News Release

* Climate Chaos * Houston’s Toxicity

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EMILY WURTH, ewurth at fwwatch.org, @foodandwater
Wurth is organizing co-director with Food & Water Watch, which put out a statement on climate chaos following Hurricane Harvey. Also see their fact sheet on renewable energy.

SHAYE WOLF,  swolf at biologicaldiversity.org@CenterForBioDiv
Wolf is climate science director for the Center for Biological Diversity, which released a statement:

“Refineries and petrochemical plants in south Texas released nearly 1 million pounds of seven especially dangerous air pollutants during flaring and chemical spills triggered by Hurricane Harvey. …

“Staggering amounts of benzene, 1,3-butadiene, hexane, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, toluene and xylene — estimated at 951,000 pounds so far — were emitted during Harvey-related flooding by several dozen petroleum industry facilities operated by Chevron Phillips, Exxon Mobil, Shell and other companies. These seven chemicals are all toxic air pollutants documented to cause serious harms to human health, and several cause cancer.”

Wolf added: “Oil-industry facilities spewed thousands of tons of toxic chemicals into defenseless communities, despite ample warning about hurricane risk to this area,. … Dangerous flaring from coastal refineries has become routine during major storms. The petroleum industry seems utterly unwilling to take responsibility for operating safely, even as climate change makes storms like Harvey more destructive.”

The group also released the statement: “Harvey: More Devastating Due to Climate Change.”