Moving forward with Formosa Sunshine project . At the other, two rounds of investigation detected nothing. Woodrows grocery closed down. The plan for the plant includes. Formosas major businesses are oil refining, petrochemicals, plastics, fibers, textiles, electronics, energy, steel, transportation, machinery, healthcare and biotech. As a result, FG has deferred major He was Democracy and Human Rights Service Fellow at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy from 2017 to 2018. Formosa Plastics has continued to cite the original assessment to back its claims, however, also touting the fact that the plant would create 1,200 jobs with an average salary of 84,500 USD. This is not unlike how Formosa Plastics has behaved when legal rulings were made in its development projects in Taiwan or elsewhere, often seeking interpretations of the law that would allow it to keep operating or to continue construction. Market factors also make the Formosa plant a poor investment. A LOUISIANA JUDGE struck down air permits for Taiwan-owned Formosa Plastics 9 billion USD Sunshine Project earlier this month. Theyre destroying them, and we have to stop it.. estimated total investment of around $9.4bn. Hexane is something folks might work on in laboratories, but they would wear goggles, gloves, personal protection equipment, she said on a Facebook video posted by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. including the challenge it creates in Some people think I voted for Formosa because I was for them, Cooper said Wednesday. Oftentimes, this draws on being grandfathered in through weaker past environmental regulations to avoid conducting an environmental impact assessment. NEW YORK (ICIS)FG LA LLC, a member of the The announcement comes after the agency suspended an earlier permit last November, after acknowledging errors in its original analysis. "The Sunshine Project has been thoroughly vetted and approved by parish and state bodies because it relied on sound science in design and met all regulatory criteria. And they will fall., This is environmental racism: How a protest in a North Carolina farming community sparked a national movement, A poultry plant, years of groundwater contamination and, finally, a court settlement, Block by block, he aims to fight injustice and save the planet, Big Tech news and how to take control of your data and devices, Huge plastics plant faces calls for environmental justice, stiff economic headwinds. ", Do you have an opinion about this story? Formosa has over 100,000 employees worldwide with locations in the USA, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia. This time, Biden might come to the rescue. The issue of toxic air pollution also became a critical topic during a recent congressional election to replace the regions former US congressman Cedric Richmond, who joined the Biden administration. Formosa's Louisiana Project Update: Supply and Demand Dynamics, Legal Challenges Bode Ill 5 Figure 2: New Global Ethylene Capacity (2016-2026) Source: IEEFA and IHS Markit data. Follow David J. Mitchell on Twitter, @NewsieDave. Want to know how your actions can help make a difference for our planet? Formosa has over 100,000 employees worldwide with locations in the USA, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia. This article was published more than1 year ago. "We will forever remember Mr. Pinkham for taking this initial step. The term Cancer Alley refers to a 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge with over 150 fossil fuel and petrochemical facilities. The plant will make the plastic building blocks found in everyday products that help make our lives safer, healthier, cleaner and more efficient, Janile Parks, Formosa director of community and government relations, said in an email. Washington is putting another environmental justice hurdle in front of a proposed Formosa Plastics resin complex in Louisiana, saying it will investigate whether air pollution from the facility. Dont see the commodity youre looking for? The subscription platform provides access to our full range of breaking news and analysisContact us now to find out more. Wedged in between other industrial sites along the Mississippi River, the facility would cover an expanse big enough for about 1,200 football fields, while discharging massive amounts of toxic emissions into the air. Louisiana is the nations third-biggest producer of natural gas, and its lower stretch of the Mississippi already has more than 200 chemical plants and refineries. Its possible health consequences scared her. Although environmental activists who have been protesting the Sunshine Project for years have hailed this as a victory, Formosa Plastics has stated that it is exploring options to continue the project. The company has received all environmental Currently Civil/Structural/Architectural/HVAC Director for NuScale Power Standard Plant Design Project Nuclear Modular Reactor Project Previously Civil/Structural Engineering Director for. 6 Naphtha Cracker in Mailiao, which has also been linked to high rates of cancer among residents living nearby, and was built in collusion with the KMT developmentalist state, is also a Formosa project. Sharon Lavigne, director of Rise St James, protests a Formosa Plastics facility in St James Parish on 9 July 2019. of the cancer causing chemical ethylene oxide, when signing a series of climate and environmental justice orders. The independent report "affirmed that all is in good standing for the project," said Janile Parks, FG LA director of community and government relations. nations third-biggest producer of natural gas. Monday. 800,000 tonne/year ethylene glycol (EG) plant, In March, however, a three-judge appellate panel said White had abused her discretion and sent the case back to her to reconsider. About 61 percent of children live in poverty, and median family income is only 60 percent of the state average. