Speaker 1: The situation is escalating as Diane Wilson had locked herself
Speaker 1: by the neck to a fishing boat, blocking the entrance
Speaker 1: of the Army Corps. The police have just arrived and
Speaker 1: Diane Wilson is on her thirty sixth day of hunger strike.
Speaker 1: She hasn't eaten a thing. That's her in her white
Speaker 1: fishing boats. That is her coffin that she brought over
Speaker 1: here to the Army Corps of Engineers. She said, to
Speaker 1: kill the bay is to kill the fisherman, to kill
Speaker 1: a community.
Speaker 2: I was arrested because we did a lockdown right in
Speaker 2: front of the US Court Engineers in Dallaston, Texas. And
Speaker 2: we had a boat, we had a motor, we had
Speaker 2: a coffin. We were blocking the entrance to try to
Speaker 2: get Captain Timothy Vale's attention, because he is the one
Speaker 2: in the US Corp of Engineers who can revoke that project,
Speaker 2: and he can, at the very least force supplemental environmental
Speaker 2: impact study.
Speaker 3: So it was trying to get his attention.
Speaker 4: This is Diane Wilson, the shrimpboat captain turned environmental activist
Speaker 4: you met in the first episode of this series. Dan
Speaker 4: still lives in her hometown Point Comfort, Texas, and after
Speaker 4: fighting for decades to save her local bay and the
Speaker 4: fishermen who depend on it, she won a big lawsuit
Speaker 4: against petrochemical giant for Mosa. It came with a fifty
Speaker 4: million dollar settlement. But just as she was working with
Speaker 4: the community to put that money to good use, a
Speaker 4: new problem appeared on the horizon.
Speaker 5: Basically, it was a little known pipeline company. They called
Speaker 5: themselves Max Midstream, and they wanted to put an oil
Speaker 5: export cub in and they had the money to do
Speaker 5: the dread GAM because they needed the dreg GAM because
Speaker 5: they couldn't get their these big shifts in to haul
Speaker 5: all of its crude all out.
Speaker 4: The lawsuit against Formosa was just settled in December twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4: It took a while for the details of the settlement
Speaker 4: to be hammered out, and by then the COVID nineteen
Speaker 4: pandemic had taken hold in the US. The local fishing
Speaker 4: community in Point Comfort had only just started to meet
Speaker 4: up in person and talk about their plans for this
Speaker 4: sustainable fishing co op when they had a new problem.
Speaker 4: Max Midstream, a pipeline startup based in Houston, quietly purchased
Speaker 4: a ten year old export terminal at the port and
Speaker 4: Point Comfort. In late twenty twenty, the company had only
Speaker 4: just launched it itself and the export terminal was one
Speaker 4: of its big initial purchases. But despite the fact that
Speaker 4: it's only a year old, Max Midstream is making some
Speaker 4: big moves. In twenty twenty one, it announced a bold plan,
Speaker 4: a one billion dollar expansion of the Seahawk Terminal in
Speaker 4: Point Comfort Max midstreamline Max Midstream Ship's first grood cargo
Speaker 4: from new termin forget about fish houses. They told local newspapers.
Speaker 4: They're going to turn this port into a quote major
Speaker 4: oil export center, connecting oil from Texas's primary fracking centers,
Speaker 4: the Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian Basin to the
Speaker 4: European markets. But to do all that, they don't just
Speaker 4: have to build more docks and expand the storage facilities.
Speaker 4: They need to deepen and widen the port itself, and
Speaker 4: that means dredging the bay.
Speaker 5: And it's one of the not the biggest, it's one
Speaker 5: one of the biggest mercury underwater superfund sites in the
Speaker 5: whole United States. Their own confidential documents admitted they lost
Speaker 5: a million, two hundred thousand seven hundred pounds at mercury.
Speaker 5: And they're sitting right here on this bay, or I'm
Speaker 5: sitting right here on the bay. There's three mercury contamination signs.
Speaker 5: Don't eat the fish, don't eat the crabs, and the
Speaker 5: level of mercury and the red fish are the same
Speaker 5: level they were back in nineteen ninety seven. So it
Speaker 5: hasn't improved at all.
Speaker 4: Not only is dredging likely to stir up mercury in
Speaker 4: the bay, Wilson says it will destroy a marine ecosystem
Speaker 4: that's barely hanging on as it is.
