Louisiana
From Louisiana to Pennsylvania, Tracing Plastics Pollution Back to Its Source – Inside Climate News
While filming a documentary about oceans on a boat in the Pacific Ocean several years ago, producer and director Steve Cowan encountered a shocking scene. “We were surrounded from horizon to horizon by floating plastic,” Cowan said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Cowan and his colleagues at the nonprofit Habitat Media wondered where all of this plastic was coming from—and why so much of it is manufactured in the United States. With “Single-Use Planet,” their new documentary premiering on PBS in April, they hope to answer those questions.
The documentary tells the stories of two states with a major stake in the plastics economy: Louisiana and Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania segment focuses on Beaver County’s Shell ethane cracker plant, a massive facility for manufacturing plastics that began operations in the fall of 2022.
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Since then, residents living nearby have complained about noise, odors and light pollution, and local activists are concerned that Shell is exacerbating the region’s existing plastic pollution problems.
In a previous statement to Inside Climate News, a Shell spokesperson said the company was “committed to the health and well-being of its employees and the surrounding community,” and said the company was working to improve so that it “can be the good environmental steward, neighbor, and business partner this region wants and deserves.” Though Shell was lured to Pennsylvania with more than $1.6 billion in tax subsidies, new research shows that the promised economic boom has failed to materialize.
“There are stories of explorers trying to find the headwaters of the Amazon River, and it takes them to the Andes, to these tributaries way up in the steep slopes of those mountains,” Cowan said. “I liken that to what we’ve done with this story. We took it all the way to the headwaters of plastic to answer, where does this stuff come from?”
Inside Climate News spoke with Cowan about the origins of the project and what he and his team learned about the Shell plant. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
KILEY BENSE: How did you decide to focus on Pennsylvania and Louisiana for this film?
STEVE COWAN: Trying to figure out where all this plastic was coming from, our first stop was the petrochemical facilities, these giant ethane crackers that produce plastic from natural gas and fossil fuels. We talked to people that live nearby in these communities, and a lot of the people aren’t too happy with it.
In Louisiana, the [companies] site these facilities in areas with marginalized communities, where they don’t expect there’s going to be a lot of complaints and pushback. That was our Louisiana story, and then we went further upstream, because the Mississippi River eventually becomes the Ohio River through Appalachia. We checked out the … Shell ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, and we talked with community members there, many of whom wish that that plant never arrived.
To feed the plant, they need ethane. It’s an ethane cracker, and that’s natural gas. There’s a lot of fracking that goes on in Pennsylvania and Ohio and West Virginia, and some people aren’t so happy with that either.
BENSE: I think a lot of people don’t realize that plastics manufacturing is fed by fracking wells.
COWAN: We made that connection, and we asked this community, well, how did Shell end up here? If half the people are horrified by it, how did it happen? And they all said, “It was a $1.6 billion subsidy provided by our legislators in our state capital in Harrisburg. They’re the ones that invited … Shell. They’re the ones that championed and enabled the whole thing.” So we went further upstream to Harrisburg and met some of these lawmakers.
In Harrisburg, talking with these legislators, the biggest part of their funding is coming from fossil fuel, natural gas and petrochemical companies, and so they need that money. We tried in the film not to villainize these lawmakers, in part because it takes so much money to get elected, and average citizens don’t have the kind of cash they need to buy all the TV ads and everything they have to do to win a seat in the House or the Senate or the governor’s mansion.
So they have their go-to sources [of funding]. They don’t even have to go ask for it. The lobbyists are coming in and offering it, and it’s just this low-hanging fruit. Whether it be a subsidy bill or whether it be some kind of law to ease regulations and oversight of the industries, the lobbyists draft the legislation, they take it to the lawmakers and the lawmakers make policy out of them. These are the true headwaters of plastic.
We did meet some lawmakers in Harrisburg that are in the film, like Sen. Katie Muth or Chris Rabb from Philadelphia in the House, and they’re actually more in touch with the realities that a lot of their constituents have to face. They’re in the minority, though. That’s the problem. They vote against this, or they try to get some legislation going to bring in renewables, and they can’t even get the bills out on the floor. They’re powerless because they’re in the minority.
And the reason they stay in the minority is because this river of money is going to legislators who sign on with fossil fuels and plastic. It’s a worrisome thing, and I don’t see how, especially since the last election, it’s going to end any time soon.
BENSE: What do you hope viewers will take away from “Single-Use Planet”?
COWAN: Change isn’t going to come from the top down. These people that have figured out how to stay in power, they’re not going to sponsor legislation to lessen the impact of industry or to change our electoral system. Change has to come from the bottom up.
And that’s actually how it happened in France–they have general strikes. They shut the whole economy down. And it’s forced a lot of reforms in France, and I don’t know if that’s what’s coming to the U.S. or not, but I hope that people realize that they need to get more involved. People need to engage these issues, rather than just going about their daily lives and hoping somehow that their elected representatives in Harrisburg or Baton Rouge or Washington, D.C., are going to do anything about this. They’re not.
About This Story
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Thank you,
Kiley Bense
Reporter, Pennsylvania
Kiley Bense covers climate change and the environment with a focus on Pennsylvania, politics, energy, and public health. She has reported on the effects of the fracking boom in Pennsylvania, the expansion of the American plastics industry, and the intersection of climate change and culture. Her previous work has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, the Believer, and Sierra Magazine, and she holds master’s degrees in journalism and creative writing from Columbia University. She is based in Pennsylvania.
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – South Louisiana’s coast has long served as a natural buffer between communities and rising water.
