ExxonKnews
April 5, 2023
This is a special collaboration with DeSmog, one of the leading outlets working to expose misinformation from fossil fuel interests. This reporting was made possible in part due to a media briefing sponsored by Beyond Plastics, Inclusive Louisiana, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and The Descendants Project.
If you take Shell’s word for it, the oil giant’s growing petrochemical operations are indicative of its “commitment” to a cleaner energy future. At new and expanding facilities, from northern Europe to Pennsylvania and Louisiana, Shell is suggesting that more chemical and plastics manufacturing can help usher in environmental solutions, sustainability, and even diversity. For instance, the company’s just-published “Energy Transition Progress report” references chemicals right alongside “low carbon energy” and “renewable natural gas” as examples of the company’s stated commitment to lowering emissions.
But if you talk to some residents of “Cancer Alley,” a strip of the Mississippi River featuring more than 150 oil refineries and petrochemical plants that are frequently concentrated in Black neighborhoods and often built at the sites of former slave plantations, the picture of life next to such facilities looks a lot less rosy.