Speaker 5: They are going to bury smother seven hundred acres of
Speaker 5: oyster reefs. They are going to smother these seagrasses. Than
Speaker 5: when they start deeping it and widen it, they will
Speaker 5: all of the salt water from the Gulf will come
Speaker 5: rushing into this based system that adds a very particular
Speaker 5: balance on its salinity for all of these the crabs,
Speaker 5: the fish, the shrimp, you name it. This is where
Speaker 5: they're barn in these upper bays. And it will devastate,
Speaker 5: It will literally devastate the fisheries here. It will it
Speaker 5: will totally set this wayback like it's never been set back.
Speaker 4: Before the port authority thinks it's a great idea. In
Speaker 4: a press release announcing the project, caloun Port Director Charles
Speaker 4: Housman said, this will transform our port into a major
Speaker 4: oil exporting center, and it will transform our area with
Speaker 4: new jobs and new growth. Max Midstream has promised to
Speaker 4: invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the project and
Speaker 4: create hundreds of new jobs. Most of their initial permits
Speaker 4: were fast tracked, but then Diane Wilson caught wind of
Speaker 4: the plan.
Speaker 5: Tell me a little bit about what prompted the hunger
Speaker 5: strikes that you're on right now. Oh okay, Well, you know,
Speaker 5: I just finished the lawsuit against Promosa, and we got
Speaker 5: fifty million dollars for environmental projects, and we put twenty
Speaker 5: million into a sustainable fishery co op that for the
Speaker 5: local fishermont. And here you have the Navigation District going
Speaker 5: into partnership with this little known high client guy and
Speaker 5: they're going to dredge a ship channel. It will totally
Speaker 5: set this wayback like it's never been stepped back before.
Speaker 5: And the community of fishermen were that we're trying just
Speaker 5: to survive. I mean, this is their last chance at survive.
Speaker 5: It will wipe them out in the communities or these
Speaker 5: fishermen ls. You know, they'll be gone. They're almost gone now.
Speaker 5: And this was the twenty million that we put into
Speaker 5: this coop was a chance at reviving our communities. I mean,
Speaker 5: it's going to devastate it.
Speaker 4: Wilson is seventy two now, and in April she went
Speaker 4: on a hunger strike in protest of the dredging project.
Speaker 4: More than a month later, the Texas Commission on Environmental
Speaker 4: Quality announced that, due to significant interest, it would hold
Speaker 4: a public meeting to discuss the air permit Max Midstream
Speaker 4: needs for the project to move forward.
Speaker 6: This fault meeting is for an application by Max Midstream
Speaker 6: Texas LLC.
Speaker 3: The proposed permit number is one six to two.
Speaker 4: If granted the permit, it would allow Max Midstream to
Speaker 4: increase greenhouse gas emissions by more than one hundred thousand
Speaker 4: tons per year.
Speaker 6: By there, This is Diane Wilson and I want Max
Speaker 6: Smidstream to be forewarned that we will not give up
Speaker 6: even if TCQ ignores what we have to say and
Speaker 6: gives us permit. You can bet your baby on that
Speaker 6: we are not given up.
Speaker 4: This kind of thing where you win one environmental fight
Speaker 4: only to run smack into another one is incredibly common.
Speaker 4: Sharon Levine is dealing with it over in Louisiana too.
Speaker 4: She had a big win on the proposed formosa plant there.
Speaker 4: It's on hold until at least twenty twenty two while
Speaker 4: the Army Corps rethinks its permits. But now she's fighting
Speaker 4: the expansion of a methanol plant in Saint James. Here
Speaker 4: she is at a permit hearing for the expansion.
Speaker 7: In two thousand fourteen, southwag Is In A Methanone got
Speaker 7: approved to build its methanol plant. That area was existing
Speaker 7: residential slash future industrial. In two thousand eighteen, Clyde Cooper
Speaker 7: had this whole area to change into a residential growth.
Speaker 7: Southwareesi and A Methanone is trying to sneak this expansion
Speaker 7: into the two thousand and four to two plane. Our
Speaker 7: Parents Council can can stop this. If this campens, it
Speaker 7: will expand in their residential area and if it is
Speaker 7: expanding beyond this lame use of approval and requires new
Speaker 7: parish approval. If this facility is built, it will destroyed
Speaker 7: welcome park. Our children will not have a park because
Speaker 7: they will not be able to breathe the air.
