A
day job article (...long) on the chemical industry's community outreach after Bhopal~the world's worst industrial accident took place 35 years ago. The part about the ethylene cracker in Pittsburgh is starting to get some coverage elsewhere. The
New York Times had a front page story on it (...short) the day my story came out. The day after, Trump visited. You no doubt say him speak with all the Shell Chemical hard hats behind him last week.
Half my story is about an unnecessary and huge plastics factory (ethylene cracker) being built in order to make fracking more profitable--in a state that is already wall-to-wall fracked. There is money to be made from the Marcellus Shale reserve. But the market for plastics is heavily into overcapacity. As for Trump's visit, the optics were hugely skewed. Right now, there are nearly 6,000 people employed building the plant through next year. In 2021, there will be only 600 new jobs. The plant was approved during the Obama administration.
The story also covers the Kanawha Valley in West Virginia, where the chemical industry got started and where there was a sister plant to the Bhopal plant making methyl isocyanate, which killed over 2,000 (probably way over) and injured hundreds of thousands in 1984.
Note--the online headline was adjusted for "search engine optimization" and makes absolutely no sense. The print headline was "Community outreach 35 years after Bhopal".
This story is why I haven't been around much lately.