Our demand for cheap plastics is choking this town

Arielle goes on a "toxic tour" of Port Arthur, Texas to experience the local impact of plastics: the fossil fuel industry's strategy to survive the clean energy transition.

PORT ARTHUR, TX—John Beard Jr. stands in front of the largest refinery in North America, a beast of chrome shrouded in gray smoke. 

The day is overcast, and the smoke billowing from the Motiva refinery behind him mixes with the fumes from the Valero petrochemical plant across the street. Refineries stretch across the horizon as far as the eye can see—an …