A, classic! There was a little bit of a winter storm in Texas recently, remember? The one that knocked out electricity for most of the population. Well, guess what is also in Texas. Most of America’s chemical industry. Because it is an attractive place for the chemical industry to be, where you can have your chemical plants blow up without significant repercussions. The EPA there is a toothless tiger: it will help you clean up and communicate with the public that they are safe, but they do not actually have the resources–or legislation–in place to prosecute the perpetrators.
The problem with having the chemical industry concentrated there is that the world is facing a shortage in certain plastics. Not that I am a fan of plastics in the first place, but I do appreciate the irony. Lax regulations have led to the location of much of the chemical industry in Texas, a weak preparation of said plants for disasters, and to the devastating blackouts. Something, something, economically unsustainable etc.
For attribution, please cite this work as
Barg (2021, March 17). Julian Barg: Texas, winter storm & chemical industry. Retrieved from https://www.jbarg.net/posts/2021-03-17-texas-winter-storm-chemical-industry/
BibTeX citation
@misc{barg2021texas,,
author = {Barg, Julian},
title = {Julian Barg: Texas, winter storm & chemical industry},
url = {https://www.jbarg.net/posts/2021-03-17-texas-winter-storm-chemical-industry/},
year = {2021}
}