Newsletter
Current Issue
President’s Message: Incident Management is Everyone's ResponsibilityThe TCC Board of Directors has devoted a significant amount of time to continuous improvement of incident management and communications. As an industry committed to safety, protecting people, communities, and the environment, how we prepare for, respond to, and recover from incidents speaks volumes about our values and our leadership. |
Capitol Chemistry with MiaThe First Called Special Session of the 89th Texas Legislature began on Monday, July 21st, starting the 30-day countdown for legislative action. The Legislature quickly scheduled hearings focused on the Governor’s agenda, which includes topics such as congressional redistricting, flood emergency communications, and water incentives. |
Logan's Legal & Regulatory CornerFor the past several months, there has been significant attention paid to EPA’s activities as the new administration’s priorities have taken shape and the initial decisions indicate how the agency will proceed with deregulation. This has also resulted in several of the legal cases initiated last year that have been tracked and discussed in this forum are now paused for foreseeable future as EPA starts the administrative reconsideration process. |
John Cornyn says FBI has granted his request to help track down Texas House DemocratsU.S. Sen. John Cornyn said Thursday that the FBI had agreed to help state officials locate the group of Texas House Democrats who left the state to stall a vote on the GOP’s redistricting plan. |
Texas Positioned to be Key Player in Plastics' U.S. Manufacturing Role, says New ReportAs the nation’s top exporter of manufactured goods – many of which rely on plastic – Texas stands to benefit significantly from some newly proposed policy recommendations coming out of Washington, D.C. that have the potential to energize local Lone Star State industries and job growth. A new economic analysis by the American Chemistry Council reveals that plastics are indispensable to critical U.S. industries – from Automotive & Aerospace, to Healthcare & Electronics – and employ nearly 5 million Americans while paying over $391 billion in U.S. wages. |
Fight Over Carbon Storage in Texas Spills into Public HearingAn advocacy group funded by one of the nation’s largest oil and gas trade groups called its members in Texas earlier this month, offering to help them draft and practice giving comments to EPA in favor of granting Texas top authority over carbon storage wells. |
C&EN’s Global Top 50 Chemical Firms for 2025Call it stalling out. Call it bumping along the bottom of the business cycle amid an industry downturn driven by oversupply and meager demand. But the global chemical industry hasn't been going anywhere recently, at least according to the data from C&EN's Global Top 50 survey. |
Corpus Christi Water Desalination Project Cost Rises to $997 MillionThe cost model for Corpus Christi's seawater desalination initiative has been completed, revealing a higher price tag than initially projected. The Inner Harbor Water Treatment Campus (IHWTC) is now estimated to cost $997 million based on 10% design completion. |
Air Liquide to Build $50M Gas Plant for Semiconductor IndustryAir Liquide will build a $50 million gas plant in the U.S. Southeast to supply the semiconductor industry, the company said July 15. The plant will produce oxygen and nitrogen, two gases that are critical for chip manufacturing. |
LyondellBasell Earns ‘A’ in 2024 CDP Climate AssessmentLyondellBasell has been awarded an ‘A’ score for climate change in the 2024 CDP assessment, the company announced July 14. The upgrade from an A-minus places the company in CDP’s leadership category for the second year in a row. |
Arkema Earns ISCC Plus Certification for All Acrylic Monomer SitesArkema announced it has received ISCC PLUS certification for its acrylic monomer production sites in France, China and the U.S., enabling mass balance-based supply of bio-attributed materials at a global scale. Certified facilities include Carling, France; Taixing, China; and Clear Lake and Bayport, Texas, the latter operated by American Acryl, a joint venture with Nippon Shokubai. |
Trump Grants Eastman Chemical a 2-Year Exemption from Pollution Reduction LawPresident Donald Trump has granted Eastman Chemical Co. a two-year exemption from an environmental regulation requiring companies to reduce their carcinogenic emissions. Activists say the exemption could threaten the health of people living near facilities such as the Eastman plant just outside Longview. Trump and chemical development leaders say the regulation is burdensome and that the technology required for compliance isn’t readily available. |
Is Pasadena Really That Smelly? What’s Behind its Stink, And What Locals Say Is Causing itA nickname like “Stinkadena” doesn’t come from nowhere. Whether you’re a Houston native or a Newstonian, chances are someone has mentioned to you how bad Pasadena — the second-largest city in the Houston metro area, with 150,000 residents and a hub for the local petrochemical industry — smells. |
Device Turns Plastic Waste into Chemicals for FuelsAs tons of plastic waste continue to build up in landfills every day, researchers have developed a way to convert this waste into fuels and other valuable products efficiently and cheaply. Specifically, the researchers are using a method known as pyrolysis, a process of using heat in the absence of oxygen to molecularly break materials down. In this case, it’s used to break plastics down to the components that produce fuels and other products. |
