080 an array of regulatory rollbacks, on working to close down 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:46.599 public opposition in public participation in decisions affecting a lot 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:50.680 of its operations. But on the plastic side, it's gone 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.679 still further and is actually seeking to exploit the current 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:56.880 crisis to say that the world needs. 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.960 To be using more, not less, plastic. 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:04.440 And it's doing this at a time where, again, even 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:09.120 before the crisis began, you had major producers of plastics 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:14.120 residents acknowledging that the industry's two hundred billion dollar investment 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:20.200 in infrastructure had been overly optimistic, that capacity was being overbuilt, 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:25.279 that prices for plastic resins and demand for plastic goods 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:29.120 were not growing at anywhere near what the industry had 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:30.880 been assuming it would. 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:38.039 Imman Westervelt, and this is drilled. We're continuing part one 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:42.159 of season six to day plastic pipelines. If you missed 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.160 the first two episodes, go back and start there. Our 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:51.000 story today the industry's COVID strategy. Did it work? Did 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:56.400 COVID save plastic? That's coming up after this quick break. 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.360 We heard in episode one of this series that plastic 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:14.039 was a way to make up for money that fracking 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.400 was not making. But there's another side to the explosion 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:21.440 of plastics over the past decade. It's the oil industry's 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:22.760 escape hatch. 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:23.600 You know. 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:26.520 Expiration spend is down seventy five percent from the peak, 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.480 seventy five percent over seventy five percent, and I don't 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:31.599 see it going up from that point. I see it 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:32.200 going down. 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:37.560 This is Bernard Looney, CEO of BP, talking about peak 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:39.279 oil in twenty twenty. 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:41.920 So I think life has changed over the last couple 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.080 of years, but it is important to acknowledge reality, and 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:46.120 that's what we've done. 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:50.400 Peak oil is the term that's used to talk about 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:54.000 this point where global oil demand will take a downward 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:58.640 turn and never really bounce back. And oil companies have 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:02.760 been seeing that point coming for a while in their 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:06.760 projections and annual reports. They've been talking about a decrease 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:11.240 in fossil fuel use in transportation and residential areas, but 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:15.360 they've also been talking about this other area where revenues 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:23.520 are going to increase, petrochemicals, especially plastic. And keep in mind, 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:28.760 while we have solar and wind as replacements for fossil 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:33.440 fuel energy in homes and cars, there aren't a ton 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:38.080 of great replacements for petrochemicals. That's one part of the 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:42.800 reason that the industry is banking on them. Here's Kingsmill Bond, 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:47.080 an analyst with the nonprofit Carbon Tracker who's been researching 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:50.320 the petrochemical industry over the last few years. 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.440 Plastics was always like something that you did on the 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:56.040 with your on on the side once once you use 0:07:56.080 --> 0:08:00.120 the primary use of oil in transportation other areas, so 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.440 it's quite surprising that it's shot up the agenda. And 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:05.320 pretty much, as you say, what's happened over the last 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:07.679 few years is that all of the other growth drivers 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.040 of oil have kind of fallen by the wayside. So 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.120 cars used to be one of the four big growth vectors, 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.119 and and and as cars gone more efficient and electric 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.120 vehicles coming to the mix, people and now said, well, 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:20.000 you know, even the IA is now saying, actually, we've 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:22.600 probably reached peak demand for oil from cars, and then 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.720 the same thing's starting to happen with trucks. And obviously 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.920 in recent months, the COVID crisis has taken the steam 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.640 out of the the third big pillar, which was airlines, 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.840 and like petrochemicals, has become a kind of mantra for 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:40.120 the oil industry that thank goodness for petro chemicals because 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:42.520 you know, that's where all the growth lies. And it's 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:44.719 quite interesting if you if you take the data now 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.079 from VP and the i A, probably the two leading 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:53.160 forecasters of the entire system, then from our calculations, about 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:56.040 half the growth of oil demand in the next twenty 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:58.800 years in the i A numbers is actually from plastics. 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:05.800 So plastic is the savior for the fracking guys and 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:10.920 the oil guys. That's a lot writing on plastic demand 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:14.720 staying high and growing, which is why when COVID hit 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:19.120 it looked like a golden opportunity. Here's Carol Muffett again. 