July 19, 2022Group urges chemical industry to move away from petrochemicals
Activists say the chemical industry needs to switch from petrochemical building blocks such as methanol to safer, biobased substances, Chemical & Engineering News reports. Substances that are not derived from fossil fuels should replace benzene, butadiene, ethylene, methanol, propylene, toluene, and xylene, according to a report by the group Coming Clean, a U.S.-based network of community activists, environmental justice organizations, and policy, science and market experts. Such a shift would be a major change for south Louisiana, where the petrochemical industry has grown over the past decade. In Baton Rouge, for example, ExxonMobil is in the middle of a $500 million production capacity upgrade at its polyolefins plant.