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formosa plastics
Goldman Prize Goes to Activists Who Scored Huge Victories Over Corporate Polluters
One Goldman Environmental Prize recipient was Diane Wilson, who won a historic $50 million settlement in a case against Formosa Plastics.
Apr 24, 2023
Activists from Zambia, Indonesia, Turkey, Finland, Brazil, and the United States were awarded the 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize on Monday for fighting destructive mining projects, working to protect imperiled marine ecosystems, shielding Indigenous land from corporate plunder, and holding a powerful plastics company accountable for dumping toxic waste on Texas' Gulf Coast.
"Now that the world has awakened to acute environmental crises like climate change, fossil fuel extraction, and pollution of our air and water, we are much more aware of our connections to each other and to all life on the planet," said John Goldman, president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation. "A grassroots activist in Malawi working to combat plastic pollution in her own country is directly connected to us, and vice versa; and she has much to teach us about how we can do that work at home, where we live. This work, and our fates, are all intertwined."
This year's recipients of the prize, awarded annually to grassroots campaigners from the world's six inhabited continents, were Chilekwa Mumba of Zambia, Zafer Kizilkaya of Turkey, Tero Mustonen of Finland, Delima Silalahi of Indonesia, Alessandra Korap Munduruku of Brazil, and Diane Wilson of the United States.
In 2019, Wilson—a fourth-generation shrimper—won a $50 million settlement in a landmark case against the petrochemical behemoth and notorious polluter Formosa Plastics. The Texas Tribune noted that the 2019 settlement, which a judge ordered the company to place in a trust devoted to habitat restoration and other efforts on the Texas Gulf Coast, was "the largest in U.S. history involving a private citizen's lawsuit against an industrial polluter under federal clean air and water laws."
Other Goldman prize recipients helped score victories against powerful companies.
Alessandra Korap Munduruku of Brazil "organized community efforts to stop mining development by British mining company Anglo American in Brazil's Amazon rainforest," forcing the firm to "withdraw 27 approved research applications to mine inside Indigenous territories," the Goldman Environmental Foundation noted.
Chilekwa Mumba of Zambia, for his part, coordinated legal action against Vedanta Resources, the United Kingdom-based parent company of a massively polluting mining operation in the African nation's Copperbelt Province.
"Chilekwa's victory in the U.K. Supreme Court set a legal precedent—it was the first time an English court ruled that a British company could be held liable for the environmental damage caused by subsidiary-run operations in another country," the Goldman Environmental Foundation said. "This precedent has since been applied to hold Shell Global—one of the world's 10 largest corporations by revenue—liable for its pollution in Nigeria."
A formal award ceremony will be held in Washington, D.C. on Monday at 8:30 pm ET.
Watch live:
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Cancer Alley Activists Hold DC Funeral March Asking Biden to Declare Climate Emergency
"People are dying," pleaded RISE St. James leader Sharon Lavigne outside the White House. "This an emergency. If he will not declare this an emergency, we are going to die."
Oct 25, 2022
Environmental justice activists from Louisiana's "Cancer Alley" on Monday held a funeral procession in Washington, D.C. to remember victims--overwhelmingly Black people--killed by petrochemical industry pollution and to demand that U.S. President Joe Biden declare a climate emergency and do more to stop deadly fossil fuel projects.
"President Biden, you are drinking clean water, and we are not. You can plant a garden over here; we cannot, the soil is destroyed."
Activists led by the frontline action group RISE St. James held a second-line march--the procession, replete with brass band musicians and parasol-toting dancers, that rallies behind relatives of the deceased in a traditional New Orleans funeral--to the White House, where they held large photos of dead cancer victims and pleaded with Biden to take action to protect their lives and their environment.
"I want the world to know what's going on in St. James Parish and throughout the Gulf Coast," said RISE St. James president Sharon Lavigne outside the White House.
"People are dying," she continued. "Cancer is taking over our lives in the river parishes, in St. James Parish, and throughout the Gold Coast. So we're asking President Biden to declare St. James Parish, Cancer Alley, to declare this an emergency. If he will not declare this an emergency, we are going to die."
