Enforce environmental laws before there's a fire, op-ed by Victor Flatt

Informe Ejecutivo: Un desastre provocado por el hombre: Falta de Texas en Proteger a sus Ciudadanos Contra los Peligros del Complejo Petroqu? Mico de Houston.

Man-Made Disaster: Texas's Failure to Protect Its Citizens from the Perils of the Houston Petrochemical Complex, by Thomas McGarity and Karen Sokol

Writing in The Advocate (Baton Rouge and New Orleans), Member Scholar Karen Sokol observes that, " During the pandemic, the [energy] industry is using its 'critical infrastructure' status to further accelerate its polluting activities. The industry asked the Trump administration for an indefinite suspension of its obligations to comply with basic environmental and public health protections even though communities near polluting facilities have suffered higher death rates from COVID-19. The administration responded quickly, depriving communities of these vital safeguards with no clear date for reinstating them."

A week after taking office, President Joe Biden issued an executive order “on tackling the climate crisis” that includes important measures to address the crisis comprehensively and equitably. Specifically, the order directs the federal government to take a “whole of government” approach to the climate crisis that pursues economic security, ensures environmental justice, and empowers workers. The beginning of such a plan is promising, particularly after four years under an administration that wiped the word “climate” from government websites, rolled back the Obama administration’s steps to address the crisis, and made fossil fuel production a centerpiece of its agenda. But it’s just that — a promising beginning. And it’s already under assault.