Harris County, Texas is the hub of America’s fossil gasoline and petrochemical industries. A whole lot of refineries and chemical vegetation cluster within the county, which incorporates Houston, and they’re accountable for cancer-causing chemical air pollution that disproportionately harms communities of coloration.
At 35, Christian Menefee, a Democrat, is the youngest, and the primary Black particular person, to function Harris County Legal professional. Since his election in 2020, he has made addressing air pollution — and its racially disparate affect — a prime precedence. His workplace, which handles civil instances, has taken authorized motion on points from petrochemical emissions to poisonous contamination from a rail yard to the impacts of a significant freeway growth.
In an interview with Yale Surroundings 360, Menefee says Texas’ conservative management does every part it could actually to hobble such efforts. Constrained by limitations the Republican state legislature has imposed on metropolis and county officers — and annoyed with a state setting company that’s “asleep on the wheel” — he says his workplace needs to be inventive to verify trade’s abuses.
Menefee notes that he represented oil and gasoline firms in the beginning of his profession and says that even many residents of neighborhoods struggling air pollution recognize the trade’s financial position. “I’m very cautious to by no means are available and recommend that I’m making an attempt to shut the vegetation. I’m about equity,” he says. “On this nation, we maintain individuals accountable for every kind of issues. In Texas, we don’t typically maintain trade accountable for his or her errors.”
Christian Menefee
Menefee For Harris County
Yale Surroundings 360: How has your expertise rising up with Houston’s air pollution formed your method as county legal professional? Contamination from oil refineries and petrochemical vegetation is a giant subject right here, particularly for communities of coloration.
Christian Menefee: Harris County is without doubt one of the floor zeros of the environmental justice motion. And it’s partly as a result of Houston has one of many world’s largest petrochemical complexes, and we’re the vitality capital of the world. There’s not many individuals right here who didn’t develop up inside a brief distance of a facility emitting poisonous contaminants. So my story is just like all people else’s. My grandmother raised my father and his siblings within the Fifth Ward, which is one in all our uniquely unhealthy environmental justice communities. There are a number of concrete batch vegetation, metallic recyclers. The air feels nastier than in different components of the county. The homes and flats we lived in after I was rising up, each one is just a few miles from some chemical plant. My highschool was a mile and a half away from a Superfund website. It’s simply one thing that’s inextricable for many working-class of us right here.
After legislation faculty, I labored at a agency to repay my loans. We represented oil and gasoline firms, and it gave me an attention-grabbing perspective. I’ve seen the boardrooms. I’ve helped put together executives for trial. My upbringing gave me the one lens. Representing firms gave me the opposite lens. And now that I’m right here and we’re suing these exact same firms, it sort of brings you dwelling.
We’re in a state that has set each single rule of the street in favor of trade. At instances it looks like David and Goliath. You’re up towards a really highly effective trade that has a number of assist with state officers. However I at all times attempt to look by way of the lens of my grandmother and my aunts and uncles, and the individuals in these neighborhoods. We’re simply asking for equity and compliance and enforcement — very staple items in different components of the nation that we don’t get right here.
“When you exit to neighborhoods in east Harris County, you may really feel [the pollution] in your eyes, and it doesn’t odor proper.”
e360: Petrochemical manufacturing particularly has been rising on this area lately. What has that appeared and felt like on the bottom?
Menefee: There’s a duality to it. For communities just like the one I got here from, which is extremely numerous — lower-middle class African People, Latinos — you have got the financial aspect of it. The oil and gasoline trade may be very a lot a path for many individuals to a six-figure life-style. I’ve many buddies who’ve labored on oil rigs. However the different aspect is, if you happen to exit to neighborhoods in east Harris County, you may really feel it in your eyes, and it doesn’t odor proper. Petrochemicals are by far the primary reason behind air pollution right here. And that’s simply enterprise as traditional. Add within the large-scale emissions occasions, the unlawful flaring. Over the previous 4 years we’ve had plant explosion after plant explosion. Watson Grinding and Manufacturing, that explosion was in 2020. I used to be on the opposite aspect of town, and I used to be jolted awake. It’s grow to be the norm. In River Oaks [a wealthy area], you’re not going to see many industrial amenities. However for lower-income, predominantly Spanish-speaking, African American, immigrant communities, when the smoke is within the air, the chemical compounds are within the air, these are the communities whose faculties get evacuated. The whole lot stops whereas they get the benzene ranges below management.
e360: What are you able to do to guard these neighborhoods, given the obstacles you talked about?
Menefee: It’s onerous, generally prohibitive. Conservatives love this concept of states’ rights. They’re at all times searching for safety from the federal authorities. However when your statewide officers have a blatant disregard for communities, who protects the native governments from the state? It’s a bizarre dynamic, the place you have got these massive metropolitan areas whose leaders are extra numerous, extra forward-thinking, after which you have got statewide officers with a really repressive, draconian view of how authorities is meant to work.
Residents of Houston’s Fifth Ward who’ve misplaced buddies or family members to most cancers. The neighborhood has seen a excessive incidence of cancers related to creosote, a contaminant present in a close-by rail yard.
Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle through AP
We’re simply always at odds. The state legislature units the foundations of the street. And we’ve seen a really intentional, concerted effort from state authorities aimed toward counties like ours. A number of years in the past, the then-speaker of the home was recorded saying he wished the following legislative session to be the worst ever for cities and counties. And that’s precisely what occurred — invoice after invoice was proposed to tie the palms, not simply of native governments, however generally this workplace particularly. For instance, they handed a legislation the place if we’re going to file an enforcement motion, we’ve to offer discover to the state of Texas, they usually resolve in the event that they wish to pursue the case. In the event that they do, they take it away from us. They usually settle it for pennies on the greenback. It’s occurred time and time once more.
e360: What are you able to do, given these obstacles? And the way has it been going?