Speaker 4: This game of whack a mole is one that activists
Speaker 4: are all too familiar with, and it's what we're going
Speaker 4: to look at this episode. It's the finale of part
Speaker 4: one in our Bridge to Nowhere season coming up after
Speaker 4: this quick break.
Speaker 3: But I think there is enough of a market trend
Speaker 3: for the fossil fuel industry to recognize that they're going
Speaker 3: to just sell less product.
Speaker 4: This is Judith Innk, a former EPA regional administrator and
Speaker 4: the president of Beyond Plastics. In a lot of ways,
Speaker 4: the current plastic buildout is the perfect example of the
Speaker 4: whack a.
Speaker 3: Mole problem, and so they've teamed up with their partners
Speaker 3: in the chemical industry to make petrochemical production their plan B.
Speaker 3: And this is unfolding around the country, most noted in Louisiana, Texas.
Speaker 3: And then the first big ethyne cracker plant or the
Speaker 3: new generation of ethne crackers coming online in Pennsylvania the
Speaker 3: Shell Facility later this year. We also see proposals in
Speaker 3: the Ohio River Valley. So without one vote by the public,
Speaker 3: without much transparency, billions of dollars in investment is proceeding
Speaker 3: relying on waste gas from hydrofracking sites being transported by
Speaker 3: new pipelines to new ethyne cracker facilities that will be
Speaker 3: working hard to transform waste fracked gas into the new
Speaker 3: main ingredient for single use plastic packaging.
Speaker 4: So as activist journalists, scientists, and more have raised awareness
Speaker 4: about climate change and the role that fossil fuels play
Speaker 4: in exacerbating it, and as politicians have come around to
Speaker 4: the idea of regulating emissions, the industry has just found
Speaker 4: a new market for its product. It's not just the
Speaker 4: whack a mole problem on steroids. It also reveals that
Speaker 4: the industry's story that it's just supplying a demand is
Speaker 4: a lie, and it brings together the two industries most
Speaker 4: notorious for fighting regulation, fossil fuels and chemicals, together on
Speaker 4: the same side.
Speaker 3: The petrochemical industry fights tooth and nail on any legislative
Speaker 3: proposal that will reduce the demand for packaging, something as
Speaker 3: simple as a city proposing a plastic bag ban or
Speaker 3: a county wanting to ban single use polystyrene foam food packaging.
Speaker 3: The Chemistry Council and their state affiliates show up in
Speaker 3: force sharing, inaccurate information, working literally at the city council
Speaker 3: level to try to block anything that suppresses demand for
Speaker 3: single use plastic.
Speaker 4: And they're effective. It might seem like America is a
Speaker 4: wash in bag bands and straw restrictions, but in fact
Speaker 4: not so much.
Speaker 3: We do have about one thousand local laws on the
Speaker 3: books and state laws on the books to reduce the
Speaker 3: demand for plastic, but we have far more communities that
Speaker 3: have done nothing to reduce the demand for plastic. You know,
Speaker 3: it's a funny perception thing.
Speaker 4: And just like the natural gas industry has been pushing
Speaker 4: preemptive laws to stop cities and counties from passing gas bands, yes,
Speaker 4: preemptive bans on bands, there's been a push in some
Speaker 4: state and local governments to preemptively base in plastic bag
Speaker 4: bands too. Another place's kind of preemptive law is showing
Speaker 4: up is in the state governments that are trying to
Speaker 4: pass bands on masking mandates.
Speaker 3: The other thing I observe is that when you do
Speaker 3: get a good policy on the books, the industry lobbyists
Speaker 3: are very active in wanting to have loopholes or poison pills,
Speaker 3: for instance, something as simple as plastic bag bands. What
Speaker 3: they push for is thicker plastic bags rather than film
Speaker 3: plastic bags, and then they lie and they say it
Speaker 3: can be reused one hundred and twenty five times, and
Speaker 3: that never happens.
Speaker 4: Ink encourages activists to pay close attention to the details
Speaker 4: and offers model bills on the Beyond Plastics site. But
Speaker 4: she's already anticipating the next mole to whack exports. Remember
Speaker 4: last episode, we heard from investigative journalist Lawrence Carter at
Speaker 4: Unearthed about what one of Exonmobile's lobbyists said about this.
