March 19, 2019
A fire at a petrochemical storage facility that’s covered Houston in a thick pall of smoke for the past two days intensified overnight after firefighters briefly lost water pressure. Two additional storage tanks are ablaze, bringing the total to eight, …
August 30, 2018
A massive dike to hold back storm-driven floods surging in from the Gulf of Mexico was first proposed after Hurricane Ike devastated the Houston-area coast a decade ago. Last year’s Hurricane Harvey disaster brought fresh enthusiasm for the languishing project …
March 6, 2018
Chemical companies are pressing federal officials to spend billions of dollars on a coastal flood control system near Houston to protect petrochemical plants, oil refineries and shipping infrastructure from the next hurricane. The coastal spine, as the project is called, …
February 9, 2018
DuPont Co. and its spinoff Chemours Co. have been sued by Ohio for dumping a chemical used in Teflon, an action the state said went on for 60 years even though the company knew it was toxic to humans. Ohio’s …
September 8, 2017
Before flames and smoke leaped into the sky over the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, last week, Jolyn Masters was hunkered down at home on a Hurricane Harvey-flooded street a mile away. Then came a knock. A National Guard …
September 1, 2017
In its devastatingly slow crawl up the industrial Gulf Coast, Hurricane Harvey is proving to be the biggest test yet of the safety and vulnerabilities of the U.S. chemicals industry. A Houston-area chemical plant was hit by explosions overnight after …
March 21, 2017
When a Texas City refinery exploded in 2005, 15 people died. Months later, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board found that putting workers in temporary trailers near danger zones at the plant raised the death toll. Since then, temporary trailers have …
July 19, 2016
DuPont Co. and Dow Chemical Co. must tell shareholders before next week’s merger vote that they may face exposure to costly potential damages from claims that a chemical used to make Teflon caused cancer and other ailments, community activists told …
July 2, 2015
When DuPont Co. announced plans to spin off its major chemical operations in October 2013, it said the move would create a cash-generating dynamo with the leading market share in most of its businesses. The spinoff would let DuPont focus …
May 8, 2015
DuPont Co.’s plan to spin off its Teflon unit is spurring concern on the West Virginia-Ohio border that the new company won’t cover medical payments for residents sickened by a chemical long-used at the production plant. In 2004, as a …