PORT ARTHUR, TEXAS: The End of the Line for an Economic Myth August 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was researched and written by Mary Greene and Keene Kelderman of the Environmental Integrity Project. THE ENVIRONMENTAL INTEGRITY PROJECT The Environmental Integrity Project (http://www.environmentalintegrity.org) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established in March of 2002 by former EPA enforcement attorneys to advocate for effective enforcement of environmental laws. EIP has three goals: 1) to provide objective analyses of how the failure to enforce or implement environmental laws increases pollution and affects public health; 2) to hold federal and state agencies, as well as individual corporations, accountable for failing to enforce or comply with environmental laws; and 3) to help local communities obtain the protection of environmental laws. For questions about this report, please contact EIP Director of Communications Tom Pelton at (202) 888-2703 or
[email protected]. PHOTO CREDITS Cover photo by Garth Lenz of Port Arthur. Executive Summary The Trump Administration’s approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline will lead to a surge in demand for oil refining at the southern end of the line, in Port Arthur, Texas – and a real test for claims that the administration’s promotion of fossil fuel industries will create jobs. The industrial port of 55,000 people on the Gulf of Mexico has been the home of America’s largest concentration of oil refineries for decades, and business has been booming. But history has shown little connection between the profitability of the petrochemical industries that dominate Port Arthur and the employment or health of the local people who live in this city of increasingly abandoned buildings and empty lots.