Harris County, Texas is the hub of America’s fossil gasoline and petrochemical industries. Tons of of refineries and chemical crops cluster inside the county, which includes Houston, they usually’re answerable for cancer-causing chemical air air pollution that disproportionately harms communities of coloration.
At 35, Christian Menefee, a Democrat, is the youngest, and the first Black particular person, to perform Harris County Authorized skilled. Since his election in 2020, he has made addressing air air pollution — and its racially disparate affect — a excessive priority. His office, which handles civil circumstances, has taken licensed movement on factors from petrochemical emissions to toxic contamination from a rail yard to the impacts of a severe freeway development.
In an interview with Yale Setting 360, Menefee says Texas’ conservative administration does the whole thing it could presumably to hobble such efforts. Constrained by limitations the Republican state legislature has imposed on metropolis and county officers — and pissed off with a state environment firm that is “asleep on the wheel” — he says his office should be creative to confirm commerce’s abuses.
Menefee notes that he represented oil and gas companies at first of his career and says that even many residents of neighborhoods struggling air air pollution acknowledge the commerce’s monetary perform. “I am very cautious to under no circumstances can be found and suggest that I’m attempting to close the crops. I’m about fairness,” he says. “On this nation, we preserve people accountable for all sorts of points. In Texas, we don’t normally preserve commerce accountable for his or her errors.”
Christian Menefee
Menefee For Harris County
Yale Setting 360: How has your experience rising up with Houston’s air air pollution fashioned your technique as county lawyer? Contamination from oil refineries and petrochemical crops is a huge problem proper right here, significantly for communities of coloration.
Christian Menefee: Harris County is among the many flooring zeros of the environmental justice movement. And it’s partly because of Houston has one among many world’s largest petrochemical complexes, and we’re the facility capital of the world. There’s not many people proper right here who did not develop up inside a quick distance of a facility emitting toxic contaminants. So my story is very like all folks else’s. My grandmother raised my father and his siblings inside the Fifth Ward, which is taken into account one among our uniquely unhealthy environmental justice communities. There are a variety of concrete batch crops, metal recyclers. The air feels nastier than in numerous parts of the county. The properties and flats we lived in after I used to be rising up, each is a variety of miles from some chemical plant. My highschool was a mile and a half away from a Superfund web site. It is merely one factor that’s inextricable for a lot of working-class of us proper right here.
After regulation faculty, I labored at a company to repay my loans. We represented oil and gas companies, and it gave me an fascinating perspective. I’ve seen the boardrooms. I’ve helped put collectively executives for trial. My upbringing gave me the one lens. Representing companies gave me the alternative lens. And now that I’m proper right here and we’re suing these very same companies, it kind of brings you residence.
We’re in a state that has set every single rule of the road in favor of commerce. At events it seems like David and Goliath. You’re up in opposition to a extremely extremely efficient commerce that has a variety of assist with state officers. Nevertheless I on a regular basis try to look by the lens of my grandmother and my aunts and uncles, and the people in these neighborhoods. We’re merely asking for fairness and compliance and enforcement — very staple gadgets in numerous parts of the nation that we don’t get proper right here.
“Within the occasion you exit to neighborhoods in east Harris County, you presumably can actually really feel [the pollution] in your eyes, and it doesn’t scent correct.”
e360: Petrochemical manufacturing significantly has been rising on this space recently. What has that appeared and felt like on the underside?
