The Shintech saga has taken an bizarre turn. Shintech, you will recall, was planning to build a PVC manufacturing plant in Romeville, LA. After running into several artificially constructed EPA roadblocks, the company changed its plans. Shintech now wishes to build a smaller plant in Plaquemines, LA, about 40 miles upstream on the Mississippi River from the previous site. Environmental Justice advocates are claiming a victory, when in reality the decision was based more on a downturn in the global market for PVC, due primarily to the "Asian flu" which hit Asian markets earlier this year.
Here's the bizarre twist: The National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC), an EPA-shepherded group, will visit Louisiana Dec 7-10 for an Environmental Justice conference. A committee was assembled to arrange a tour for the NEJAC panel of environmental justice "hot spots" in the region. Included on this planning committee were two African Americans who supported Shintech's efforts to build the plant in Romeville. In all there were 20 people on the committee organizing the tour.
Both of the Shintech supporters received a telephone call from EPA this week informing them that they were being removed from the committee, and were given bizarre reasons for their removal. It seems as though EPA does not want its NEJAC panel to be influenced by anyone whose opinion differs from the "official" EPA mantra on Environmental Justice. This is more evidence of the fact that EPA has made up its mind on Environmental Justice, and does not care who disagrees nor why they might disagree.
The two who were removed from the committee (Carol Gaudin and Ernest Johnson, President of Louisiana NAACP) supported Shintech on the grounds that it would create economic opportunity for minority communities.
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