Are you listening to our Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast? If not, you're missing out. In one of our favorite episodes this year, Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts joined to discuss nature as medicine for our physical and mental health.
See all past episodes here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Cielo Sharkus, a senior fellow with the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice program, lays out a roadmap to remaining positive and action-oriented on environmental issues.
Have a good news story tip? We want to hear about it, write us at feedback@ehn.org.
“We know this is a business, and you want to make a profit, but consider the communities next door.”
HOUSTON – The top industrial polluters in Harris County, which encompasses Houston, are overwhelmingly petrochemical companies, which are responsible for millions of pounds of chemical releases and hundreds of state and federal environmental violations, according to a new report.
Using data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Air Alliance, a Houston-based environmental non-profit dedicated to clean air, identified 12 of the Houston area’s top polluters.
The report details millions of pounds of chemical releases, greenhouse gas emissions and environmental regulation violations. Many of the chemicals — including cancer-causing compounds such as ethylene oxide and formaldehyde — are linked to potential health risks to surrounding communities. The greenhouse gas emissions contribute to localized issues like increased ozone and particulate matter pollution, and broader climate warming.
The report examined data for 272 chemicals and 350 facilities from the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory from the years 2018-2022. The database compiles self-reported chemical releases from industrial sources like spills, leaks or emissions. Of the 350 analyzed facilities, three — ExxonMobil, Chevron Phillips Chemical and LyondellBasell — were responsible for more than 19 million pounds of chemical releases, which represents about 60% of all Harris County pollution releases over that time span.
Here is Air Alliance’s “dirty dozen,” the region’s top 12 industrial polluters, according to the report (listed here in no particular order):
ExxonMobil Baytown Site
Chevron Phillips Chemical
Shell Deer Park Chemical
LyondellBasell Industry
Altivia Oxide Chemicals
Equistar Chemicals Channelview
Atascocita Recycling Center
McCarty Road Landfill
Deer Park Energy Center
Dixie Holdings Inc
Ineos Oxide
Celanese Clear Lake
“We found it necessary to identify the most polluting facilities to call attention to the amount of emissions released by the same facilities and to be cognizant of the cumulative impact of their emissions on the surrounding communities,” the report authors wrote.
EHN reached out to the three companies with the most chemical releases. ExxonMobil told EHN that they are working on a comment. LyondellBasell has not responded. We will update this article when the companies respond.
Chevron Chemicals’ communications representative Lisa Trow told EHN via email “Chevron Phillips Chemical is committed to responsible operation of our facilities and to continuous improvement of our environmental performance.”
She added Chevron is working to “decrease air emissions through flare gas recovery equipment” and to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions by sourcing greater amounts of renewable energy.”
Ten of these facilities are within the petrochemical hub in the southeastern and eastern regions of greater Houston. According to the EPA, the fenceline communities in the surrounding zip codes bear the brunt of the pollution and are dominantly people of color. Individuals in the area also tend to have lower incomes than county averages.
“We know this is a business, and you want to … make a profit, but consider the communities next door,” Inyang Uwak, environmental epidemiologist for Air Alliance, told EHN at a press conference in Baytown on Tuesday.
Petrochemical pollution
The chemicals were ranked in two sets: the top 10 most commonly released and the 10 with the highest hazard scores from an EPA model.
The top 10 most commonly released chemicals, including chemicals like ethylene, methanol and toluene, range in their toxicity to humans but many are linked to health issues like cancer, altered brain development and reproductive harm. The chemical released with the highest frequency was ethylene, which can become carcinogenic when oxygen reacts with it.
Additionally, the top 10 most hazardous chemicals included carcinogenic chemicals like chromium, benzene and ethylene oxide. Ethylene oxide, or EtO, ranked as the most hazardous chemical released in Harris County. LyondellBasell was identified by Air Alliance as the largest source of EtO emissions during the report’s timeframe. When inhaled, EtO is toxic and a carcinogen known to cause leukemia and lymphoma.
Climate impacts
The report found that the number one category for greenhouse gas emissions in Harris County is the petrochemical industry, with the power companies second. ExxonMobil’s Baytown complex was the number one greenhouse gas emitter of the dozen, with more than 67 million pounds of climate-warming emissions, most of which was carbon dioxide. Beyond greenhouse contributions, carbon dioxide can cause health issues like rapid breathing, altered heart rhythms and increased blood pressure.
Emissions of methane, an even more potent climate-warming compound, were mainly driven by the waste management industry, which accounted for 78%.
