WEBVTT - S6 Part 1 | Plastic Pipelines | Ep 1: Don't Mess with Texas 0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:04.800 Early in my career, I did a ton of reporting 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:08.440 on the plastic problem, why there was so much of it, 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:13.560 how the industry operated, the pr guys who created fake 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:16.960 front groups for plastic manufacturers. It was a lot of 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:19.599 the same stuff the oil and gas guys had done, 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:25.240 which makes sense because it was mostly the same companies 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:29.200 making plastic. But at a certain point I shifted my 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:33.360 focus away from plastic, partly because it seemed like a 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:34.319 problem that. 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:35.919 Was being solved. 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.680 The public was aware of the problem, there were various 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:46.000 alternatives to plastic being embraced. Even consumer behavior was changing. 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:49.320 Now to California, where a new law will ban single 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.879 use plastic bags at grocery and convenience stores. Instead of 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.400 buying a plastic tube of toothpaste then throwing it away 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:59.360 or recycling it, maybe you can now buy toothpaste tablets 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.200 that come in this little compostable paper packets. 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:05.400 It's called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.800 I like that in the Pacific Ocean contains plastic waste 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:10.400 twice the size of Texas. 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:10.960 That's big. 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:13.560 And then a few years ago I started to see 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:21.000 more and more plastic everywhere, restaurants, stores, my kids' school, 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.399 and I wondered what had happened to shift the course 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:27.640 of things so dramatically. Had I missed some kind of 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:33.000 policy change, had some celebrity said something pro plastic? But 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:34.960 it also jumped out of me because it was so 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:38.800 similar to what had happened on climate change during the nineties, 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:43.920 high public awareness momentum toward change, and then boom, this 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:48.760 complete shift of course. So I started looking into it, 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:51.760 and the first place I looked was this sort of 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:57.040 cartoonishly evil PR guy who had been the head of 0:01:57.120 --> 0:02:00.520 all of these pro plastic campaigns when I'd looked into 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:07.120 the issue before. His name was Rick Berman. His nickname 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.520 is doctor Evil, and I'm not joking. He's the guy 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.840 who ran a ton of the PR campaigns for Philip 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.720 Morris back in the day. The lead character in the 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.000 movie Thank You for Smoking is based on him. I 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:22.800 don't have an MD or law degree. 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:25.600 I have a bachelor's and kicking button taking names. 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:29.240 I get paid to talk. 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:30.600 What do you talk about? 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:32.120 I speak on behalf of cigarettes. 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:34.560 My mommy cigarettes kill? 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:35.000 Now? 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:36.280 Is your mommy a doctor? 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:36.639 No? 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:39.040 Well she doesn't exactly sound like a credible expert, now 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:39.320 does she. 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:44.960 Rick Berman has also targeted Mothers against Drunk Driving for 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:49.440 alcohol clients, and the Humane Society for beef clients. 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:51.680 Mysteres, how many alcohol related does a year? 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:55.200 Well, that's what two hundred and seventy a day. 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.720 Tragedy. I front an organization that killed him. So I 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.120 had followed Berman a lot when I was reporting on 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:04.800 plastic because he was working for all the plastic bag 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:09.000 manufacturers and the food and beverage guys who all wanted 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:13.320 to fight against plastic bag bands. Burman was the guy 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:18.240 behind my all time favorite fake grassroots group, the Save 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:22.200 the Plastic Bag Coalition. They claimed to be a group 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:27.680 of concerned citizens who loved plastic bags, I guess, but 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.640 was actually one guy paid by Rick Bourban. So when 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:35.360 I dove back in in twenty fourteen, the first thing 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:40.640 I did was google Rick Berman, and I found a 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:46.240 New York Times story October thirtieth, twenty fourteen, about how 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:50.040 Berman was suddenly very involved with natural gas companies and 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:54.480 fracking hard nosed advice from veteran lobbyist win ugly or 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:55.240 lose pretty. 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:56.560 A speech he'd. 0:03:56.400 --> 0:03:59.320 Given in Colorado for a group of natural gas companies 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:03.200 called the West Start Energy Alliance had been leaked here's 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:04.360 a little bit from it. 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:07.440 And again we've had a lot of ads on this thing. 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.680 You get in people's mind a tie, they don't know 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.400 who's right, and you win all ties. 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:15.960 Because the tie. 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:18.320 Basically ensures the status quote. 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:20.200 People are not prepared. 