\u201cLIVE: "Cancer Alley" climate activists are holding a funeral procession in D.C. for lives lost to fossil fuels. Frontline leaders are demanding @POTUS protect residents of Cancer Alley, the Gulf Coast and declare a climate emergency. https://t.co/wcAZu8A7sA\u201d— People vs. Fossil Fuels (@People vs. Fossil Fuels) 1666710037
"We are already dying, slowly but surely," Lavigne said. "Sometimes we have one funeral per week for someone dying of cancer. If this don't stop, we won't have anything left of our area. We need you all to work with us to help us to declare this a climate emergency."
"We won the fight with Formosa Plastics. The judge rules in our favor on all counts," she added to loud applause, referring to last month's court order blocking the construction of a highly controversial petrochemical factory along the Mississippi River in St. James Parish. "With God's help we're gonna win any other fight that's coming to our neighborhood, and that's a fact. We will not allow any more because we're gonna stand together, and we will fight any industry that tries to come into our neighborhood and destroy us."
\u201cHAPPENING NOW: Activists from Louisiana\u2019s St. James Parish are holding a 2nd line funeral march in DC to commemorate those residents lost in \u201cCancer Alley.\u201d #ClimateEmergency\u201d— act.tv (@act.tv) 1666711336
St. James Parish sits in the middle of an 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge known as Cancer Alley due to its nearly 150 oil refineries and plastics and chemical plants.
According to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the cancer risk in predominantly Black areas of St. James Parish is as high as 105 per million, compared with 60 to 75 cases per million in majority white areas. The EPA's Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators database reported an 800% cancer hazard increase due to petrochemical facilities in the parish between 2007 and 2018.
"President Biden, you are drinking clean water, and we are not. You can plant a garden over here; we cannot, the soil is destroyed because of [the] petrochemical industry," Lavigne said, inviting the president to "come to St. James Parish" and "see what we are going through."
"We need your help," she added, "and we are pleading with you and your staff."
\u201cAt the "Funeral March to the White House", a protest led by Sharon Lavigne and her nonprofit Rise St. James, calling President Biden's attention to deaths as a result of petrochemical pollution in South Louisiana's "Cancer Alley" and the larger Gulf Coast. https://t.co/gQFryb02l1\u201d— Nate Tinner-Williams \ud83c\uddfb\ud83c\udde6\u270a\ud83c\udffe\ud83c\udf39 (@Nate Tinner-Williams \ud83c\uddfb\ud83c\udde6\u270a\ud83c\udffe\ud83c\udf39) 1666710365
In a letter to Biden published Tuesday, Lavigne wrote:
St. James Parish now has the most polluted air in America, with cancer rates more than 50% higher than the national average. Our air is quite literally killing us, and no one seems to really mind. Sure, there have been promises. You yourself uttered the words "Cancer Alley," during your first week in office, something very few politicians of your stature have been willing to do. This has given us hope, and when you sent EPA Administrator Michael Reagan down to visit me and other activists, we were encouraged that change will come.
"However, we are still dying, struggling to breath polluted air, and without clean water to drink," she stressed. "President Biden. Please save us. You too understand the gut-wrenching pain of losing a loved one to cancer. Help to make it so that no one else in St. James Parish has to feel this pain. "
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'Victory for Environmental Justice': Review Ordered for Proposed Cancer Alley Plastics Complex
"I am hopeful that this is the nail in the coffin of Formosa Plastics in St. James Parish," said the head of Louisiana Bucket Brigade.
Aug 19, 2021
Environmental justice and climate campaigners celebrated after a federal official on Wednesday ordered a detailed review of the impacts of a massive Formosa Plastics complex set to be built on over 2,000 acres in an area of Louisiana long known as "Cancer Alley."
"Today's announcement is the ultimate David v. Goliath victory."
--Anne Rolfes, Louisiana Bucket Brigade
"Today's announcement is the ultimate David v. Goliath victory," declared Anne Rolfes, executive director of Louisiana Bucket Brigade. "We were not scared of Formosa Plastics and its $9 billion project, or the fact that our governor has been cheering for Formosa all along."
"St. James Parish residents are the ones who have shown leadership and wisdom," Rolfes continued, calling the order for an environmental impact statement (EIS) of what would be one of the world's biggest plastics plants "common sense."
