The Race to Stop a Plastics Plant Scores a Crucial Win
As an old saying goes, you can't fight city hall, meaning government. But the people of St. James Parish, La., did just that—and they won a major court victory against a massive plastics plant supported by the governor, state and local legislators, the business community and local power brokers.
The Titans of Plastic: Pennsylvania Becomes the Newest Sacrifice Zone for America’s Plastic Addiction.
For the residents who live nearby, Shell’s big bet on plastic represents a new chapter in the same story that’s plagued the region for decades: An extractive industry moves in, exports natural resources at a tremendous profit—most of which flow to outsiders—and leaves poverty, pollution, and illness in its wake. First came the loggers, oil barons, and coal tycoons. Then there were the steel magnates and the fracking moguls. Now it’s the titans of plastic.
In ‘Cancer Alley,’ Judge Blocks Huge Petrochemical Plant.
Louisiana activists battling to block an enormous plastics plant in a corridor so dense with industrial refineries it is known as Cancer Alley won a legal victory this week when a judge canceled the company’s air permits.