Speaker 8: Pathan Groy talks about how they want to take this
Speaker 8: kind of cheap feedstock and actually, rather than manufactured plastic
Speaker 8: in the US, to turn it into liquified natural gas,
Speaker 8: ship it over to petrochemical facilities that they have in
Speaker 8: Asia and in Australia so that they can crank up
Speaker 8: plastic sales in those places.
Speaker 4: Ink is already seeing that strategy play out.
Speaker 3: The other thing is, I think the petrochemical industry is
Speaker 3: really counting on a lot of exports. There are some
Speaker 3: facilities that are being designed just for export of pre
Speaker 3: production pellets or LNG exports, and so they are banking
Speaker 3: on large new markets in Asia and Africa to export
Speaker 3: the main and radiance of plastic. I think over time
Speaker 3: we will pass a number of very strong state bills
Speaker 3: to reduce plastic. Not sure we've got the political power
Speaker 3: to do anything very significant just yet at the federal level,
Speaker 3: but we'll have some good state bills on the books
Speaker 3: and that'll reduce demand. And then you see this giant
Speaker 3: pivot to export. And from a climate change perspective, these
Speaker 3: are global emissions. So whether you have effne cracker facilities
Speaker 3: emitting gargantuan amounts of carbon in Pennsylvania or Europe, it's
Speaker 3: all going to affect our climate internationally.
Speaker 4: So now we have some insight into what this big
Speaker 4: giant l G export terminal endpoint comfort might be doing. Meanwhile,
Speaker 4: the industry has successfully painted plastic as an individual sumer problem,
Speaker 4: and often as a mom problem. Just buy your kids
Speaker 4: bamboo utensils an aluminum straw as mom's problem solved. The
Speaker 4: fossil fuel and chemical industries have also done a phenomenal
Speaker 4: job convincing the public that plastic is absolutely indispensable and
Speaker 4: that until there's some sort of alternative to it, we're
Speaker 4: hooked on petrochemicals and particularly on plastic. Whether you like
Speaker 4: it or not.
Speaker 3: The alternative is to simply use less plastic, and that
Speaker 3: may mean a shift toward reusables and refillables, which is terrific,
Speaker 3: that is job producing. It could be simply getting rid
Speaker 3: of some packaging altogether. You go to any supermarket and
Speaker 3: it's a plastic nightmare, and you have layers and layers
Speaker 3: of plastic, a great deal of which is not actually
Speaker 3: holding the product. And then you know, the third altern
Speaker 3: is really basic alternatives to plastic, like recycled cardboard, recycled class,
Speaker 3: recycled aluminum and metal. You know, there's this odd dynamic
Speaker 3: where people are waiting for the next big breakthrough on
Speaker 3: alternatives to plastics. And you know, I'm a big fan
Speaker 3: of using my cilium, for instance mushrooms rather than petroleum
Speaker 3: based plastic. That's been slow going. But the alternative to
Speaker 3: plastic is in your kitchen pantry right now. You know,
Speaker 3: cereal box, it's the metal can of soup. What I'm
Speaker 3: really shocked at. I have one kid and he's all
Speaker 3: grown up, but I'm not in the baby food aisle much.
Speaker 3: I just skip the aisle. Well, one of the most
Speaker 3: terrifying things is going down the baby food aisle in
Speaker 3: the supermarket, massive shift to plastic, including plastic pouches. Ironically,
Speaker 3: often to give your darling baby organic food in a
Speaker 3: plastic pouch. A lot of that could be cardboard, glass, metal.
Speaker 3: So it's not like the electricity sector where I would say,
Speaker 3: instead of petroleum based plastics, use bio based plastics. It's
Speaker 3: really using less plastic, and we can do that. You know,
Speaker 3: we don't need a Manhattan project on this.
Speaker 4: But INC is quick to point out that simply using
Speaker 4: less plastic is not something consumers are often given the
Speaker 4: choice to do, at least not easily or cheaply.
Speaker 3: Voluntary solutions just aren't working. I mean, I do encourage
Speaker 3: people to try to use less plastic, but often it's impossible.
Speaker 3: I mean, I try to avoid plastic and I've got
Speaker 3: it all over my kitchen because there are not alternatives
Speaker 3: in the supermarket, or even when I have time to
Speaker 3: go to the food co op, there's often not alternatives.