But since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost nearly 2,000 square miles of coastal land.
Dr. Torbjorn Tornqvist, a professor at Tulane University, said Louisiana is one of the most vulnerable coastal areas in the world because of climate change, sea level rise and subsidence.
“Louisiana is arguably one of the most vulnerable… perhaps the most vulnerable coastal zones in the world when it comes to climate change and sea level rise… and there are several reasons for that but one important reason is that we have high subsidence rates, and that means sea level rise here is a lot faster than the average around the world,” Tornqvist said.
Tornqvist is the lead author of a recently published study examining the long-term impacts of sea level rise across south Louisiana.
He said the issue is no longer limited to communities closest to the Gulf Coast.
“People are leaving the coast of Louisiana, but it’s going to accelerate over the course of the century. And those people are going to have to go somewhere, and it’s likely that a significant number are going to look at a place like Baton Rouge to move to,” Tornqvist said.
Since Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana has invested billions of dollars in large-scale restoration projects designed to reduce flood risk and strengthen the coast.
Some researchers believe those projects are important but not permanent fixes.
“We have…right now we have a pretty high-quality flood protection system that’s obviously way better than it was during Katrina and we should certainly keep investing in upkeep, but we also have to recognize that’s only going to take us so far,” Tornqvist said.
State officials say those investments remain critical as Louisiana adapts to future flood risks.
Micheal Hare, executive director of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said the state’s coastal plan is designed to balance restoration work with protection projects, including levees.
“Our 2023 master plan certainly incorporates the best science available to us to then come up with a balanced approach between how do we effectively spend money on restoration as well as money on protection projects like levees,” Hare said.
Hare said those projects will continue to evolve as future risks change. CPRA and the Army Corps of Engineers are re-evaluating portions of the West Bank and Vicinity levee system in New Orleans to meet projected future flood risks within the next half-decade.
“Morganza to the Gulf is a great example, location communities came together, they started funding it…so that protection is critical…It will constantly be maintained and constantly elevated to meet the new levels of threats and risks that are out there,” Hare said.
Coastal officials and researchers agree that what happens along Louisiana’s coast will continue to affect communities far beyond the shoreline for generations.
“And so maybe you don’t live behind the levee, but I promise you want those coastal communities to stay there and to keep working, and to stay productive and engaged…so that we don’t have to have these flood fights further north or lose parts of our economy,” Hare said.
Tornqvist said the decisions made now could shape the future of Louisiana communities.
“What’s really important to recognize is that the next few decades are basically going to decide the long-term future of cities like Baton Rouge,” Tornqvist said.
Louisiana has always lived with water. As the coast changes and sea levels rise, the challenge is how communities across south Louisiana continue adapting for generations to come.
From the Gulf Coast to Baton Rouge, the future of Louisiana’s coastline is a conversation that impacts the entire state.
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Louisiana ranks among the top 10 most affordable states to retire, according to a new study from Retirement Living, a national journal of retirement research.
Researchers analyzed each state’s housing costs, living expenses and tax friendliness to compile the ranking. Louisiana, they say, is the eighth most affordable state for retirees.
In Louisiana, the median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $932, the median home sale price is $255,000, monthly grocery spend per capita is $272, the average price per gallon of regular gas is $4, the average Medicare Advantage monthly premium is $13.35 and the average effective property tax rate is 0.55%.
West Virginia is the most affordable state to retire, followed by Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana, Indiana and Kansas. Researchers describe the South as “the sweet spot for an affordable retirement.”
The most expensive state to retire, meanwhile, is California, followed by Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Utah, New York and Minnesota.
Read Retirement Living’s full report here.
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – With hurricane season approaching, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is bringing the community together to prepare before a storm forms.
“We can’t stop disasters from happening. We can’t stop hurricanes from happening. But what we can do is equip our communities with the resources that they need to prepare for these storms ahead of time,” said Jayda Morris, CPRA outreach manager.
The agency hosted an event featuring interactive storm simulations and a full model of the Mississippi River.
“If you do it now, like on a sunny day like today, you’re ready to go for the rest of the season,” Jay Grymes said.
El Niño may reduce storms, but Louisiana still at risk
State Climatologist Jay Grymes said an El Niño pattern may reduce the number of storms in the Atlantic but warned against a false sense of security.
“In those 25 years, Louisiana, some part of the state has been impacted by 29 storms. That’s one a year, regardless of El Niño. So that should tell you something,” Grymes said.
He said the bigger concern is storms that can form in the Gulf with little warning.
“If we’re going to get a storm, it very possibly could be one that bubbles up in the Gulf and doesn’t give us five or seven days to track it coming our way. It gives us 40 hours to get ready for a landfall. So it’s imperative that you go ahead and do it now,” Grymes said.
Preparation goes beyond stocking water
Preparing now includes walking through yards, checking trees, and knowing whether everyone in the family can survive two weeks without power.
PhD students with the LSU College of the Coast and Environment gave the community a virtual reality experience that puts users inside a storm.
“If they wear the goggles or play with the Apple Vision Pro, they can understand how high will the flood be, and they can know how dangerous is the hurricane scenario,” said Yixuan Wang.
The VR simulation uses real historical data to show users what compound flooding looks like in New Orleans and surrounding areas. The goal is to make the science real for people who can’t picture what a flood map means.
“It’s just to let you understand the environment. We will add the audios, the different sound of the wind and the storm. And you can see how tense of the rainfall around you,” Wang said.
Organizers said the event is about making sure that when a storm threatens the area, families already know their plan.
Information from the event is available on CPRA’s website. Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.
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