The Texas chemical industry, which took a beating from Hurricane Harvey, is determined to avoid a devastating repeat. Chemical companies are pressing the federal government for a Gulf Coast storm barrier near Houston to protect petrochemical plants, oil refineries and shipping infrastructure form the next hurricane, according to an article from Bloomberg.
The coastal spine, as the project is called, would reportedly stretch from Freeport, Texas, where DowDuPont has its largest manufacturing site, to Beaumont on the upper Texas coast, where Exxon Mobil Corp. has chemical plants and refineries. According to the article, President of the American Chemistry Council Cal Dooley says protecting the area’s oil and chemical industries is both critical to the local and national economies and a matter of national security. The U.S. Corps of Engineers will begin studying the project using recently approved hurricane disaster funding.
Read the entire article here.
Until a storm barrier is in place, a recent article "Weather The Extremes" offers ways to prepare for severe natural events.