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:22.160 So what we're seeing in the face of COVID is 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:26.200 the industry trying to exploit this crisis in two very 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:32.920 distinct ways. First is to secure additional government investments and 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:37.719 additional regulatory rollbacks to make these projects move forward. And 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:41.520 the second is the push to exploit the idea of 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:46.880 COVID to argue not only against bands on the single 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:50.959 used to disposable plastics that many countries were moving forward with, 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:54.000 but also to argue that the world should be wrapping 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:58.560 ever more items in plastic packaging in the name of 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:03.360 hygiene and and public safety. And there's a remarkable there's 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:07.600 a remarkable instance of this where you have an industry 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:12.760 representative actually fantasizing, and I'm using this word very advisedly, 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.120 fantasizing that they'll be able to get the public to 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:19.880 rep bananas and apples in plastic packaging in the name 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:23.240 of hygiene and fighting the COVID pandemic. And I think 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:29.160 that that is a testament to how overly optimistic the 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.000 industry is about how. 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:35.240 It's going to be able to exploit COVID nineteen to 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:37.520 fill that gap in plastic demand. 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:42.439 Trade groups like the FPM and the American Chemistry Council 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.920 moved quickly to push out studies to state governors and 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.400 to the media showing that reusable bags might be COVID 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:55.000 spreaders governors in some conservative states main I'm looking at 0:10:55.040 --> 0:11:00.960 you actually moved quicker to ban reusable bags grocery stores 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:05.120 and toss plastic bag bands. Then they did to implement 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:09.920 social distancing and masking guidelines. All of those studies were 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:13.880 industry funded, most of them were a decade or more old, 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:18.480 and none of them showed anything at all about the coronavirus. 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:23.680 One literally looked at a single reusable bag that someone 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:28.560 had vomited next to solid science there but the lack 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.760 of evidence did not stop the industry from succeeding in 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:35.320 its goal, at least for a while, which had some 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:40.200 environmental advocates worried the shift away from disposable bags was 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:42.600 a hard one behavioral change. 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:48.120 The industry's goal is clearly to reverse a behavioral shift 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:51.360 that was starting to really take root and grow. 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.640 But six months or so into the pandemic, the messaging 0:11:55.679 --> 0:12:00.040 around plastic bags stopped working so well. Stores started to 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.080 allow reusable bags again, and it didn't take long for 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.480 consumers to get back on board with it. The dream 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:10.679 of wrapping every piece of fruit in plastic never materialized. 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.520 The challenge to face and the reason they're likely to fail, 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:17.560 is that the opposition is coming not only from consumers, 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:20.160 but increasingly from the communities who are on the front 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:23.080 lines of build out of plastics, who are working to 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.880 stop these plants from being built, increasingly from investors who 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:30.679 are increasingly skeptical about about the prospects of. 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:32.080 Sinking money into this industry. 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.360 Clearly, the industry's goal is to see this opportunity to 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:39.360 trigger a short term increase in packaging that takes advantage 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:43.920 of fear. The problem that they face is that fear 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:46.319 is momentary. 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:52.040 The pandemic isn't quite over yet. But what the early 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.560 numbers are telling us is that the industry's COVID strategy 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:59.800 did not work. They were able to drive a momentary 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:03.600 spike in demand, but as Muffett predicted, it was in 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:08.520 fact momentary, and according to carbon tracker analyst Kingsmill Bond, 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:11.800 although the pandemic drove demand up in some areas, it 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:15.240 actually drove it down in others, so much so that 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:19.040 it canceled out the increase the plastic needed for new cars, 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.840 for example, or planes, and that actually made for an 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:27.880 overall decline in demand for plastic. Here's Bond explaining the 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:30.240 impacts of that decline. 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.280 What's the impact on plastic demand of increasing demand for 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:36.559 medical plastic for ppeus and gloves and stuff. And then 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.600 what's the impact of lower demand because of the economic shocks. 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.240 So we're buying less cars and we come to the shops, 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:45.040 so we're buying less less clothes, and because you use 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:48.240 a thousand times or more plastic in a car to 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.160 what you use in a mask, the actual impact is 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:54.040 to have a four percent decline day estimate in plastics 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:55.760 demand this year, and not to state the obviously a 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:58.240 four percent decline in demand and a four percent increase 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.080 in capacity to you know, things looking quite ugly. 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:06.439 So the industry continued to build out more plastic manufacturing 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:11.840 capability and it anticipated an increase in demand, but instead 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:15.480 there's been a four percent decrease in demand at the 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:19.280 same time that we've seen a four percent increase in 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:24.240 capacity last and eight percent gap between supply and demand, 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.920 which is a pretty big gap. The industry, of course, 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:30.000 still thinks it's going to close that gap. 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:33.680 Do you think that even before this pandemic that they 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:38.600 are also just sort of convinced in their abilities to 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:42.520 create demand where there is then that like they just 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.000 figured that they would that they would find a way. 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:49.680 I think that is certainly the case, and I think 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:52.760 it is the case for the very simple reason that 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:56.880 for decades that strategy has worked. 