Menefee: There’s a duality to it. For communities similar to the one I bought right here from, which is extraordinarily quite a few — lower-middle class African People, Latinos — you may need the monetary side of it. The oil and gas commerce could also be very quite a bit a path for a lot of people to a six-figure lifestyle. I’ve many mates who’ve labored on oil rigs. Nevertheless the totally different side is, in case you occur to exit to neighborhoods in east Harris County, you presumably can actually really feel it in your eyes, and it doesn’t scent correct. Petrochemicals are by far the first rationalization for air air pollution proper right here. And that’s merely enterprise as abnormal. Add inside the large-scale emissions events, the illegal flaring. Over the earlier 4 years we’ve had plant explosion after plant explosion. Watson Grinding and Manufacturing, that explosion was in 2020. I was on the alternative side of city, and I was jolted awake. It’s turn into the norm. In River Oaks [a wealthy area], you’re not going to see many industrial companies. Nevertheless for lower-income, predominantly Spanish-speaking, African American, immigrant communities, when the smoke is inside the air, the chemical compounds are inside the air, these are the communities whose colleges get evacuated. Each little factor stops whereas they get the benzene ranges under administration.
e360: What can you do to protect these neighborhoods, given the obstacles you talked about?
Menefee: It’s onerous, sometimes prohibitive. Conservatives love this idea of states’ rights. They’re on a regular basis looking out for security from the federal authorities. Nevertheless when your statewide officers have a blatant disregard for communities, who protects the native governments from the state? It’s a weird dynamic, the place you may need these huge metropolitan areas whose leaders are further quite a few, further forward-thinking, after which you may need statewide officers with a extremely repressive, draconian view of how authorities is supposed to work.
Residents of Houston’s Fifth Ward who’ve misplaced mates or relations to most cancers. The neighborhood has seen a extreme incidence of cancers associated to creosote, a contaminant current in a close-by rail yard.
Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle by AP
We’re merely constantly at odds. The state legislature items the rules of the road. And we’ve seen a extremely intentional, concerted effort from state authorities aimed towards counties like ours. Various years up to now, the then-speaker of the house was recorded saying he wanted the next legislative session to be the worst ever for cities and counties. And that’s exactly what occurred — bill after bill was proposed to tie the arms, not merely of native governments, nevertheless sometimes this office significantly. For example, they handed a regulation the place if we’re going to file an enforcement movement, now we’ve to offer uncover to the state of Texas, they normally resolve within the occasion that they should pursue the case. Within the occasion that they do, they take it away from us. And they also settle it for pennies on the dollar. It’s occurred time and time as soon as extra.
e360: What can you do, given these obstacles? And the way in which has it been going?
Menefee: We battle like hell, and take any various to creatively uncover choices. The good news is that the communities are like, “Certain, you’re combating for us.” Nevertheless moreover they depend on you to win. And if every arms are tied behind your once more and in addition you’re kicking, and at last the neighborhood isn’t proud of some shin hurt, they normally wanted a variety of punches to the face, it’s one factor you need to navigate.
The issue I’ve been further optimistic about is our potential to hunt out leverage components. occasion is the $10 billion I-45 freeway development. It was permitted at every diploma of presidency, and the final word analysis was completed two months into my time interval. We could have talked about, “Look, this ship has sailed.” Nevertheless we sued. The federal authorities obtained involved, they normally paused the mission. We had been under no circumstances going to stop the freeway, nevertheless we negotiated with the Texas Division of Transportation, and we obtained some concessions that put communities in a higher place than they’d been. One different occasion: With city of Houston and a nonprofit, we despatched Union Pacific a uncover of intent to sue over creosote contamination from a rail web site inside the Fifth Ward, the place there are two or three acknowledged most cancers clusters. Neighborhood members have been beating the drum on this for a really very long time. Now we’re negotiating with Union Pacific in hopes of getting some wins for the neighborhood. So now we’ve found strategies to hunt out pressure components. In the long run the purpose is to maneuver the needle for the people who dwell there. And if the state is repeatedly tying our arms behind our once more, that’s us using every machine in our toolbox.
“The standard particular person in commerce feels, ‘I want the environment to be protected. I want people to have clear air.’”
e360: You talked regarding the perspective you purchased from representing fossil gasoline companies. What did you be taught from which have?
