Subject: Materials Sector

• Port Arthur Shares The Polluting Load

  August 1, 2008

• The Bright Side Of Pollution

  August 15, 2008

• Ike Brings On The Pollution

  September 10, 2008

• Best Place to Take Out-of-Towners

  Fred Hartmann Bridge

  September 20, 2001

• Keep On Truckin'

  Two Tons of Steel has gone from cover band to kings of the Texas dance hall

  August 1, 2002

• Formosa Plant Keeps On Polluting

  November 6, 2008

• Point Comfort Alcoa Plant May Close

  The Alcoa plant in Point Comfort, about 125 miles from here, is a pretty massive operation: It can produce up to 2.3 million metric tons a year of alumina, which is the stuff from which aluminum is made. Now it may be shutting down. An Australian newspaper (an Australian company partners with Alcoa on its aluminum production) reported that it's likely falling aluminum prices and the general economic slump will force the company to shutter the plant: In response to market conditions, there

  November 20, 2008

• A Handy Guide To Terror Targets In Houston

  Sometimes it seems like organizations that want to protect Americans from terrorism end up doing all the terrorists' research for them. The Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank headed by John Podesta, formerly Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff, has compiled a handy guide to the nation's most vulnerable chemical facilities, complete with how many millions of lives could be taken were the terrorists to win. And guess what? Twenty-seven of the 101 "most dangerous" chemical facili

  November 26, 2008

• The "Golden" Triangle -- Pay No Attention To the Tons Of Pollutants

  In calculating the latest pollution fine levied against BASF Fina Petrochemicals LP in Jefferson County, state regulators made a note that might make residents of "The Golden Triangle" reconsider the nickname for their home.The Beaumont-Port Arthur area, documents say, has been exposed to 11.4 tons of pollutants, including 931 pounds of hazardous air pollutants that "exceeded levels that are protective of human health."That assertion was made in connection with a Feb. 2006 emissions event that r

  December 11, 2008

• The Poison Connection

  January 6, 1994

• Oldies, And Not Goodies, On The Pollution Front

  The wheels of environmental justice move ever so slowly. To call it a snail's pace would be an insult to mollusks everywhere. But it is what is, as we say in the parlance of our times, so now we have the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality assessing penalties against two local polluters for violations that occurred as long ago as 2005.The commission yesterday popped Chevron Phillips Chemical $168,416 and Shell Chemical and Shell Oil $166,530 for environmental crimes. The problems cited

  January 29, 2009

• Among Friends

  August 1, 1996

• Toxic Leak?

  July 24, 1997

• First in the Nation

  April 2, 1998

• Letters

  December 17, 1998

• Arbor Day Celebration

  Web exclusive!

  January 15, 2009

• Children’s Museum of Houston Thanksgiving

  Web exclusive!

  November 20, 2008

• Two Tons Of Steel

  April 23, 2009

• Home Front

  July 27, 2006

• Best Radio News

  September 23, 2004

• Best Nonprofit

  September 23, 2004

• Garden of Good and Evil

  Rachel Carson's environmental quest gets surreal at Main Street Theater

  April 22, 2004

• Carrying the Torch

  Rangers get fired up over Bush's Healthy Forests Initiative

  April 22, 2004

• Bill Minutaglio

  Friday, January 10

  January 9, 2003

• Going off the Rails

  A proposed line into the Bayport Industrial District has residents from Clear Lake to the East End vowing to stop the "toxic train" in its tracks

  April 18, 2002

• Green Port?

  A Port suit accuses several companies of contaminating its land for decades

  May 3, 2001

• Fish Tales

  Rayburn's bass diminish as debates continue over pollution discharges

  December 28, 2000

• Retro Active

  Two Tones of Steel

  June 22, 2000

• More Help (The Hard Way) For Retrofitting School Buses In Brazoria County

  Solutia Inc. is a "small business" in the overall scheme of things in the petrochemical universe, but the organic chemical production plant outside of Alvin managed to outdo the big boys on Wednesday when it racked up the biggest pollution fine of the week in our great state.For its achievement, Solutia was assessed a $117,048 fine by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. In sporting terms, which we can't help but use here, it sounded like a "total team effort" by Solutia to underperf

  May 7, 2009

• Dow Chemical Thankful It's In A Pollution-Loving State Like Texas

  The Dow Chemical Co. got whacked last week with a $202,325 fine for air pollution violations, but if we had to guess, we'd say the world's second-largest chemical company thanks its lucky stars it does business in a state like Texas, where a history of violations doesn't mean much.In calculating the various wrongs Dow committed in 2007 and 2008, the staff of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality pulled out their calculators and determined the penalty should (or maybe "could," we suppose

  May 27, 2009

• Dow Chemical, Always Helping The Kids. By Polluting The Air

  If you worry about pollution -- especially in light on the EPA's latest study of the cancer risk posed by air pollution -- you might see that instead of threatening our lives, air pollution actually helps all of us, especially those of us who are most vulnerable, the kids.For purposes of illustration, we present a case handled yesterday by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which approved an agreed order that assessed the Dow Chemical Co. a penalty of $166,465 for violating state

  June 24, 2009

• Sunoco -- Doing Whatever It Takes In La Porte

  ​We have little understanding of how a local chemical manufacturing plant can flaunt state environmental regulations for an entire year and not get called on the carpet for it until nearly two years later, but that describes the goings-on at the Sunoco, Inc., plant in La Porte.At its facility just off the Pasadena Highway, not far from the San Jacinto Monument, Sunoco makes high-quality polypropylene that's used to make synthetic fibers for everything from diapers and carpets to upholstery an

  November 5, 2009