In a previous blog regarding DuPont and Conscious Disregard, I have tried to show how our human behaviour has allowed the growth of petrochemical industries to grow exponentially, thus condemning us to a biopersistent toxicity which is killing all life as we know it. Plastics are so versatile and we cannot imagine life without them, but they are a major contributor as to why our planet has gone into a spiral of death.

Let us look at another petrochemical corporate, Formosa Plastics Corporation:

Formosa Plastics Corporation was founded in 1954. Its beginnings were challenging as it struggled with high production costs due to small production volume and lack of sufficient end users for the PVC resins being produced at the time. Its solution was to increase production and to build downstream production facilities that would expend the PVC resins.

In 1958, the company established Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, for the purpose of producing secondary products such as plastic, leather and PVC pipes. New Eastern Corporation was subsequently formed to utilize the products coming out of Nan Ya Plastics and turn them into consumer products such as handbags, shoes, suitcases and other such items suitable for the export market. And so it continued with Formosa Plastics expanding product lines and adding downstream production facilities to ensure market for its products. In 1965, the corporation diversified into the textile industry, establishing Formosa Chemicals & Fiber Corporation. By 1974, Formosa had joined the world’s largest fiber producers. Formosa Petrochemical Corporation was formed in 1992 to manage the construction and operation of the company’s naptha cracking plant, oil refinery and co-generation plant.

Corporate Overview

Formosa Plastics Group includes more than ten Taiwan holdings, including Nan Ya Technology and Formosa Komatsu Silicon Corporation. Altogether, they are involved in businesses as diverse as electronics, oil refinery, textiles, petrochemicals, plastics—raw materials and secondary, and transportation.

The group’ foray into the United States began in 1978. Today, Formosa owns several petrochemical plants, as well as natural gas wells, operating under: Formosa Plastics Corporation America, Formosa Plastics Corporation, USA, and Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, America.

In 1978 Jimmy Carter’s tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977 to 1981.

At the end of President Obama’s tenure, the Republican run state of Texas had negotiated successfully to attract Formosa to Point Comfort.

In 2015, Formosa announced its plans to construct a new, state-of-the art polypropylene production line at its Point Comfort, Texas plant. Officials hope this may be the beginning of a trend to increase polypropylene capacity………..

The above extract introduces this company, well known, immune from prosecution to date, infamous to many who believe they are victims to its conscious disregard.

A view of the US Political Strategy regarding Taiwan in relation to China can be viewed here.

The following is an extract:

During Trump’s time, the US gave Taiwan a lot of unexpected support. From Trump’s first phone call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, to the final moments of Trump’s presidency when former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lifted “self-imposed restrictions” on contacts between US officials and their Taiwanese counterparts, all of it showed the special support that Taiwan received.

Reuters reported:

BUSINESS NEWS

MARCH 1, 2017 9:18 AM UPDATED 4 YEARS AGO

Formosa expects faster ok for U.S. petrochemical plant under new EPA chief

By Faith Hung

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Formosa Petrochemical Corp. expects faster approval for a planned $9.4 billion petrochemical plant in the U.S. state of Louisiana under the administration of President Donald Trump, the company’s chairman said on Wednesday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is likely to roll back some of its regulations after the appointment as head last month of Scott Pruitt, who sued the agency multiple times as Oklahoma state attorney general.

The company should benefit from less stringent environmental regulations under the Trump administration, Formosa Petrochemical Chairman Chen Bao-lang said. A subsidiary of Formosa’s parent company admitted to massive pollution in Vietnam last year.

“We are more optimistic about the investment,” Chen told Reuters in an interview in the group’s headquarters in Taipei. “At least the obstacles will be fewer… We’re aiming to get an air permit in August 2018.”

Formosa Petrochemical is part of Taiwanese conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group, which has production facilities across Taiwan, China, the United States and Vietnam.

Another Formosa subsidiary, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, paid $500 million in damages in Vietnam after it admitted last year that it polluted more than 200 km (125 miles) of coastline in April, killing more than 100 tonnes of fish and devastating the environment, jobs and economies of four provinces.

I watched Netflix episode of Dirty Money, investigating Formosa practices at Point Comfort, Texas. I then looked at how this company has attracted environmental harm legal action, but the victims seem to have come off even worse after their attempts to challenge this corporate giant.

As our Planet reels under pressure of man-made climate change catastrophe, it also reels from industrial toxins poisoning the entirety of living things. Plastic producers are major contributors. Petrochemical companies are part of the cause of major CO2 emissions. Their popularity continues to surge. Petrochemicals are rapidly becoming the largest driver of global oil demand. Right when we should be eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels, we are accelerating our demand for it.

Wikipedia states:

In the early 2010s the group became the primary backer of the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation, a large iron and steel works in Vietnam.

FPG was responsible for a serious discharge of toxic pollution from one of its steel complexes. The release resulted in an estimated 115 tons of dead fish washing ashore in Vietnam. The environmental pollution negatively affected the livelihood of 200,000 people including local fishers. In July 2016, FPG pledged to pay compensation to Vietnamese impacted by the environmentally toxic discharge in the amount of $500 million.^[2] In February 2018 Hoang Duc Binh was jailed for 14 years for live streaming fisherman travelling to file a lawsuit over the plant’s pollution ^[3]

Formosa Plastics has planned the construction of a 9.4 billion dollar fossil fuel plant entitled “The Sunshine Project” in an area of Louisiana that has already been dubbed as “Cancer Alley” due to illnesses caused by pollutants in the environment leaked from existing fossil fuel plants.

The above image from here.