Violations of environmental regulations
Nine out of Air Alliance’s “Dirty Dozen” have violated environmental regulations or permits. At the federal level, some facilities are currently violating or have recently violated the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act or Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Some have violated multiple regulations and are repeat offenders. The top three polluters all have complicated histories of violations and resulting fines. The report found that the most penalized companies in Harris County were Altiva Oxide Chemicals and Chevron Phillips Chemical.
Altivia Oxide Chemicals, previously KMCO, was charged more than $10.2 million in fines, $10 million of which was related to Clean Air Act violations settled in December of 2020.The payment of these fines has not been marked as complete by the EPA.
In 2022, Chevron Phillips Chemical was ordered by the Department of Justice to pay $3.4 million in fees and $118 million in compliance action costs for violations at its Cedar Bayou plant and two other Texas plants. However, the EPA still has not marked completion of payment for an additional $236,000 dollars related to Clean Air Act fines. The Cedar Bayou plant currently has 12 consecutive quarters, or three years, of non-compliance with the Clean Air Act.
LyondellBasell Channelview was issued more than $66,000 in fines for violations, with only $2,500 marked as paid. An additional $3.4 million in fees were issued for the Channelview facility and four other LyondellBasell-owned facilities, including Equistar, also on the “dirty dozen” list. The Channelview location has violated the Clean Air Act in the past year.
ExxonMobil’s Baytown Complex was issued nearly $89,000 in fines related to Clean Air Act violations. Currently, the Baytown Complex has been in violation of the Clean Air Act for three years, and has been noncompliant with the Clean Water Act for four quarters. The Baytown Complex is by far the largest facility, at 3,400 acres, producing 10 billion pounds of petrochemicals annually.
“When we sued them it went to trial and ultimately a federal judge reviewed the facts and determined that [Exxon] had violated the law several thousands of times,” Luke Metzger, executive director for the environmental nonprofit Environment Texas, told EHN.
Despite these violations and legal issues, Exxon is in the renewal process for its federal operating permit and community members say it hopes to expand its Baytown operations if its permit is renewed.
In addition to these violations and fines, the report included hundreds of additional violations across the facilities at the state and federal levels.
“Unfortunately what we’ve seen, both with Exxon and many facilities in Texas, is that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality rarely issues fines when companies have violations and if they do, it’s just a slap on the wrist,” Metzger said.
CAMERON PARISH, La. — Late into the night, John Allaire watches the facility next to his home shoot 300-foot flares from stacks.
He lives within eyesight of southwest Louisiana’s salty shores, where, for decades, he’s witnessed nearly 200 feet of land between it and his property line disappear into the sea. Two-thirds of the land was rebuilt to aid the oil and gas industry’s LNG expansion. LNG — shorthand for liquified natural gas – is natural gas that's cooled to liquid form for easier storage or transport; it equates to 1/600th the volume of natural gas in a gaseous state. It’s used to generate electricity, or fuel stove tops and home heaters, and in industrial processes like manufacturing fertilizer.
In the U.S., at least 30 new LNG terminal facilities have been constructed or proposed since 2016, according to the
Oil and Gas Watch project. Louisiana and Texas’ Gulf Coast, where five facilities are already operating, will host roughly two-thirds of the new LNG terminals – meaning at least 22 Gulf Coast LNG facilities are currently under construction, were recently approved to break ground or are under further regulatory review.
Although the U.S. didn’t ship LNG until 2016, when a freight tanker left, a few miles from where Cameron Parish’s LNG plants are today, last year the country became the global leader in LNG production and export volume, leapfrogging exporters like Qatar and Australia. The
EIA’s most recent annual outlook estimated that between the current year and 2050, U.S. LNG exports will increase by 152%.
Allaire, 68, watches how saltwater collects where rainwater once fed the area’s diminishing coastal wetlands. “We still come down here with the kids and set out the fishing rods. It's not as nice as it used to be,” he told
Environmental Health News (EHN).
That intimacy with nature drew Allaire to the area when he purchased 311 acres in 1998. An environmental engineer and 30-year oil and gas industry veteran, he helped lead environmental assessments and manage clean-ups, and although retired, he still works part-time as an environmental consultant with major petroleum companies. With a lifetime of oil and gas industry expertise, he’s watched the industry's footprint spread across Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico’s fragile shores and beyond. Now that the footprints are at the edge of his backyard, Allaire is among a cohort of organizers, residents and fisher-folk in the region mobilizing to stop LNG facility construction. For him, the industry’s expansion usurps the right-or-wrong ethics he carried across his consulting career. For anglers, oil and gas infrastructure has destroyed fishing grounds and prevented smaller vessels from accessing the seafood-rich waters of the Calcasieu River.