Menefee: We battle like hell, and take any alternative to creatively discover options. The excellent news is that the communities are like, “Sure, you’re combating for us.” However in addition they count on you to win. And if each arms are tied behind your again and also you’re kicking, and in the end the group isn’t glad with some shin injury, they usually wished just a few punches to the face, it’s one thing you need to navigate.
The factor I’ve been extra optimistic about is our potential to seek out leverage factors. An excellent instance is the $10 billion I-45 freeway growth. It was authorized at each degree of presidency, and the ultimate assessment was accomplished two months into my time period. We may have mentioned, “Look, this ship has sailed.” However we sued. The federal authorities obtained concerned, they usually paused the mission. We have been by no means going to cease the freeway, however we negotiated with the Texas Division of Transportation, and we obtained some concessions that put communities in a greater place than they have been. One other instance: With town of Houston and a nonprofit, we despatched Union Pacific a discover of intent to sue over creosote contamination from a rail website within the Fifth Ward, the place there are two or three recognized most cancers clusters. Neighborhood members have been beating the drum on this for a very long time. Now we’re negotiating with Union Pacific in hopes of getting some wins for the group. So we’ve found out methods to seek out strain factors. Finally the objective is to maneuver the needle for the individuals who reside there. And if the state is regularly tying our palms behind our again, that is us utilizing each software in our toolbox.
“The typical particular person in trade feels, ‘I would like the setting to be protected. I would like individuals to have clear air.’”
e360: You talked in regards to the perspective you bought from representing fossil gasoline firms. What did you study from that have?
Menefee: Firstly, a number of good individuals work within the trade. My father works in oil and gasoline. The typical particular person in that trade feels, “I would like the setting to be protected. I would like individuals to have clear air.” However like different industries, there’s a set of biases. For any company, shareholder worth is prime of thoughts. So there tends to be a view that claims of harm to communities or the setting are exaggerated. They usually prioritize financial affect. This trade is making lots of people some huge cash, together with individuals who had no different approach of accessing it. So that you view issues by way of the lens of the corporate.
e360: Does that financial position imply there’s resistance to pushing trade too exhausting?
Menefee: That’s what makes framing so necessary. I’m very cautious to by no means are available and recommend that I’m making an attempt to shut the vegetation. I’m about equity. There are guidelines of the street. When you run a cease signal, and a police officer is round, you’re going to get in bother. We’ve firms routinely operating cease indicators on this space, and we’ve a state regulatory company that’s asleep on the wheel. There are different methods you may body the argument that may flip individuals off, as a result of it might be seen as an assault on their livelihood as a substitute of merely asking for equity.
Wreckage left by an explosion at Watson Grinding and Manufacturing in January 2020.
Godofredo A. Vásquez / Houston Chronicle through AP
e360: You talked about the state regulator, the Texas Fee on Environmental High quality (TCEQ). What issues do you see at that company, and what modifications would make it simpler?
Menefee: That is the results of legislative session after legislative session of far-right legislators persevering with to weaken the TCEQ. It now not views itself as a regulatory physique or imposing authority. I feel they view their position 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 if you happen to’re going to hurt communities. We’re doing routine checks. We’re imposing the legal guidelines.” It could take a elementary change from prime to backside, and viewing itself because the company that holds trade accountable. And it might take legislative modifications. On this nation, we maintain individuals accountable for every kind of issues. In Texas, we don’t typically maintain trade accountable for his or her errors.
e360: With local weather change inflicting extra intense and frequent storms, how frightened are you in regards to the vulnerability of Harris County’s industrial infrastructure?
Menefee: Massively involved. It’s simply distinctive, being in Houston, which has all these floods, all these hurricanes, after which being the world’s petrochemical and vitality capital on the identical time. We’ve had like seven “once-in-500-year” floods prior to now few years. These items make you very nervous whenever you reside near this many chemical amenities. Clearly we wish the amenities to be as resilient as potential. There are two points for us. One is that every storm causes chemical releases. The second is the danger of a storm whose eye goes proper by way of the Houston Ship Channel, the place all these chemical vegetation are, and simply tears into them. It could possibly be catastrophic, in contrast to something we’ve seen in fashionable historical past on this nation, and I don’t even know the way we’d start to cope with that.
“When you signed as much as be an advocate for individuals and to battle these fights, you might want to battle these fights.”
That’s why we’re so centered on the reinstatement of the federal chemical catastrophe rule. The Obama administration created a typical for reporting, for mitigation, for understanding precisely what’s at every facility. And Trump rolled it again. The rule is coming again now. It will increase reporting necessities for the amenities. It will increase info sharing. We’ve like 1,200 chemical amenities, so for communities and first responders to have info to cope with these disasters is a really massive deal. When there’s some unknown chemical popping out of a facility due to an explosion, it’s a terrifying occasion.
e360: What can different communities residing with heavy industries study out of your expertise?
Menefee: Effectively, I hope they’re not coping with the identical restraints. However there are some classes about not being afraid to suppose exterior the field, not being afraid that trade’s going to return operating after you. When you signed as much as be an advocate for individuals and to battle these fights, you might want to battle these fights. In each case, we’re beginning with the result that we wish, and we’re working backwards. So the lesson discovered is that you simply in all probability have a greater state of affairs than us, so use the creativity and benefit from it.
This interview was edited for size and readability.
Reporting for this interview was supported by the McGraw Fellowship for Enterprise Journalism on the Metropolis College of New York’s Craig Newmark Graduate College of Journalism.