Sorry, but sometimes Orwell is proven right again, and it takes all your effort to see what is right in front of your nose:
Yes, the fact that these companies are asking the taxpayers of the world they're ruining to pay for protecting them against the consequences of the world they're ruining is good for a rueful laugh and a quick-tempered reference to roosting chickens.
But, last year, I drove up the path of Hurricane Harvey, from the Gulf of Mexico to Houston, and I saw small towns and their small business in sticks and splinters. I saw people living in tents because their roofs were somewhere in the next county. And the fact remains that these companies go out of their way to put their facilities in some of the country's poorest neighborhoods. So, yeah, this is a wall we should build. Hell, it's infrastructure week anyway.
What is Mr. Pierce talking about? This:
The plan is focused on a stretch of coastline that runs from the Louisiana border to industrial enclaves south of Houston that are home to one of the world's largest concentrations of petrochemical facilities, including most of Texas' 30 refineries, which represent 30 percent of the nation's refining capacity. Texas is seeking at least $12 billion for the full coastal spine, with nearly all of it coming from public funds. Last month, the government fast-tracked an initial $3.9 billion for three separate, smaller storm barrier projects that would specifically protect oil facilities.
You won't have heard it, but I did: a podcast from Houston Public Media about hurricanes and Texas, going back to the storm of 1900 that wiped Galveston off Galveston Island, to Hurricane Harvey, which nearly washed Houston away, and did wipe out some towns on the Texas coast (which remain ignored by many because "not-Houston", that's why.) Turns out Hurricane Ike, from about 10 years ago, almost unleashed a disaster on Texas the likes of which the country has never seen. Ike was predicted to track straight up the Texas ship channel, "home to one of the world's largest concentrations of petrochemical facilities." Yup, that area. It turned north at the last minute, to the everlasting salvation of Houston, the Gulf Coast, and the nation in general. Had it gone up the ship channel, the damage would have been unimaginable, and not just to the immediate area, but to the Gulf Coast waters. There's been discussion of this "full coastal spine" ever since, because it was only the grace of God that saved Houston and the Gulf that day.
And please, "the world they're ruining"? Are we all driving electric cars now? Do we all buy goods at stores delivered by solar-powered vehicles? Does no one use any plastic at all? Are the oil companies forcing us to buy their products? If you want a rueful laugh, go to the next sentence after that quote: "But, last year, I drove up the path...." In what? An ox-cart? A horse-drawn wagon? A Tesla? Not even a hybrid, I'll warrant. Can we all please stop acting like corporations are evil aliens from outer space that serve us no benefit and aren't a direct response to our desire to buy? And this line is too funny:
"And the fact remains that these companies go out of their way to put their facilities in some of the country's poorest neighborhoods."
Actually, they go out of their way to build their refineries in places where people don't live; and then people move there anyway. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett was interviewed this morning on Houston NPR about the flooding brought about by Harvey. He pointed out that the reservoirs which were eventually opened and flooded much of West Houston (the reason for my infamous "rant") were built 30 miles outside of Houston in the '40's, when few people owned cars and 30 miles away was quite a safe distance indeed. "Nobody was gonna live out there," as Emmett said; and then we moved the city out there and beyond it, building neighborhoods even directly behind the reservoir's perimeters. When the reservoirs were built, they were built to drain to the Buffalo Bayou, which out there ran through farmland and today, runs from some of the more expensive real estate in Texas. But the reservoirs weren't built in those neighborhoods; quite the reverse.
Nor were the refineries built in poor neighborhoods; the neighborhoods came to them. If you did build a refinery near a rich neighborhood (if you could get away with it, which is unimaginable), the neighborhood would empty out in minutes. We don't want to live near those things, so usually the people who do buy or rent there because it's all they can afford. Refineries are built in poor neighborhoods? No, the neighborhoods are poor because the refineries are there. We don't want to live near them, but we do want what they produce: gas, oil, plastics, paint, etc., etc. Your computer is available because of a refinery, just as your car is.
Do we need the "coastal spine"? As much as we need what the refineries provide. And if they are flooded, it will affect us not just in availability of what those refineries make possible for modern life, but in the pollution and poisoning of air, land, and water that will result. And that's on us, too; we want the benefits of modern industrial life, we have to take the burdens, too. Those "roosting chickens"? We want those eggs.
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