From the view of Allaire’s white pickup truck as he drives across his property to the ocean’s shore, he points to where a new LNG facility will replace marshlands. Commonwealth LNG intends to clear the land of trees and then backfill the remaining low-lying field.
“You see what’s happening with the environment,” Allaire said. “When the facts change, I got to change my mind about what we’re doing.”
Community bands together
John Allaire, left, purchased 311 acres in Cameron Parish in 1998, and has watched the oil and gas industry's footprint spread to his property.
Credit: John Allaire
During an Earth Day rally in April, community members gathered in the urban center of Lake Charles to demand local oil and gas industries help deliver a safer, healthier future for all. In between live acts by artists performing south Louisiana’s quintessential zydeco musical style, speakers like James Hiatt, a Calcasieu Parish native with ties to Cameron Parish and a Healthy Gulf organizer, and RISE St. James organizer Sharon Lavigne, who’s fighting against LNG development in rural Plaquemines Parish near the city of New Orleans, asked the nearly 100 in attendance to imagine a day in which the skyline isn’t dotted by oil and gas infrastructure.
Not long ago, it was hard to imagine an Earth Day rally in southwest Louisiana at all. For decades, the area has been decorated with fossil fuel infrastructure. Sunsets on some days are highlighted by the chemicals in the air; at night, thousands of facilities’ lights dot the dark sky.
“It takes a lot of balls for people to start speaking up,” Shreyas Vasudevan, a campaign researcher with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, told EHN in the days after the rally. In a region with its history and economy intertwined with oil and gas production, “you can get a lot of social criticism – or ostracization, as well – even threats to your life.”
Many are involved in local, regional and national advocacy groups, including the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Healthy Gulf, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Turtle Island Restoration Network, the Center for Biological Diversity and the National Audubon Society.
“You see what’s happening with the environment,” Allaire said. “When the facts change, I got to change my mind about what we’re doing.” - John Allaire, environmental engineer and 30-year oil and gas industry veteran
But environmental organizers are fighting a multi-billion-dollar industry with federal and state winds at its back. And LNG’s federal support is coupled with existing state initiatives.
Under outgoing Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards — a term-limited Democrat — the state pledged a goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. Natural gas, which the LNG industry markets as a cleaner-burning alternative, is cited as one of the state’s solutions. Louisiana is the only state that produces a majority of its carbon emissions through fossil fuels refining industries, like LNG, rather than energy production or transportation. Governor Edwards’ office did not return EHN’s request for comment.
This accommodating attitude towards oil and gas industries has resulted in a workforce that’s trained to work in LNG refining facilities across much of the rural Gulf region, said Steven Miles, a lawyer at Baker Botts LLP and a fellow at the Baker Institute’s Center on Energy Studies. Simultaneously, anti-industrialization pushback is lacking. It’s good news for industries like LNG.
“The bad news,” Miles added. “[LNG facilities] are all being jammed in the same areas.”
One rallying cry for opponents is local health. The Environmental Integrity Project found that LNG export terminals emit chemicals like carbon monoxide –potentially deadly– and sulfur dioxide, of which the American Lung Association says long-term exposure can lead to heart disease, cancer, and damage to internal or female reproductive organs.
An analysis of emissions monitoring reports by the advocacy group the Louisiana Bucket Brigade found that Venture Global’s existing Calcasieu Pass facility had more than 2,000 permit violations.That includes exceeding the permit’s authorized air emissions limit to release nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds 286 out of its first 343 days of operation.
The Marvel Crane, the first liquid natural gas carrier to transport natural gas from the Southwest Louisiana LNG facility, transits a channel in Hackberry, Louisiana, May 28, 2019.
“This is just one facility,” at a time when three more facilities have been proposed in the region and state, Vasudevan said. Venture Global’s operational LNG facility — also known as Calcasieu Pass — “is much smaller than the other facility they’ve proposed.”
In an area that experienced 18 feet of storm surge during Hurricane Laura in 2020 — and just weeks later, struck by Hurricane Delta — Venture Global is planning to build a second export terminal Known as “CP2,” it’s the largest of the roughly two dozen proposed Gulf LNG export terminals, and a key focal point for the region’s local organizing effort.
Residents “don’t really want LNG as much as they want Cameron [Parish] from 1990 back,” Hiatt told EHN of locals’ nostalgia for a community before storms like Rita in 2005 brought up to 15 feet of storm surge, only for Laura to repeat the damage in 2020. Throughout that time, the parish’s population dipped from roughly 10,000 to 5,000. “But the wolf knocking at the door is LNG. Folks in Cameron think that's going to bring back community, bring back the schools, bring back this time before we had all these storms — when Cameron was pretty prosperous.”
