Chevron waste-plastic jet fuel process could cause cancer in 1 in 4: Guardian
Quantum Commodity Intelligence - The UK's Guardian newspaper and US nonprofit ProPublica have published an article alleging that US supermajor Chevron's planned production of sustainable aviation fuel at its Pascagoula refinery could release air pollution with chemicals at a high risk of causing cancer.
Ex-employees of the Environmental Protection Agency and other experts cited by the article slammed the EPA's decision to green-light the process based on waste plastics, calling the risk "obscene" and at a level not seen during a prior 30-year career at the agency.
"That risk is 250,000 times greater than the level usually considered acceptable by the EPA division that approves new chemicals," said the article, with the chemical potentially causing cancer in one in four people exposed to it over a lifetime.
A Chevron spokesperson told Quantum they disagreed with the article's "characterization of language" from the EPA and that additional environmental regulations and permits referenced throughout the Toxic Substances Control Act also need to be considered.
"Discussion of chemical risks is incomplete without being informed by these safeguards," said the Chevron spokesperson.
The negative PR for the waste plastic-based process comes as the fuels industry looks to maximise the feedstock pool for low-carbon fuels to meet a predicted boom in demand as government and industry green plans ramp up GHG cut targets around the world.
An EPA spokesperson told the Guardian that 16 out of 34 fuels approved under a program launched last year to streamline the approval process for new renewable fuels were based on waste feedstocks.
Risk
All of the waste-based fuels were subject to EPA Consent Orders which are applied when the level of risk for a new chemical cannot be determined or is deemed "unreasonable", and sets out the associated risks and required mitigation measures.
The Guardian article said though that several of the related regulations including the Clean Air and Clean Water acts administered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were admitted by that agency itself not to be fit for purpose.
That includes a disclaimer on the OSHA website that many of its permissible exposure limits for chemicals were "outdated and inadequate for ensuring protection of worker health," after not being updated since their introduction in the 1970s.
The article also criticised the energy-intensive nature of processes making fuel from waste plastics, their lack of renewable credentials since they are made almost entirely from fossil fuels and the emissions still released from the fuels' use.
"Plastics are an essential part of modern life and plastic waste should not end up in unintended places in the environment. We are taking steps to address plastic waste and support a circular economy in which post-use plastic is recycled, reused or repurposed," Chevron told the Guardian.