Menefee: Firstly, a variety of good people work inside the commerce. My father works in oil and gas. The standard particular person in that commerce feels, “I want the environment to be protected. I want people to have clear air.” Nevertheless like totally different industries, there’s a set of biases. For any firm, shareholder value is excessive of ideas. So there tends to be a view that claims of hurt to communities or the environment are exaggerated. And they also prioritize monetary affect. This commerce is making plenty of folks some large money, along with people who had no totally different methodology of having access to it. So that you simply view points by the lens of the company.
e360: Does that monetary perform suggest there’s resistance to pushing commerce too onerous?
Menefee: That’s what makes framing so important. I am very cautious to under no circumstances can be found and suggest that I’m attempting to close the crops. I’m about fairness. There are tips of the road. Within the occasion you run a stop sign, and a police officer is spherical, you’re going to get in problem. We have companies routinely working stop indicators on this area, and now we’ve a state regulatory firm that is asleep on the wheel. There are totally different strategies you’d physique the argument that may flip people off, because of it might be seen as an assault on their livelihood instead of merely asking for fairness.
Wreckage left by an explosion at Watson Grinding and Manufacturing in January 2020.
Godofredo A. Vásquez / Houston Chronicle by AP
e360: You talked in regards to the state regulator, the Texas Price on Environmental Prime quality (TCEQ). What points do you see at that firm, and what changes would make it extra sensible?
Menefee: That’s the outcomes of legislative session after legislative session of far-right legislators persevering with to weaken the TCEQ. It no longer views itself as a regulatory physique or implementing authority. I really feel they view their perform as a facilitator: “We’re facilitating you getting your permits. We’re facilitating you polluting the air.” Versus, “We’re reviewing your utility to see in case you occur to’re going to harm communities. We’re doing routine checks. We’re implementing the authorized tips.” It is going to take a elementary change from excessive to bottom, and viewing itself as a result of the corporate that holds commerce accountable. And it might take legislative changes. On this nation, we preserve people accountable for all sorts of points. In Texas, we don’t normally preserve commerce accountable for his or her errors.
e360: With native climate change inflicting further intense and frequent storms, how anxious are you regarding the vulnerability of Harris County’s industrial infrastructure?
Menefee: Massively concerned. It’s merely distinctive, being in Houston, which has all these floods, all these hurricanes, after which being the world’s petrochemical and energy capital on the same time. We’ve had like seven “once-in-500-year” floods thus far few years. These things make you very nervous when you dwell close to this many chemical companies. Clearly we wish the companies to be as resilient as attainable. There are two factors for us. One is that each storm causes chemical releases. The second is the hazard of a storm whose eye goes correct by the Houston Ship Channel, the place all these chemical crops are, and easily tears into them. It could be catastrophic, in distinction to one thing we’ve seen in stylish historic previous on this nation, and I don’t even perceive how we would begin to deal with that.
“Within the occasion you signed as a lot as be an advocate for people and to battle these fights, you need to battle these fights.”
That’s why we’re so centered on the reinstatement of the federal chemical disaster rule. The Obama administration created a daily for reporting, for mitigation, for understanding exactly what’s at each facility. And Trump rolled it once more. The rule is coming once more now. It is going to enhance reporting requirements for the companies. It is going to enhance information sharing. We have like 1,200 chemical companies, so for communities and first responders to have information to deal with these disasters is a extremely huge deal. When there’s some unknown chemical coming out of a facility as a consequence of an explosion, it is a terrifying event.
e360: What can totally different communities residing with heavy industries be taught out of your experience?
Menefee: Correctly, I hope they’re not dealing with the similar restraints. Nevertheless there are some courses about not being afraid to suppose outdoor the sphere, not being afraid that commerce’s going to come back again working after you. Within the occasion you signed as a lot as be an advocate for people and to battle these fights, you need to battle these fights. In every case, we’re starting with the top end result that we wish, and we’re working backwards. So the lesson found is that you just perhaps have a higher state of affairs than us, so use the creativity and profit from it.
This interview was edited for dimension and readability.
Reporting for this interview was supported by the McGraw Fellowship for Enterprise Journalism on the Metropolis School of New York’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.