Industry, Recycling Groups Back Bipartisan Recycling BillTwo U.S. representatives introduced bipartisan recycling legislation in Congress July 17, supported by environmental and industry groups, that includes tax credits for private companies to buy recycling equipment to "accelerate the nation's recycling system." |
Shippers Line Up Against Railroad MergersGroups representing rail shippers say they would be opposed to the creation of a transcontinental railroad in the U.S., arguing that further consolidation in the industry would reduce their competitive options, lead to higher rates, and worsen service. Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) and Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) announced Tuesday that they had come to an agreement for UP to acquire NS for stock and cash worth $85 billion. It’s further expected that BNSF and CSX (NASDAQ: CSX) for competitive reasons would eventually pursue a similar agreement. |
Is MAHA Losing Its Battle to Make Americans Healthier?On a Friday evening this July, the Trump administration announced it would lay off all of the health research scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency. Hundreds of investigators who try to understand how toxic pollution affects the human body would be gone. |
EPA Seeks to Cancel Scientific Basis for Climate RegulationsEPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said Tuesday he's issuing draft plans to overturn the agency's 2009 scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human health and welfare — a move guaranteed to spark litigation. |
Trump Waives Biden Air Emissions Rules for Plastic Resin PlantsPresident Donald Trump's administration is exempting dozens of plastic resin and chemical plants from Biden-era air emissions rules, arguing that waivers are needed to maintain domestic supply chains and boost national security. |
Concerns Raised Over 'Forever Chemicals' Detected at Corpus Christi's Planned Desalination SiteIn a recent memo, environmental advocacy groups have raised concerns about the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the Inner Harbor Ship Channel. This area is set to be the source of water for a new desalination plant in Corpus Christi. The memo, based on an analysis by William “Jim” Rogers, highlights potential health risks associated with PFAS, which are linked to serious health issues according to federal research. |
Newsletter Archives
- TCC-TCA August Newsletter: 2025-08-08
- TCC-TCA Newsletter | July 2025: 2025-07-01
- TCC-TCA June Newsletter: 2025-06-02
- TCC-TCA March Newsletter: 2025-03-26
- TCC November Newsletter: 2024-11-26
- TCC & TCA October Newsletter: 2024-10-17
- TCC & TCA September Newsletter: 2024-09-13
- TCA/TCC August 2024 Newsletter: 2024-08-20
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: January 2023: 2023-01-10
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: December 2022: 2022-12-06
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: November 2022: 2022-11-04
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: October 2022: 2022-10-07
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: September 2022: 2022-09-09
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: August 2022: 2022-08-05
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: July 2022: 2022-07-05
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: June 2022: 2022-06-01
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: May 2022: 2022-05-04
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: February 2022: 2022-02-09
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: December 2021: 2021-12-15
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: August 2021: 2021-08-26
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: January 14, 2021: 2021-01-14
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: December 17, 2020: 2020-12-17
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: October 2020: 2020-10-22
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: September 2020: 2020-09-17
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: August 10, 2020: 2020-08-10
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: July 2020: 2020-07-01
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: May 2020: 2020-05-12
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: February 2020: 2020-02-20
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: December 2019: 2019-12-24
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: May 2019: 2019-05-22
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: March 2019: 2019-03-08
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: January 2019: 2019-01-23
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: Decemberr 2018: 2018-12-14
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: November 2018: 2018-11-05
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: September 2018: 2018-09-01
- Archeiving TCC Newsletter: 2018-08-31
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: May 2018: 2018-05-17
- TCC/ACIT Newsletter: April 2018: 2018-04-06
- TCC Archeive February Newsletter: 2018-04-05
