• Weather

Hurricane Laura Barreling Toward the Texas/Louisiana Coast

• COVID-19
• evacuate
• hurricane
• Hurricane Laura
• major storm
• National Hurricane Center
• oil and gas
• refinery
• storm surge
• wind

Hurricane Laura is expected to make landfall very late tonight or very early tomorrow as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane that will cause major damage due to both high winds and storm surge.  Twenty million people are in the storm’s path and more than 500,000 people have been told to evacuate low lying areas even as the COVID pandemic makes it difficult to house them safely in crowded temporary group shelters.

Why This Matters:  A category 4 storm is bad enough, but to have to deal with evacuating half a million people, many of them poor, during a pandemic is beyond challenging.

• Water

Supreme Court Holds CITGO Is Liable In 2004 Philly Oil Spill – Must Pay for Clean up

• CITGO
• Delaware River
• Oil Pollution Act
• oil spill
• refinery

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that under the Oil Pollution Act and the terms of its contract with the shipping company, CITGO Asphalt Refinery must repay the government and the shipper for the $133 million they spent to clean up the 6000 barrel oil spill that occurred when the oil tanker hit an abandoned […]

• Air

Massive Explosion at Philly Refinery on Friday, Toxic Gas Release Narrowly Averted

• clean air
• explosion
• Firefighters
• Philadelphia
• refinery
• toxic

A massive explosion at an old oil refinery shook South Philadephia early Friday morning, causing the city to issue orders for nearby residents to shelter in place, and the fire, while controlled, continued to burn into Saturday and will continue until the refinery is able to turn off a valve, according to Philadelphia fire and emergency management officials.