“Clearly,” for the oil and gas industry, “the idea is to transform what was once the center of commercial fishing in Louisiana to gas exports,” Cindy Robertson, an environmental activist in southwest Louisiana, told EHN.
Helping fishers’ impacted by LNG is about “actual survival of this unique culture,” Cooke said.
In a measure of organizers’ success, she pointed to a recent permit hearing for Venture Global’s CP2 proposal. Regionally, it’s the only project that’s received an environmental permit, but not its export permit, which remains under federal review. At the meeting, some spoke on the company’s behalf. As an organizer, it was a moment of clarity, Cooke explained. Venture Global officials “had obviously done a lot of coaching and organizing and getting people together in Cameron to speak out on their behalf,” Cooke said. “So, in a way, that was bad. But in another way, it shows that we really had an impact.”
“It also shows that we have a lot to do,” Cooke added.
Environmental organizers like Alyssa Portaro describe a sense of fortitude among activists — she and her husband to the region’s nearby town of Vinton near the Texas-Louisiana border. Since the families’ relocation to their farm, Portaro has worked with Cameron Parish fisher-folk.
“I’ve not witnessed ‘community’ anywhere like there is in Louisiana,” Portaro told EHN. But a New Jersey native, she understands the toll environmental pollution has on low-income communities. “This environment, it’s so at risk — and it’s currently getting sacrificed to big industries.”
“People don’t know what we’d do without oil and gas. It comes at a big price,” she added.
Southwest Louisiana’s Cameron Parish is one of the state’s most rural localities. Marine economies were the area’s economic drivers until natural disasters and LNG facilities began pushing locals out, commercial fishers claim.
Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News
Residents “don’t really want LNG as much as they want Cameron [Parish] from 1990 back,” James Hiatt , a Healthy Gulf organizer, told EHN. "But the wolf knocking at the door is LNG."
Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News
For the most part, Cameron Parish’s life and economy has historically taken place at sea. As new LNG facilities are operational or in planning locally, locals claim the community they once knew is nearly unrecognizable.
Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News
A disappearing parish
The stakes are seemingly higher for a region like southwest Louisiana, which is the epicenter of climate change impacts.
In nearly a century, the state has lost roughly 2,000 square miles of land to coastal erosion. In part driving the state’s erosion crisis is the compounding impacts of Mississippi River infrastructure and oil and gas industry activity, such as dredging canals for shipping purposes, according to a March study published in the journal Nature Sustainability. Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority said Cameron Parish could lose more land than other coastal parishes over the next 50 years. A recent Climate Central report says the parish will be underwater within that time frame.
On top of erosion and sea level rise impacts, in August, 2023, marshland across southwest Louisiana’s Cameron Parish burned. The fires were among at least 600 across the Bayou State this year. Statewide, roughly 60,000 acres burned — a more than six-fold increase of the state’s average acres burned per year in the past decade alone.
But while the blaze avoided coastal Louisiana communities like Cameron Parish, the fires represented a warning coming from a growing chorus of locals across the region — one that’s echoes by the local commercial fishing population, who claimed to have experienced unusually low yields during the same time, according to a statement from a local environmental group. At the site of the Cameron Parish fires are locations for two proposed LNG expansion projects.
"The idea is to transform what was once the center of commercial fishing in Louisiana to gas exports.” - Cindy Robertson, an environmental activist in southwest Louisiana
It was an unusual occurrence for an area that’s more often itself underwater this time of year due to a storm surge from powerful storms. For LNG expansion’s local opposition, it was a red flag.
As the Louisiana Bucket Brigade has noted prior, the confluence of climate change’s raising of sea levels and the construction of LNG export terminals — some are proposed at the size of nearly 700 football fields — are wiping away the marshland folks like Allaire watched wither. Among their fears is that the future facilities won’t be able to withstand the power of another storm like Laura and its storm surge, which wiped away entire communities in 2020.
Amidst these regional climate impacts, LNG infrastructure has shown potential to exacerbate the accumulation of greenhouse gasses that cause global warming. For the most part, LNG is made up of methane — a greenhouse gas that’s more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Among the 22 current LNG facility proposals, the advocacy group Sierra Club described a combined climate pollution output that would roughly equal to that of about 440 coal plants.
The climate impacts prompt some of the LNG industry’s uncertainty going forward. It isn’t clear if Asian countries, key importers of U.S. LNG, will “embrace these energy transition issues,” said David Dismuke, an energy consultant and the former executive director of Louisiana State University’s Center for Energy Studies. Likewise, European nations remain skeptical of embracing LNG as a future staple fuel source.