0:14:56.920 --> 0:14:58.920 That strategy has been effective for decades. 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:01.880 This is an industry that has been very good at 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:06.280 creating consumer demand, creating markets where they didn't exist, for 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:10.880 products that people weren't looking for and didn't necessarily need. 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:13.840 And so it's you know, it may come across as 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:17.760 over confidence, but it's overconfidence been built on decades of 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:22.880 an industry effectively exploiting its understandings of consumer behavior. 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:27.520 For decades, the fossil fuel industry has successfully told one 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:33.240 story that it simply supplies a demand that you are 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:36.120 the one buying and using its products. So if you're 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.280 worried about the impacts of those products, all you need 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:43.440 to do is reduce your consumption. And don't get me wrong, 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:48.080 it's absolutely necessary for individuals to reduce their carbon footprints, 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:51.400 especially those of us in the global North, and especially 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:56.560 the wealthiest individuals. But that action in the absence of 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:02.160 regulating supply will never work because the industry doesn't just 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:07.160 respond to demand. It works really hard to generate. 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:11.240 It's pervasive and It's a corrosive myth, this this idea 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:16.680 that oil and gas companies and plastics producers are just 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:18.320 producing their products because. 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:18.920 The demand is there. 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.280 When you look behind that, what you find is, in truth, 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:27.560 these companies have, you know, very detailed strategies to create 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:31.360 the demand. And nowhere is that clearer than in the 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:34.080 context of plastics. You know, there's no other commodity where 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.920 that story of we've got we've got a product, we 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.880 need a market for it is clear. And we're seeing 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.960 that with the massive buildout of new infrastructure for plastics 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.440 here in the US, not because we need it, there's 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:52.400 a glut of plastics on the market, there's no excess demand, 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:56.040 but because there's all of this cheap natural gas, and 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.520 so the industry builds out this infrastructure and then looks 0:16:59.880 --> 0:17:05.440 to persuade young people to buy more plastics, or increasingly, 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.800 to persuade the Global South to buy more plastics, all 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:14.200 while blaming the Global South and Asia for the plastics crisis. 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:17.880 I think one of the starkest ironies in our work 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:24.240 on plastics has actually been seeing simultaneously Exon and the 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:27.879 oil industry and the American Chemistry Council saying yes, plastics 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:31.560 is a problem, but the problem is originating in China 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:34.639 and Asia. And on the other hand, finding a speech 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.879 from a vice president of Exxon Mobile delivered in China 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.439 saying Asia needs more plastics and we Exon Mobile want 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:45.800 I help you make them. And for anyone who has 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.560 worked for as long as I have in the climate context, 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:53.320 that story that blamed China, story that blame the individual, 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:56.400 blame the consumer, story is very very familiar. 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.480 Can people do? How are folks like Diane Wilson and 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:09.560 Texas Sharon Levine in Louisiana managing to successfully fight back? 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:12.280 And what can their fights tell us about the global 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:16.840 push to tackle this problem? That story next time, next 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:18.280 time on drilled. 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:23.280 The twenty million that we put into this co op 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:26.879 was a chance at reviving our to be auson. 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:29.399 I mean, it's going to devastate it. 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:31.639 I mean I think for a long time we're just 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:35.639 going to be playing whackamall with facilities that have already 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:41.359 been proposed. Wow, okay, so there's already twelve other industrial. 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:43.960 Sites in Saint James Parish. 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:48.040 Right, and more being proposed, like including SoC We's even 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:55.480 a methanol another pet can facility just Downriver from Formosa. 0:18:55.800 --> 0:19:00.119 Drilled is an original production of the Critical Frequency podcast Network. 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:04.600 The show is reported, written, and hosted by me Amy Westervelt. 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:08.439 Our producer this season is Juliana Bradley. Our editor is 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.280 Julia Ritchie. Our theme song this season is Death Song 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:16.320 by be Beeman. Additional music for the season composed by 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:20.360 Elliott Peltzman. Our artwork for the season is done by 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:24.960 Matthew Fleming. Our First Amendment attorney is James Wheaton at 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:29.480 the First Amendment Project. You can find additional reporting and 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:32.639 photos for this season on our Twitter feed at We 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:37.320 Are Drilled, or online at drillednews dot com. If you're 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:40.199 a fan of the show, please consider supporting us in 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.960 two ways. One, if you want to spend some money 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:47.240 and get some extra bonus content at learn the episodes, 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:51.159 check out our patreon at patreon dot com slash Drilled. 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.359 You can also support us by giving us a rating 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:58.000 or review in Apple Podcasts. It really helps us find 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:02.720 new listeners and combat the army of climate denier trolls 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:06.199 that are constantly trying to tank our ratings. Thanks for 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:46.000 doing that, and we'll see you next week.