Welcome back to Drilled, I'm Amy Westerville. Back in 2021, we did a season of the podcast

on the fossil fuel industry's turn toward plastic and petrochemicals as the thing that

would save it as the world turned away from combustion engines. They have only leaned further

into that plan over the last two years, but as we documented in our plastic pipelines

season, grassroots activists have had a lot of success holding them off, one ethane cracker

facility at a time. The foremost a plant that was planned for St. James' parish back then

is still on hold now, thanks to various legal complaints filed on behalf of local groups

like Rise St. James whose efforts we profile the mad season. You can tell that organizers

in Louisiana are getting it done, because suddenly the industry is organizing against them.

Last year some serious money joined the petrochemicals fight when Bloomberg philanthropies

committed $85 million to the new Beyond Petrochemicals campaign. The campaign is focused

on stopping the 120 new petrochemical facilities proposed in Louisiana, Texas, and Pennsylvania.

So suddenly a new advocacy group has emerged. It calls itself the Sustainability Council,

and it's led by big oil companies and industry groups and backed by local officials and

chambers of commerce. The Sustainability Council is interested in is the petrochemical

industry's sustainability, so it's working hard to try to discredit local organizers and

paint the push against petrochemicals in Louisiana's Cancer Alley as an effort pushed by outsiders.

I got a chance to speak with a couple of those organizers, Shamira Levine with Rise St. James

and Joe Banner of the Descendants Project last month about their ongoing work and what

they think of this new challenge to it. That conversation's coming up right after this

quick break.

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