“They really don't want to have to pull the trigger,” Dismukes added, referring to Europe’s hesitation to commit more resources to exporting LNG from the American market. “They don't want to go down that road.”
While there will be a tapering down of natural gas supply, Miles explained, “we’re going to need natural gas for a long time,” as larger battery storage for renewables is still unavailable.
“I'm not one of these futurists that can tell you where we're going to be, but I just don't see everything being extreme,” Dismukes said. “I don't see what we've already built getting stranded and going away, either.”
For now, LNG seems here to stay. From 2012 to 2022,U.S. natural gas demand — the sum of both domestic consumption and gross exports — rose by a whopping 43%, reported the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA. Meanwhile, in oil and gas hotbeds like Louisiana and Texas, natural gas demand grew by 116%.
Throughout 25 years, Allaire has witnessed southwest Louisiana’s land slowly fade, in part driven by the same industrial spread regionally. Near where the front door of his travel trailer sits underneath the aluminum awning, he points to a chenier ridge located near the end of the property. It’s disappearing, he said.
“See the sand washing over, in here?” Allaire says, as he points towards the stretches of his property. “This pond used to go down for a half mile. This is all that's left of it on this side.”
Rob Jackson's new book, Into the Clear Blue Sky, emphasizes the urgent need to not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also restore the atmosphere's health to pre-industrial levels through a concept he calls "atmospheric restoration."
Climate scientist Rob Jackson calls for restoring greenhouse gases to pre-industrial levels, emphasizing methane due to its short atmospheric lifespan.
Jackson highlights the importance of diverse climate solutions, even those that may not be widely favored, to tackle emissions and restore atmospheric health.
The book advocates for seeing climate action as a pathway to improved health and longer lives, addressing pollution's deadly impacts.
Key quote:
"I emphasize methane in the book because I believe it’s the strongest lever we have to make a difference for short-term temperatures over the next decade or two."
Climate experts and legal advocates are targeting major polluters like TotalEnergies, seeking to hold them criminally accountable for deaths caused by extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change.
Elisa's mother died in a historic flood in France, prompting a lawsuit against TotalEnergies, accusing the company of involuntary manslaughter.
The case is bolstered by attribution science, which links specific climate disasters to emissions from fossil fuel companies.
Advocates argue that civil lawsuits haven't led to sufficient change, and criminal charges might push for more urgent action.
Key quote:
“The main objective of our litigation is really to hold [TotalEnergies] responsible for past decisions and past and current and future impacts of climate change.”
— Hadrien Goux, French nonprofit Bloom Association
Why this matters:
Legal and scientific minds are teaming up, using cutting-edge climate science to argue that these deaths aren't just tragic accidents but preventable outcomes of corporate negligence. It's a legal revolution with the power to shake up the entire industry and finally put human lives at the center of the climate conversation. Read more: Robbie Parks on climate justice and mental health.
PM2.5 pollution from wildfire smoke is more harmful to brain health than other sources of pollution.
A study of over 1.2 million people in Southern California showed a significant increase in dementia risk from wildfire smoke.
The Alzheimer’s Association urges policy changes to prevent wildfires and reduce exposure.
Key quote:
“Air pollution produced by wildfires now accounts for more than 70% of total PM2.5 exposure on poor air quality days in California. This is a real problem.”
— Dr. Holly Elser, neurology resident at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Why this matters:
With the increasing frequency of wildfires, understanding their impact on brain health is vital. Effective policies and personal precautions can help mitigate these health risks.
More than 350 prominent climate advocates have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, citing her long-standing commitment to climate action.
Climate leaders, including John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, endorsed Harris, emphasizing her dedication to climate issues.
Harris has a history of climate advocacy, including legal action against fracking and promoting net-zero emissions.
The endorsement aims to energize young voters who view climate change as a critical issue.
Key quote:
"Her candidacy instantly lit an electric spark under young people across the country."
— Jay Inslee, Governor of Washington.
Why this matters:
Harris's commitment to climate change could mobilize a key voter demographic concerned with environmental issues. This support may influence the direction of U.S. climate policy if she is elected.
President Biden advocates for term limits and a binding ethics code for Supreme Court justices to address concerns about the court's conservative majority impacting environmental protections.
Biden's proposal aims to curb the Supreme Court's conservative influence by instituting 18-year term limits and an ethics code.
Environmental groups support the move, citing the court's recent decisions undermining environmental regulations.
The plan includes a constitutional amendment to eliminate immunity for crimes committed by former presidents while in office.
Key quote:
“What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms. We now stand in a breach.”
Power shutoffs or wildfire evacuations can be deadly for disabled people, especially nondrivers who may not have a way to get to a cooling center or evacuation point.
