Republican lawmakers have recently decided that environmental disasters are a severe problem in the Rust Belt and that the Environmental Protection Agency should act to protect East Palestine, Ohio, residents after a train derailment sent chemicals into the Ohio River and groundwater.
Some of the top Republican senators that have complained the most have also been caught taking money from the top four big rail companies, including Norfolk Southern, which owned the train that crashed in February.
While East Palestine, Ohio, has been of top concern for lawmakers, they're ignoring the equally disastrous chemical spell just 20 miles southeast in Pennsylvania.
Writing Wednesday, Pennsylvania Inquirer reporter Will Bunch explained that on the banks of the Ohio River, Shell has released "dangerous chemicals ... into the air, in a significant violation of environmental laws." For the past ten years, both Republicans and Democrats are guilty of handing tax breaks for a company that scored $40 billion profit in 2022.
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"This is the Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex in Monaca, PA, which cost $6 billion ... and won over politicians hypnotized to focus on its 600 blue-collar jobs and ignore the global warming risks from the kind of air pollution also linked to everything from asthma to cancer," wrote Bunch.
Ethane is the byproduct of the fracking industry in Pennsylvania, and starting three months ago, the company started that into polyethylene pellets that make phone cases and small toys.
"Already dangerous air pollution from the plant is way over the legal limits that environmentalists had, during the state permitting process, complained were far too lax," wrote Bunch.
“I try not to be jaded. It’s sad but not shocking that they blew past the limits," said David Masur, executive director of the group PennEnvironment.
Skies over Monaca are bright orange due to a "flaming incident." It happened on a number of occasions throughout Nov. 2022.
"In the wake of a plant malfunction, hydrocarbons are burned off to prevent an explosion, but that means sending pollution particles skyward," explained Bunch.
State officials cited Shell, but there aren't any Senate floor speeches about those in Pennsylvania who might be suffering from "breathing problems, nausea, and rashes," not to mention cancer in extreme cases of exposure.
Bunch cited the Clean Air Council and the Environmental Integrity Project, which previously charged in a lawsuit that NOx “contribute[s] to asthma attacks, lung disease, smog and acid rain.”
GOP lawmakers along with former Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf (PA) handed the company $1.65 billion in tax breaks over 25 years.
He argued in the column that it's yet another example of corporate greed coming at the expense of the lives and health of residents in the area.
He also cited the Christmas Day 2022 explosion at the Revolution Cryo plant in Washington County, just south of Pittsburgh. Energy Transfer owns the company. They're also to blame for incidents involving the Revolution and Mariner East pipelines. Then there was also the Norfolk Southern line that had an oil tanker train derail into a creek in 2022.
