Air pollution regulation violators receive billions in tax subsidies: Report

According to one report, state and local governments are awarding billions of dollars in tax subsidies to plastic processing facilities with a history of air pollution violations that disproportionately impact people of color. report From environmental conservation projects.

The environmental nonprofit analyzed 50 plants built or expanded in the past 12 years. The majority were in Texas and Louisiana, with the remaining five in Mississippi, Iowa, Alabama, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Of the approximately 600,000 people living within three miles of the facilities analyzed, two out of three are people of color. The analysis found that 32 of the 50 facilities received a combined total of nearly $9 billion in state and local grants.

The report also found that 42 out of 50 factories, or 84%, had violated their air pollution control permits at least once in the past three years, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Enforcement and Compliance Online Database. Certified.

For example, in 2015, Indorama, a Thailand-based company, received a $1.5 million grant from the state of Louisiana that exempted it from local taxes on its Westlake Town facility. As a condition of these grants, it agreed to “meet or exceed all environmental regulations.” However, in the first half of 2019, emissions of volatile organic compounds were more than 90 times the level allowed by the Clean Air Act. According to the analysis, 50 power plants emitted about 63 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2021.

“Companies like Indorama receive public subsidies and promise to ‘work to protect public safety, health, and the environment.’ But once those subsidies and building permits are in place, “Companies failed to meet their commitments by repeatedly releasing illegal pollution during breakdowns, failures, and industry ‘disruption’ incidents,” the report said.

These same facilities are often located in areas where nominal oversight agencies to monitor environmental impacts have limited resources. The combined budgets of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality are less than the tax subsidies analyzed in the report.

Communities in and near the Gulf Coast are particularly vulnerable to air pollutants associated with the petrochemical industry. The region of Louisiana colloquially known as “Cancer Alley” accounts for 85% of the United States’ petrochemical production and is also associated with disproportionately high rates of cancer.