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:23.039 To get aggressive in moving whus layers together. So I'll 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:25.200 take a tie any day if I'm trying to deserve 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:26.240 the status quote. 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:31.360 A tie is a win because that basically ensures the 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:38.000 status quo. Wow, But also what was Bourban doing there? 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:45.480 He had worked with every other industry before, tobacco, alcohol, meat, chemicals, 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.120 but weirdly he had never worked for oil and gas, 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:53.000 and now here he was in one of the hubs 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:58.880 of the fracking boom. Quick orientation on that front. Fracking 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:03.640 is slang for hydraulic fracturing. It's a drilling process where 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:08.000 you basically blast water and chemicals into shale rock at 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:11.839 really high pressure, busting open the rocks and pumping out 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:16.120 the gas or oil that's hiding inside of them. Around 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:19.840 two thousand and six, a few independent companies figured out 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:23.760 how to do fracking economically, and the price of oil 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.640 and gas made it smart to pursue. That kicked off 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:32.120 a fracking boom. But around twenty ten, people in communities 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:36.119 where fracking was happening had started to talk about how 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:42.200 it was ruining their water, in some cases making it flammable, 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:44.680 a thing you don't really want your water to be. 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:48.880 Then stories started to come out about the radioactive waste 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:56.400 being generated by fracking, Yes, radioactive waste. Fracking had some 0:05:56.480 --> 0:06:00.120 pretty bad press going into that conference Berman was at 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:06.800 in twenty fourteen. Neighbors in that Colorado town are being 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:07.960 in the heat as well. 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:12.839 The groundwater there is apparently contaminated by natural gas. 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.960 A Colorado homeowners living in fear because their tap water 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:17.680 is flammable. 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:21.040 And the brine that these truckers are hauling radium can 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.919 be as high as twenty eighty five hundred. These levels 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.120 are extraordinary. 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:29.800 So it made sense that the industry would go looking 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:34.000 for a hitman like Berman to save it. At the 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:39.200 Western Energy Alliance conference, Berman was presenting on his latest campaign, 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.920 Big Green Radicals, an attempt to discredit the top three 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:48.200 critics of fracking at the time SERRA Club, NRDC, and 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:52.800 Food and Water Watch. Here's Berman's colleague Jack Hubbard explaining, 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:54.440 more so, we. 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:56.359 Thought, how are we going to kick off this campaign. 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:01.200 Take the typical Bourbon and Company model in undermining. 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:04.320 These folks credibility and diminish their moral authority. 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:10.120 Ah, Yes, the typical Berman and Company model of undermining 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:16.080 people's credibility and diminishing their moral authority. Berman's fur a 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.480 into the natural gas world got me wondering if fracking 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.320 and gas were linked to the sudden resurgence of plastic 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:27.320 And then over the next couple of years, I started 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:31.200 to hear more about another problem with fracking, a natural 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:35.320 gas glut. The story was that fracking companies had been 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.600 so successful at getting gas out of shale rock that 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:42.120 they were just kind of swimming in this stuff. 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:44.520 It was very good at producing gas, but terrible at 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:45.720 producing profits. 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:50.200 This is Clark Williams Dairy, an analyst with the Institute 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:55.120 for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis AIFA. 0:07:55.560 --> 0:08:00.000 And that's something that I think has actually been emblematic 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.640 the shale industry as a whole, that it's an industry 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:07.760 that's been phenomenally successful at producing oil and gas, but 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:09.720 it's been terrible at producing cash. 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:15.920 The fracking industry actually never produced profits, but it did 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:19.880 produce a lot of gas, and it needed to find 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:24.480 a market for it. Here's Kingsmill Bond, an analyst with 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:26.440 the nonprofit Carbon Tracker. 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.720 With the fracking of gas a lot of ethane and propane, 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:35.160 and they're considerably cheaper as a feedstock than oil. And 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.560 all these companies had the bright day, well, let's turn 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:43.640 this ethane into plastic, and then we can undercut our 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:48.320 competitors and we can make very high superprofits. That's basically 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:48.960 was the idea. 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:53.280 Okay, so now it was starting to make some sense. 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:57.480 Just a few years after public awareness of the plastic 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:02.000 problem was peaking, fossil fuel companies realized if they could 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:06.480 make plastic with the byproducts of fracking instead of with oil, 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:11.840 they could solve the natural gas clout problem and supercharge 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:17.199 their petro chemical profits. Again, remember, most of the companies 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:21.040 making plastic or providing the building blocks of plastic are 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:25.679 oil and gas companies. And here's where we get back 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:29.800 to the involvement of Berman and his cronies. Thanks to 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:34.120 some very clever messaging over the years, the general public 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:39.319 has largely forgotten that plastic is made out of fossil fuels. 