Message From the Editor

Much of the world is impatiently awaiting the final results of the U.S. presidential election. In Louisiana, voters rejected an amendment to their state constitution that had the potential to allow the powerful plastics and petrochemical industry to avoid paying property taxes ever again. Those results, along with an announcement this week that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is now reconsidering a key plastics facility permit in Cancer Alley, have environmental and community advocates celebrating. Julie Dermansky has the photos and story.

This was all within days of the Louisiana coast getting slammed by yet another hurricane, Zeta (yes, we’ve already reached Hurricane Zeta this year). Julie reports on the challenges for residents, the oil and gas industry, and regulators of getting hit by several, often rapidly intensifying, hurricanes in just a few months.

The fossil fuel industry is a major funder of the politicians behind laws in states like Louisiana, West Virginia, and Minnesota that have criminalized pipeline protests, with serious implications for historically disenfranchised communities, according to a new report. One of the companies fingered in the report, Marathon Petroleum, is facing new scrutiny over electoral wrongdoing. Sharon Kelly has the story.

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. DeSmog’s public interest journalism is powered by readers like you. Can you pitch in $10 or $20 right now?

Anti-pollution Advocates Cheer as Army Corps Reviews Formosa Plastics Permit in Louisiana

— Julie Dermansky (6 min. read) —

Environmental and community groups in Louisiana are elated after what they see as two back-to-back wins in their fight to protect fenceline communities from additional petrochemical industry pollution. This week, a key federal permit for a $9.4 billion petrochemical complex under construction in St. James Parish, near largely Black and poor communities, is on pause, and Louisiana voters rejected an amendment that could have let petrochemical companies off the hook for paying property taxes in the state forever.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced on November 4 that the agency plans to reevaluate its wetlands permit for Formosa Plastics’ sprawling plastics manufacturing complex, known as the Sunshine Project, along a heavily industrialized stretch of the Mississippi River known by some as Cancer Alley. During the permit review, the Corps said it will address criticisms raised by environmental and community groups in a lawsuit filed in January this year.

Hurricane Zeta Leaves Thousands Without Power, Oily Mess On Heels of Laura and Delta in South Louisiana

— By Julie Dermansky (12 min. read) —

“I will evacuate next time a hurricane is forecast to hit the area,” Traditional Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi- Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe told me the day after Hurricane Zeta hit Louisiana’s coast on October 28.

Like many in the storm’s path, she was caught off guard when the storm intensified just before slamming into the coast.

State Backers of Anti-Protest Bills Received Campaign Funding from Oil and Gas Industry, Report Finds

— By Sharon Kelly (9 min. read) —

Politicians responsible for drafting laws criminalizing pipeline protests in Louisiana, West Virginia, and Minnesota did so after receiving significant funding from the fossil fuel industry, according to a new report by the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C.

The major pipelines studied in the report disproportionately impact historically disenfranchised communities who, in turn find themselves potentially targeted by the protest criminalization measures, often framed as efforts to protect “critical infrastructure,” the report details.

Environmental Groups Oppose Shell Request to Increase Air Pollution Limits for Pennsylvania Plastics Factory

— By Sharon Kelly (5 min. read) —

Citing design changes, Shell Chemical Appalachia has asked Pennsylvania’s state regulators to issue air permits that would allow the company’s massive plastics manufacturing plant under construction outside Pittsburgh to emit significantly more climate and other air pollution.

Yesterday, as most of the nation turned its focus to the presidential election, a coalition of environmental and community organizations wrote to Pennsylvania’s environmental regulators, asking them to either reject those permits or allow more time for public review of the proposed changes, which were disclosed in state filings in early October.

Faculty and Alumni Demand that University of Arizona Kick Koch Money Off Campus

— By Tom Perrett (5 min. read) —

This week, Kochs Off Campus!, a grassroots organisation of faculty members and alumni at the University of Arizona and local Tucson residents, staged a day of action to highlight the encroachment of corporate influences on public institutions and public educational facilities in Arizona.

The event, co-hosted by Unkoch My Campus and held on Tuesday, October 28, focused on “state capture” through education, highlighting how billionaires and corporations attempt to use their donations to academic institutions to advance their private interests.

Court Tosses Youth Climate Lawsuit Against Canada

— By Dana Drugmand (5 min. read) —

The Federal Court of Canada has decided to dismiss a climate lawsuit based on constitutional rights and brought by 15 young Canadians against the federal government. The decision, issued October 27, effectively denies the youths the chance to present their case and the supporting climate science at trial.

“I am incredibly disheartened by the court’s ruling,” Lauren, a 16-year-old plaintiff from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, said in a press release. “As a young Canadian whose rights are being violated, having the court grant the government’s motion to strike is very upsetting, and I feel that my rights to a safe and healthy future are not being taken seriously by those in power.”

Trump Approved Shipping Tar Sands by Rail to Alaska. The Project's Owners Are Banking on a Melting Arctic

— By Steve Horn (9 min. read) —

On September 28, President Donald Trump signed a presidential permit to ship Alberta’s tar sands oil via a proposed 1,600-mile private rail line across the U.S.-Canada border into Alaska.

The permit, given to the company Alaska-Alberta Railway Development Corporation, is the same type of border-crossing permit that Trump approved in 2017 for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Both projects aim to ship Alberta’s crude — some of the most carbon-intensive in the world — across international borders.

US Now Officially Out of the Paris Climate Agreement

— By Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch (3 min. read) —

The U.S. has officially left the Paris climate agreement.

However, the permanence of its departure hangs on the still-uncertain outcome of Tuesday's U.S. presidential election. While President Donald Trump made the decision to withdraw the U.S. from the agreement, his rival former Vice President Joe Biden has promised to rejoin “on day one,” as NPR pointed out. Either way, the U.S. withdrawal has hurt trust in the country's ability to follow through on climate diplomacy initiated by one administration when another takes power.

Robert (Bob) Murray, who passed away on October 25, was chairman, president, and CEO of the Murray Energy Corporation, the largest privately-owned coal company in the United States. Murray Energy was forced to file for bankruptcy in October 2019. In 2017, Murray said, “I have 4,000 scientists that tell me global warming is a hoax” and that “The Earth has cooled for 20 years.” He once referred to efforts by governments and citizens to counter global warming as “hysterical global goofiness.” Murray campaigned for the election of Donald Trump, once describing Trump as the only hope for the coal industry. He had a history of suing journalists, activists, and others, including the comedian John Oliver.

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database or our new Koch Network Database.

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