Advocates Guide to Effective Participation in Environmental Permit for Petrochemical Facilities

Compared to some other types of petrochemical facilities, emissions directly from plastic resin manufacturing units can seem relatively low, often less than 100 tons per year for individual criteria pollutants. But these units are typically co-located within a petrochemical complex that includes many larger sources of emissions that support the plastic resin manufacturing process. For instance, most complexes will include boilers and combustion turbines, i.e., gas-fired power plants, that provide heat, steam, and power to the entire complex. It is therefore difficult to ascertain the exact level of emissions that a given unit, say a polyethylene unit, might ultimately emit, but these complexes can be massive sources of emissions. For instance, Formosa’s proposed St. James Parish complex, which would include polyethylene and polypropylene units in addition to cracking and other units, would emit 4,500 tons of carbon monoxide, 2,000 tons of VOCs, and 1,200 tons of nitrogen oxides, in addition to many other pollutants.34 The facility would also emit a whopping 10.8 million tons of greenhouse gas, the equivalent of 25 new natural gas-fired power plants.35