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:42.480 But when you look at their websites, when you look 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:45.640 at their communication stuff and business. They're very clear that 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:48.360 they are all about plastics, and so this is an 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:51.800 industry has been very effective at on the one hand, 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:56.360 promoting the use of plastic residence across ever wider ranges 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:01.040 of product streams and an evermore tes around the world, 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:04.600 and on the other hand, keeping their own role in 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.600 these processes largely invisible from the public. 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:12.200 This is Carol Muffett, President and CEO of the nonprofit 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.240 Center for International Environmental Law. 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:18.600 You know, the plub public when they think about who 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:21.920 produces plastic, they think about Procter and Gamble, they think 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:26.679 about Starbucks, they think about Amazon. All those are completely legitimate, 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:29.920 But ultimately, at the end of the day, you know, 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.760 the molecules going into that plastic are all coming from 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.520 a handful of companies, and they have names like Exxon 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:36.640 and Chevron Shell. 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.440 Oftentimes those oil and gas companies own and operate the 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:48.240 petrochemical facilities making plastic two, but they don't really advertise it. 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.880 Exon's big plastic factory in Louisiana, it's just called the 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:56.880 Baton Rouge Plastics Company. Even when they're not making the 0:10:56.920 --> 0:11:01.040 plastics themselves. The connection is pretty direct between the oil 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:06.960 and gas industry and plastic. In twenty eleven, construction of 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:10.200 a new pipeline began. It would run from the eagle 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:14.760 Ford Shale, one of the first big fracking plays in Texas, 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.640 to a petrochemical plant on the Gulf in Callum County. 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:23.480 That pipeline was fully operational by early twenty thirteen, supplying 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:28.079 a plant owned by a little known Taiwanese company called Formosa. 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:34.360 I'm Amy Westervelt. Welcome to a new season of Drilled 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:39.000 the Bridge to Nowhere. We're tackling the natural gas industry 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.320 this season, and we're doing something a little different. Instead 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.520 of telling you one story, over the course of several episodes, 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.520 I'm going to tell you a few different stories about 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:53.840 the natural gas industry. First up, plastic pipelines. That pipeline 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.760 from the eagle Ford Shale to the foremost of plastics plant. 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:00.960 It's not alone. There's a very very direct pipeline direct 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:06.359 connection between these two industries. Over the next few episodes, 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:09.000 we're going to look at how the fracking boom led 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.199 to a plastics boom through the story of Formost of 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:15.839 plastics on the Gulf Coast. Coming up right after this 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:58.200 quick break. 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:52.440 I've spent my whole life around the water. 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:56.679 I've been shrimpen since I was eight years old, and 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:58.920 even when I was smaller, when I was like four 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:01.079 and five years old, my dad would come in from 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:04.000 shrimp and all of us kids would go to the bay. 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:06.439 And I can remember going out in. 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:09.240 The bay and when you leave her early, you got 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.200 the spoon bills, you know, these pink birds flying, they 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.679 coming about the marshes, and you're going past the reefs 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:19.360 and you're heading out into the bay, and it was, 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:25.079 it was, It was beautiful, and it always kept that magic. 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:27.920 And I think if I gave up on the bay, 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:30.600 I would be given up on the best part of myself. 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:35.840 Meet Diane Wilson. She's a fourth generation shrimp boat captain 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.000 in Point Comfort, Texas. That was a clip of her 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:42.320 from the documentary Texas Gold, but I got the chance 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:43.160 to speak with her too. 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:48.400 For a while, I ran a shrimp house, and you know, 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:52.120 I think I handled about fifteen shrimp boats. And it's 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:54.679 a it's an old tin building and it's right at 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:55.040 the dock. 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:58.600 That shrimp house. She ran the little tin building on 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:01.640 the dock. It basically processes all the shrimp for the 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.760 shrimpers in the area, so they go out fishing, come back, 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:06.520 and Diane would sort of take it. 