Dear Climate Champion,
In a moment, I’ll be asking you to make an Earth Day gift to Climate Reality before their match opportunity expires in just a few hours. But first, I want to share how my community has mobilized to fight back – and win – against a proposed petrochemical pyrolysis plant that would have threatened our air, land, and water.
In April 2022, Texas-based chemical manufacturing company Encina announced plans to build a $1.1-billion plant along the Susquehanna River in Point Township, Pennsylvania, near my home. The plant would have shipped 450,000 tons of plastic waste a year to our rural town to produce toxic chemicals like benzene, toluene, and xylene. It would also have used millions of gallons of water from the Susquehanna River and posed a serious contamination threat.
Companies like Encina greenwash the dangers of these plants by dubbing them “advanced recycling,” when in reality, the process produces hazardous air pollutants and large amounts of hazardous waste.
With Climate Reality’s support in calling out Encina’s greenwashing of the proposed plant, we fought back, and just a few days ago, we found out that we won: Encina announced it will no longer pursue the project!
It’s wins like this that demonstrate the power of local organizing – and I hope you’ll support Climate Reality’s grassroots work in communities just like mine. Will you make a matching gift now to help fuel this critical work?
