A chemical plant in Louisville that makes a raw material for everything from Teflon to lubricants used on the International Space Station also appears to do more damage to the climate than all of this city's passenger vehicles.
Hurricane Laura swept through the hub of the U.S. oil and gas industry, setting fire to a manufacturer of chlorine and other highly dangerous chemicals used in swimming pools.
In Louisiana, a Taiwanese industrial giant seems likely to be granted a permit to build a billion-dollar plastics plant. Its proposed emissions could triple levels of cancer-causing chemicals in one of the most toxic areas of the U.S.
A form of systemic oppression — one that holds back our community, sickens our children and cuts our lives short — has been nearly absent from the debate stage: environmental racism.