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.240 From there, so I know all the comings and goings 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:13.720 of those shrimpers. And one day I had a shripper 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:19.000 come in. And this shripper, he was a real nice 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.320 looking guy, and he had about three types of cancers, 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.040 and he had these lumps all over they were like 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:27.520 tennis falls up and down his arm. And anyway, he 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.720 threw this magazine at me and he wanted me to 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:35.320 read it. And it was the first time the toxic 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:41.800 release inventory ever came out. And our little county, Calsing County, 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.600 I bet we didn't have twelve thousand people in this county. 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:50.800 We were number one in the nation for toxic disposal. 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.760 We had half the ways generated in Texas was right here. 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:59.400 And it's like wow, it blew my mind, it really did. 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:04.080 Diane was shocked and worried about her little community. She 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.360 describes herself as a quote genuine introvert. 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:11.040 I am one of these people that doesn't like to speak. 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:14.120 I don't like to be around crowds. I can remember 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:16.920 when I was a child adding under a bed to 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:20.840 get away from people. It was probably a reason why 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:23.600 I was so good on the bay because there's a 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:25.200 lot of solitude out there. 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:28.880 But this seemed like something the community should really be 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:29.720 talking about. 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:36.600 But when I saw that article, I did something totally 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.560 out of character. I walked down to city Hall and 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:44.359 I said, I want to have a meeting about this information. 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.040 So apparently there's this little room at city hall in 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:51.480 Diane's town and they let people use it for meetings. 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:53.960 So she went in and booked that room. 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:58.880 But then I had the city secretary. She come down 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:03.600 there and she said, Dian you you just got to 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:08.360 not do this. And I'm like, uh, well, I'll do 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:12.520 it in the elementary in the cafeteria and she said, no, Diane, 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:15.640 you've got You've got to stop it completely. You can't 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:18.720 do this. There's red flags. There's red flags, and I'm like, 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:19.920 what red flag? 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:23.560 Dan didn't understand what the problem was. But pretty soon 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:26.520 it wasn't just the secretary, it was local politicians and 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:27.480 businessmen too. 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:31.880 By President, who I had never talked to in my life, 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:34.880 come out on the dock and he said, Diane, are 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:37.720 you trying to start a mid Gilani group to roast 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:43.800 industry of life economic development? Called my brother, and they 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:48.840 told them to make me shut up and not have 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.560 this meeting. They were trying everything to shut me up 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:53.760 on just having a meeting. 0:16:55.840 --> 0:17:00.680 Dane thought this was all really weird. She had assumed 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.840 the waste they were talking about in that toxic inventory 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:06.320 was kind of old news. It was stuff that had 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:08.720 been dumped back when there was a big Alcoa plant 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:11.600 in the area, and that was part of it. But 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:16.320 there was also new waste and a big industrial plant 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:19.400 in town that was planning a major expansion. 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.200 It was the biggest expansion in Texas history, and the 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:28.439 biggest in the United States in ten years. And I 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:34.919 mean the governor, the senators, the you name it, the 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:40.000 even Silbraham who was running for president. Everybody was pushing. 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:45.080 They were going to give promost every single thing they wanted. 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:49.960 Formosa, a Taiwanese petrochemical company, had been in the area 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:53.520 since nineteen eighty one, and now it was planning a 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:57.080 one point three billion dollar expansion. 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:05.760 Someone had in the mail sent me a letter and 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:11.639 in the letter was just these type simple words that, 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.919 miss Wilson, do you know this? And in it was 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.440 the uh it was you know it was a newspaper 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.520 clipping in the back. You know, it's on the back 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:27.959 pages of a newspaper and it had UH Promosa's uh 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:33.080 public notice for Promosa's air permits and UH and I'm like, hell, 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:35.960 this is something I can do for the first meeting 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:37.760 of this little group. 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:41.879 Diane's been fighting the company ever since, mostly with the 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:45.479 help of whistleblowers who worked at the foremosta plant. 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.400 There's no unions, there's no safety, and you will get 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:53.359 fired if you open your mouth. And they did not 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:59.080 trust uh TCQ, the state agency. They didn't trust EPA, 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:03.080 and they didn't definitely did not trust OSHA. They thought 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:05.159 that was nothing but a way to get them fired, 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.600 to tell a lot of anything. And so who was 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.200 on the bottom of the list. It was me, And 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:17.120 so they came to me, and that were I really 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:18.879 got the information. 