Speaker 3: But you know, it's fascinating to watch the messaging machine
Speaker 3: of the fossil fuel industry for years talk to us
Speaker 3: about reducing our own carbon footprint, shifting responsibility to individuals.
Speaker 3: I'm now seeing the phrase plastic footprint and a concerted
Speaker 3: effort to shift the narrative toward all of us need
Speaker 3: to play a role and reduce or use of plastic. Well,
Speaker 3: good luck with that. It's virtually impossible.
Speaker 4: So rather than recommending a particular type of straw or
Speaker 4: reusable water bottle, she suggests a different type of individual action.
Speaker 3: From an environmental perspective and a job's perspective, a really
Speaker 3: big push to refillables and reusables is needed, especially in
Speaker 3: restaurants and cafes. And there's a feisty little group called Upstream,
Speaker 3: and if you go to upstream solutions dot org, they
Speaker 3: are just really providing wonderful information on how businesses can
Speaker 3: shift to reusables and refillables and it often saves the
Speaker 3: money if they can make the initial investment in dishwashing equipment.
Speaker 4: And if you want to push for policy changes, inc says,
Speaker 4: focus on state legislators or better yet, the EPA.
Speaker 3: But a lot of people don't realize and I didn't
Speaker 3: fully appreciate it, to be honest, until I worked at
Speaker 3: the EPA during the Obama administration. Is the state agencies
Speaker 3: hold most of the cards. The way most of the
Speaker 3: federal anti pollution statutes like the Clean Air Act the
Speaker 3: Clean Water Act. The way they work is those programs
Speaker 3: are delegated to the states, so EPA kind of provides
Speaker 3: the floor, often not the ceiling, and provides not enough
Speaker 3: money to the states. And Richard Nixon's theory when he
Speaker 3: established the EPA fifty two years ago was that the
Speaker 3: states are closer to the people in a better position
Speaker 3: to really assis impacts. I don't disagree with that, but
Speaker 3: over the years there's been this terrible culture at the EPA,
Speaker 3: including when I was there, to defer to the states.
Speaker 3: And if the Biden Harris administration is going to defer
Speaker 3: to the state of Louisiana, the state of Texas, the
Speaker 3: state of Ohio, the state of Pennsylvania, we are in
Speaker 3: the soup when it comes to the petrochemical build out
Speaker 3: because the states are very supportive, mostly because of the
Speaker 3: political influence of these special interests. And then the public
Speaker 3: stated reason is because of job creation. But if you've
Speaker 3: got Louisiana, Texas, in Ohio in the driver's seat, we
Speaker 3: are not in a good spot. And this is where
Speaker 3: the EPA needs to exercise their oversight authority, which they
Speaker 3: can easily do if they want to tackle climate change.
Speaker 4: That's it for this TI time and for part one
Speaker 4: of season six. We'll be back soon with parts two
Speaker 4: and three about the natural gas industries, anti regulation tactics,
Speaker 4: and what happened when first fracking and in plastic came
Speaker 4: to one rural county on the Ohio Pennsylvania border. But first,
Speaker 4: kids are going back to school, and we've partnered with
Speaker 4: our pals over at earther to bring you a series
Speaker 4: about the fossil fuel industry's role in shaping education, not
Speaker 4: just science education, but civics, social studies, political science, economics,
Speaker 4: all the things that really set the parameters on how
Speaker 4: a society functions and what sorts of solutions were even
Speaker 4: allowed to think about. Make sure you're subscribed so you
Speaker 4: don't miss it. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you
Speaker 4: next time. Drilled is an original production of the Critical
Speaker 4: Frequency podcast Network. The show is report written and hosted
Speaker 4: by me Amy Westervelt. Our producer this season is Juliana Bradley.
Speaker 4: Our editor is Julia Ritchie. Our theme song this season
Speaker 4: is death Song by b Bemon. Additional music for the
Speaker 4: season composed by Elliott Peltzman. Our artwork for the season
Speaker 4: is done by Matthew Fleming. Our First Amendment attorney is
Speaker 4: James Wheaton at the First Amendment Project. You can find
Speaker 4: additional reporting and photos for this season on our twitter
Speaker 4: feed at We Are Drilled or online at drillednews dot com.
Speaker 4: If you're a fan of the show, please consider supporting
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