By Michael Tracey, The Young Turks
The explosions Thursday that caused mass evacuations in and around an Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, were not the first time that the facility had undergone such an event. The industrial chemical producer, which has 26 locations throughout the U.S., was deemed culpable for a 2006 incident which caused a noxious fire to burn for two hours.
On June 20, 2006, a fire broke out in the same Crosby facility which is currently flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. After the 2006 fire, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality determined that "a pallet of organic peroxide was stored inappropriately,” causing the fire and an aerial emission of “unpermitted” toxins.
For its complicity in an event which resulted in the release into the air of 3,200 pounds of volatile organic compounds, as well as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide, Arkema was assessed a fine of $3,950 -- $790 of which was deferred by the Commission. So Arkema’s grand total owed to the state of Texas as recompense for the incident was $3,160. This for a multinational corporation which boasted of $8.9 billion in revenue in 2016.
Needless to say, it’s not especially difficult to imagine how such relatively lax enforcement--the fine amounted to about one dollar for every pound of gas released into the air--might’ve incentivized the company to take a less-than-stringent approach to future environmental hazards. Years later, Arkema was keenly aware of the potential for such an event. The AP reported:
Arkema warned investors in its most recent annual securities filings published last year that its facilities were at risk from "accidents, fires, explosions and pollution" due to the nature of the hazardous and flammable materials it uses.
The International Business Times reported this week that the chemical industry successfully lobbied to block rules which potentially could have mitigated the hazardous conditions at the Arkema plant, as well as at ExxonMobil facilities in the Houston area. After also incurring damage from Hurricane Harvey, two ExxonMobil refineries released 12,000 pounds of hazardous vapors in the air.
As TYT reported Wednesday, ExxonMobil was instrumental in pressing the Texas Transportation Commission to build a segment of parkway in an area to the west of midtown Houston that has seen extensive flood damage. According to environmental advocates, the construction of that parkway segment -- which opened in 2016 -- has likely exacerbated flooding in the area, where two critical dams are located.
Arkema has its own political action committee, a top recipient of which in 2016 was Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), in whose district the Crosby plant lies. Babin received $2,000 in the 2016 cycle -- which is the most that the PAC contributed to any one candidate. As IBT reported, Babin was among the 65 co-sponsors of a resolution calling on the Trump administration to block Environmental Protection Agency provisions which could have strengthened safety rules at the plant. The administration obliged earlier this year.