Natural disasters, even if we are guilty of creating the man-made climate change conditions causing their extreme manifestations, are still by nature out of our control. Besides the never-ending diligence in ending our impact on climate change, there are many things all societies must do to lessen the impact of natural disasters, including upgrading our infrastructure, and creating comprehensive and actionable emergency protocols that save the most lives. But, as the Texas Observer found, after analyzing the amount of air-pollution released by Texas coastline petrochemical companies during Hurricane Harvey, one of the most obvious problems is greed and/or incompetence of corporations and their safety procedures. According to the Observer, at least 5.5 million pounds of hazardous pollutants were released into the air during Harvey, and much of that was not simply the storm’s fault.
For one, companies could have shut down in advance of the hurricane. At least seven facilities that emitted about 1.8 million pounds of chemicals chose to shut down on or after August 27, two days after Harvey made landfall near Rockport.
These are enormous facilities and “shutting them down” is no simple task, but it is something that can be done both safely and cleanly.
Carman pointed out that of the 800 or so chemical facilities in Beaumont, Houston and Corpus Christi, only about 40 had reported excess emissions to TCEQ. “What that means is that there are ways to shut down without any extra air emissions,” said Carman.
The Observer’s analysis is based on about 80 initial emission reports filed by Houston, Beaumont and Corpus Christi companies with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) between August 24 and September 5.
The fact is that our infrastructure and our laws guiding companies and their responsibility to our environment have been underfunded and neglected for decades. As we see more and more 100-year and 500-year and 1,000-year natural “events” in the coming weeks, months, and years, slapping big companies whose profits reach many billions of dollars every year with tiny fines for environmentally disastrous practices and violations is not going to help “create jobs” anywhere except the mortuary sector.