"Our state and federal officials should have demanded it from the outset," she added. "I am hopeful that this is the nail in the coffin of Formosa Plastics in St. James Parish. And don't try to build somewhere else. Pack up and go home."
The directive for an EIS--long demanded by local groups representing Black and low-income communities that would be affected by the $9.4 billion petrochemical project, which a global credit rating agency said last year could cost up to $12 billion--comes after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suspended a permit for it in November following a legal challenge.
The Associated Press reports that "Jaime Pinkham, the Army's acting assistant secretary for civil works, ordered the review after a virtual meeting with opponents of a Corps wetlands permit that allowed Formosa Plastics Group member FG LA LLC to build 10 chemical plants and four other major facilities on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans."
Pinkham, in a two-page memo on Wednesday, wrote that "as a result of information received to date and my commitment for the Army to be a leader in the federal government's efforts to ensure thorough environmental analysis and meaningful community outreach, I conclude an EIS process is warranted to thoroughly review areas of concern, particularly those with environmental justice implications."
\u201cBIG development in the fight against Formosa: \n\n"An EIS process is warranted to thoroughly review areas of concern, particularly those with environmental justice implications." \n\nCongrats @labucketbrigade @risestjames @EndangeredOcean @HealthyGulf & others who continue to fight\u201d— Victoria Bogdan Tejeda (@Victoria Bogdan Tejeda) 1629309150
"The tweet and accompanying letter from the acting assistant secretary of the Army posted today online provide little detail on EIS procedure the Corps intends to use in its additional evaluation of the project," Janile Parks, a spokesperson for FG LA LLC, told The Advocate on Wednesday. "As a result, the company will continue to work with the Corps as we receive more guidance on the additional evaluation and has no further comment at this time."
Sharon Lavigne of the local faith-based group RISE St. James said in a statement responding to Pinkham's memo that "the Army Corps has finally heard our pleas and understands our pain. With God's help, Formosa Plastics will soon pull out of our community."
"The Army Corps has finally heard our pleas and understands our pain."
--Sharon Lavigne, RISE St. James
"Nobody took it upon themselves to speak for St. James Parish until we started working to stop Formosa Plastics," added Lavigne, who earlier this year was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her advocacy work. "Now the world is watching this important victory for environmental justice."
Previous analyses have shown the local and global effects of the complex, which would emit 13.6 million metric tons of greenhouse gases and hundreds of tons of toxic air pollutants annually.
The Center for Biological Diversity highlighted that in addition to ignoring the project's water, air, climate, and health impacts, the Corps "failed to properly evaluate and protect burial sites of enslaved people discovered on the property."
"This long-overdue review will show the unacceptable harm Formosa Plastics' massive petrochemical complex would inflict on this community, our waterways, and our climate," Julie Teel Simmonds, a senior attorney at the center, said of the forthcoming EIS.
"This terrible project shouldn't have been rubber-stamped and it should never be built," she added. "Climate action and environmental justice mean we have to stop sacrificing communities and a healthy environment just to make throwaway plastic."
Myrtle Felton, director of Inclusive Louisiana, noted that "our region is already full of toxic, polluting plants."
"If Formosa Plastics is allowed to build, it will be a death sentence for us," Felton said. "We can't breathe already so we say no to Formosa and its pollution."
\u201cThis victory is because of the courageous & visionary frontline leadership & organizing of @risestjames, @labucketbrigade, @HealthyGulf & so many more, over many years--it's our job to continue elevating their voices until we FULLY #StopFormosaPlastics & the permit is revoked...\u201d— Generation Green New Deal (@Generation Green New Deal) 1629328233
Jane Patton, a campaign manager for the Center for International Environmental Law, put Formosa's so-called "Sunshine Project" in the context of environmental justice issues on a national scale.
"The race to massively expand plastics and petrochemical infrastructure is putting communities across the U.S. at risk, with disproportionate and overwhelming impacts on communities of color," Patton told DeSmog. "The Army Corps of Engineers' initial approval of the Formosa Plastics megacomplex in St. James without adequately assessing these or other impacts was a grave mistake. It should be the last such mistake."
"In the end, we expect the Army Corps of Engineers to uphold their obligations to human rights and environmental justice by revoking Formosa's permit, once and for all," Patton added, "and by ensuring that other proposed facilities that could create similar risks are never approved."
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