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:23.960 In nineteen ninety three, when Formosa expanded, it bought five 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:27.600 hundred residents out of their homes and took over the 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:28.680 town's school. 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:33.560 Formosa's has got all their houses, the school shut down, 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:37.639 there's no school. Formosa is using the school for a 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:40.200 training center now, so it's for Mosa's town. 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:45.440 But over a decade, Diane kept building her case often 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:48.440 meeting with Formosa workers out of town because they were 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:52.480 worried about getting fired or retaliation of some kind. They 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.520 told her about Formosa cutting corners, dumping chemicals and plastic 0:19:56.560 --> 0:20:01.119 pellets into the ocean, burning off toxic chemicals through their smokestacks, 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:07.240 and generally not implementing appropriate safety measures. Diane spent three 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:11.080 years collecting plastic pellets that Formosa had dumped into the 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:14.600 bees and waterways around its Port Comfort facility. 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:17.919 I would get into kayak and go up and down 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:20.920 all skin of their outfalls, and sometimes that would take 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:24.200 me like five or six syres. I was all day long, 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:27.119 going up and down that singing kayak and taking all 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:27.920 these pictures. 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.000 At the time when she was going out in her 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:35.199 kayak all day, Diane was in her late sixties, and 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:38.639 in twenty seventeen she took Formosa to court. 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:45.160 Just down the Gulf coast from Houston lies an enormous 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:48.359 plastics plant, one of the nation's biggest. It's been a 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:51.760 driving force in the local economy, and now it's expanding 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:55.240 with promises of new jobs and tax revenue. But a 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:58.480 handful of coastal residents are suing the plant, claiming it's 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:01.320 polluted the waters in their red for years. 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:06.600 After fighting the company for decades, in twenty nineteen, Diane 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:07.800 had a big win. 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:11.960 Last year, Formosa agreed to pay fifty million dollars to 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:15.600 settle a lawsuit in which it agreed to zero discharge 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:19.680 of pellets. A federal judge called Formosa a serial offender. 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:24.040 It was the largest settlement granted in a citizen lawsuit 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:25.520 in US history. 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:30.879 And we got fifty million dollars for environmental projects, and 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:37.360 we put twenty million into a sustainable fishery co op 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:39.080 for the local fishermont. 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:44.600 But Diane isn't retiring her kayak just yet. Her group 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:47.239 is staying on top of Formosa to make sure it 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:51.800 complies with the court ruling. And she's been talking to 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:55.359 activists down the coast a bit in Louisiana. They're trying 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:59.000 to prevent Formosa from building a plant there. She's hoping 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:02.400 that which he's learned over the past thirty years might 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:05.120 help them do the one thing she couldn't. 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:11.000 My only regret, my only regret is that I did 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:16.520 not try hard enough to keep them out. Is they 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:20.359 need to try everything to keep them up. They do 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:22.440 not want Formosa in there. 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:35.479 We'll bring you that story next time next week on Drilled. 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:38.560 It will be too much hottick in the air just 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:40.240 to bring it. We will not live. 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:43.120 That's where I'm fighting for my life and the life 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:44.000 of my community. 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:47.800 It's the single largest proposed source that we've been tracking 0:22:48.240 --> 0:22:50.639 of greenhouse gas emissions in the country. 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:53.400 Certainly, I don't think there's any way you can divorce 0:22:53.440 --> 0:22:57.080 what's happening now in terms of the sighting of these 0:22:57.119 --> 0:23:00.520 facilities and who's burying the biggest gardens from the history 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:02.800 of slavery and that in that area. 0:23:02.880 --> 0:23:03.480 It's all. 0:23:03.880 --> 0:23:13.280 There's a straight line connecting it all. 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:35.720 Drilled is an original production of the Critical Frequency podcast Network. 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:40.440 The show is reported, written, and hosted by me Amy Westervelt. 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:44.080 Our producer this season is Juliana Bradley. Our editor is 0:23:44.160 --> 0:23:47.920 Julia Ritchie. Our theme song this season is Death Song 0:23:48.080 --> 0:23:51.960 by be Beamon. Additional music for the season composed by 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:55.960 Elliott Peltzman. Her artwork for the season is done by 0:23:56.040 --> 0:24:00.679 Matthew Fleming. Our First Amendment attorney is James at the 0:24:00.760 --> 0:24:05.840 First Amendment Project. You can find additional reporting and photos 0:24:05.920 --> 0:24:08.600 for this season on our Twitter feed at we are 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:13.080 Drilled or online at drillednews dot com. If you're a 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:17.920 fan of the show, please consider supporting us in two ways. One, 0:24:18.200 --> 0:24:20.199 if you want to spend some money and get some 0:24:20.400 --> 0:24:24.040 extra bonus content at early episodes, check out our Patreon 0:24:24.240 --> 0:24:28.560 at patreon dot com slash Drilled. You can also support 0:24:28.640 --> 0:24:32.240 us by giving us a rating or review in Apple Podcasts. 0:24:32.359 --> 0:24:36.359 It really helps us find new listeners and combat the 0:24:36.600 --> 0:24:39.639 army of climate denier trolls that are constantly trying to 0:24:39.720 --> 0:24:43.240 tank our ratings. Thanks for doing that and we'll see 0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:43.960 you next week.