Much of ethylene, a colorless, flammable gas, comes from the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast. It’s one of the big reasons the damage wrought by the hurricane in the chemical communities along the coast is likely to ripple through U.S. manufacturing of essential items from milk jugs to mattresses. With Harvey’s floods shutting down almost all the state’s plants, 61 percent of U.S. ethylene capacity has been lost. |