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. He is a freelance journalist, as well as a translator. View projects by client market: Energy Solutions Urban Solutions Mission Solutions Energy Solutions LNG Canada Export Facility Kitimat, British Columbia, Canada relocations, soil testing, placement of test Email your letter to Editor at [emailprotected]. I am working with Topsoe as consultant. Specifically, EPA said it would review whether an Aug. 5, 2021, decision by the LDEQ to reissue 14 permits to Formosa "will subject the predominantly Black residents of St. James Parish to disproportionate levels of air pollution emitted by Formosa.". Its plan has run afoul of environmental groups worried about possible spills of tiny pellets called nurdles, which are used in molds to manufacture plastic products. The plants arent building our communities, said Clyde Cooper, who represents the Fifth District on the parish council. Now the world is watching this important victory for environmental justice.. A new, more stringent review of the environmental impacts of a massive proposed plastics plant along the Mississippi River in St. James Parish will likely take more than two years. How Taipei Became the Home of Live Comedy During the Pandemic, Never Mind Chinas Drills, Quincy Institute Article Views America as Sole Agent of Rising Tensions. The label on a bottle of hexane warns the chemical may be fatal if swallowed and enters airways and may cause damage to organs through prolonged or repeated exposure. The final line: Avoid release to the environment., I wondered, how does this bottle compare to the volume of hexane that Formosa would release into the environment? Terrell said. Regulatory hurdles also continue to plague the project. According to groups involved in organizing against Formosa, such as the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthworks, Healthy Gulf, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, No Waste Louisiana, Center for Biological Diversity, RISE St. James, and the Sierra Club, the plant would have released 800 tons of toxins into the air each year. The visit was one of at least two that Jaime Pinkham, the Corps of Engineers' acting assistant secretary for civil works, and other top officials made in St. James last week. In her confirmation hearing last month, she pledged to ensure that the voices of the poor and the powerless from the most rural parts of America to our biggest cities are heard as we tackle the environmental and public health crises the nation faces., For now, the former plantation fields await as Formosa presses ahead. The ethylene glycol, polyethylene and polypropylene produced by The Sunshine Project will be distributed to manufacturers to make everyday products, including those shown below. Tom Sanzillo of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis argues that the plants likely construction cost overruns and tight profit margins make it harder to justify, especially given a global oversupply of plastics. Over 169 illegal dumping sites, including more than 8,000 tons of mercury waste, have been linked to Formosa Plastics in Taiwan. Formosa Petrochemical owns 100% of the subsidiary - FG LA LLC - which is developing the project. The Fifth District of Louisianas St. James Parish was never exactly a bustling community but it was still a community. We seek to put local voices in touch with international discourse, beginning with Taiwan. products that would be made at the complex off But on- and off-balance sheet issues are converging to make the project less likely to move forward.. They also left notes: We have delivered this package of nurdles as a reminder Louisiana does not need any more pollution, plastics or otherwise.. Perspectives from Design with Jeffrey Hou, Thai Activist Faces Arrest over Defying Draft, Visa Denials for Pro-Democracy District Councilors May Reflect Hardening Views of Hongkongers in Taiwan. The company committed to continue to work with the corps as we receive more guidance on the additional evaluation. The No. The reports have saved our internal team a lot of time and effort when analysing pricing trends., Sante Serrecchia, Administrative & Purchasing Manager, Ondaplast. The companys products also help make life-saving [personal protective equipment], including N95 and surgical masks needed in the fight against COVID-19.. The 14 separate plastic plants, spread over a gargantuan 2,300 acres of land in St James Parish, could also emit up to 15,400 pounds of the cancer causing chemical ethylene oxide. Taiwanese academic Tsuang Ben-Jei of National Chung Hsing University being sued by Formosa Plastics, Cross Strait Relations Between Taiwan and China, Calling For a Return to Sinocentrism in the Name of Opposing It: Responding to Reconsidering Sinophone Studies. The judge that made the ruling cited this history, particularly with regards to how the ancestors of St. James Parishs contemporary residents struggled to keep the land for their descendants, but that the plant would make the land toxic and uninhabitable. Enter your email address to subscribe to New Bloom and receive notifications of new posts by email. available, she added. In 1998, the United Church of Christ helped residents fight the Japanese-owned Shintech, which scrapped its efforts to build a polyvinyl chloride plant in Convent. The clock on that two-year estimate isn't likely to startuntil the spring when a public notice is expected to be published. Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge. Further analysis and a public comment period must take place. Through television ads and billboards, opponents have been pressing the council to rescind the parish land use permit for the project, but the council hasn't discussed the new report since it was delivered in Convent last month. the plant was slated to release 1.6 million pounds of chemicals yearly, doubling the amount of toxic chemicals released in the area to 3.2 million pounds annually. tonne/year HDPE plant, a 400,000 tonne/year Suzanne Mattei, an IEEFA energy policy analyst and co-author of the report, said an environmental impact statement is likely to have to address the issue of water pollution caused by discharges of plastic pellets; a federal judge recently ordered Formosa to resume cleaning waters contaminated by its petrochemical complex in Port Comfort, Texas. The plant would also be built near a graveyard suspected of holding former slaves and become a major new source of the kind of disposable plastics already fouling the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico and the world's oceans, these critics add. Formosas ongoing projects in the US include a 207 million USD plant in Texas that was announced in May of this year. Opponents relentlessly try to misrepresent facts and blame the company for just about anything.. The EPA disclosed the review in two letters dated April 6 and released by the environmental group EarthJustice, which had filed complaints in January against the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the Louisiana Department of Health. FG LA, a subsidiary of Formosa Plastics, is calling its planned $9.4 billion facility in St. James Parish the "Sunshine Project." FG also needs to hire a contractor to do the analysis under the Corps' direction. FPCUSA is seeking to build a facility with around 3 million Mt ethylene capacity (equivalent to what they produce at their existing US and Taiwan locations) in St. James Parish, LA. March 24, 2022 (IEEFA)Four key conditions have changed to make the construction of a massive Louisiana petrochemical plant even less viable over the past year, according to a study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Its not dead yet, Lavigne said of the project. Last year on June 19 Juneteenth RISE St. James had to ask for a court order to be allowed access to the site. travel, are being felt across all industries She wonders whether the petrochemical facilities, one of them within walking distance, are to blame for her fathers cancer. Pollution takes centre stage for Louisiana congressional hopefuls, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Louisiana officials gave approval to the Sunshine Project in January 2020, saying the large project would generate 1,200 direct jobs and $33 million a year in local taxes. He recently commissioned a study by consultant Atlas Environmental that found the Corps has already followed the rules on state and federal permitting. A Formosa spokeswoman said its large facility, called the Sunshine Project, complies with all laws and regulations and has faced detailed reviews. The yellow line marks a distance of two miles from Formosa's site. She has also conducted research on blue hydrogen, petrochemical projects, gas flaring and fossil fuel extraction on public lands. The JV team was selected by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) to design and build Phase One of the Red and Purple Line Modernization Program. It has attracted substantial local, national and international media attention, including sustained coverage by the Guardian, leading to civil rights leaders including Rev William Barber, placing it at the centre of national environmental justice campaigns. relations at FG LA LLC. At one, four sets of human remains were found. Click here to view the ICIS Coronavirus, The EPA investigation comes after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said last year it would put the Formosa project through an additional review over concerns, "particularly those with environmental justice implications.". The project, which would manufacture several types of plastic resins with ethane as its feedstock, may suffer from volatile polyethylene prices. Just after the November election, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers withdrew the permit it had granted under the Clean Water Act for excavation and the filling in of wetlands. Click here to use our commodity finder. Intelligence supporting the road to decarbonisation. About Us. Martin Mayer, the Corps of Engineers' regulatory chief in New Orleans, said the EIS process has "an average goal" of rendering a decision in two years. This disastrous project is an affront to environmental justice and contrary to your goals to reduce pollution in frontline communities, they wrote in a March 17 letter. Among our other endeavors, we currently run a community space in Wanhua, Taipei. FG LA LLC (FG) has received the permits needed to begin the construction phase of The Sunshine Project and activities at the site are underway for the estimated $9.4 billion industrial complex to be located on the west bank in St. James Parish, Louisiana. The decision was hailed by environmental groups, who said it would send the large facility, called the Sunshine Project, "back to the drawing board" by revoking permits that Formosa received from . It has also drawn attention from out-of-state political leaders and the United Nations. We are listening to local concerns and developing programs that meet real community needs. FG LALLC (FG)isa memberof Formosa Plastics Group(Formosa), a Taiwanese-basedconglomeratefounded in 1954. A high proportion of people studied suffered cardiac symptoms, difficulty breathing, headaches, eye irritation, respiratory symptoms, skin irritation and fatigue, the study said. Parks, director of community and government Located just downriver from the Sunshine Bridge, the 2,400-acre site along the west bank of the Mississippi River, is slated to . An incident in recent memory would be Taiwanese academic Tsuang Ben-Jei of National Chung Hsing University being sued by Formosa Plastics for accusing the plant of causing increased cancer risk in the vicinity of a hydrocarbon-processing facility in Mailiao, Taiwan. Likewise, the site of the plant would have been on an 18-century slave graveyard, and it would be located next to an elementary school. The cleaners and post office shut their doors for lack of business. Supply and Demand Database. The regulatory body responsible for investigating the incident remains unclear because nurdles are not classified as a hazardous material. Both Formosa and the community group take credit for finding the burial sites, accompanied by sharp rhetoric. For now, the Formosa project is on hold. Formosa was protected during the incident by the Vietnamese government, which arrested critics, likely due to the fact that the steel mill that caused the fish die-offs represented a 10.6 billion USD investment. The next month, more than 300 people packed into a hearing at the parish council chambers. Louisiana DEQ officials did not respond to a request for comment but told media in the state that their permitting process is "impartial and unbiased. 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