Latest News & Information
Reflections a year after Hurricane Harvey
By Hector L. Rivero, President & CEO, Texas Chemical Council and the Association of Chemical Industry of Texas.
In August of 2017, Hurricane Harvey devastated the Texas coast with unprecedented flooding, dozens of deaths and an estimated $200 billion in damage. Every industrial site along the Texas coast was impacted in some way by Hurricane Harvey and the record rainfall in its wake. TCC is extremely proud of our industry’s outstanding performance during this unprecedented storm. We are most proud of the incredible job by our member companies in supporting their employees and communities where homes, schools, and businesses were devastated by wind and floodwaters. Our companies utilized new communication technologies to reach out to employees during and after the storm, providing medical attention where needed, food and water, supplies, temporary housing, and organized volunteer support to help clean up homes once floodwaters receded. The outpouring of support by our member company sites and volunteerism by employees were truly touching and an invaluable resource for our communities. Our industry continuously seeks out learnings from every weather event around the globe and incorporates those lessons into their best practices and emergency planning procedures. There have been new lessons learned from Harvey that have been shared across industry that will help us better prepare, be more resilient, and improve communications and recovery for future storms.
read more >Texas Gulf Ports Preparing to Handle Still Greater Volumes of Diverse Cargo
Reprinted courtesy of American Journal of Transportation
Military cargo activity is on the rise at the Port of Port Arthur, including maneuvers entailing movement of more than 1,400 pieces of U.S. Army equipment plus more than 600 soldiers from Hawaii to Fort Polk, in Vernon Parish, Louisiana, to be followed by return transport after exercises are completed. While port officials look to continue to benefit from project cargo arriving for numerous nearby refinery expansion undertakings, forest products remain a staple at the Port of Port Arthur, with dimensional lumber imports from Europe joining such longtime cargos as wood pulp imports from Brazil and Kraft linerboard exports to Europe.
read more >March Matters! Go Vote on March 6th!
By Hector L. Rivero, President & CEO, Texas Chemical Council and the Association of Chemical Industry of Texas.
In Texas, general elections don’t matter much these days, but Primaries do! So voting in March will impact who represents you more than you think. There are few contested general election races of consequence, but there are numerous contested primary election races, and significant philosophical differences between candidates running in primaries today. With every statewide office in Texas held by a Republican, many people think there’s no reason to vote in a primary, or that their vote won’t make a difference. However, for businesses, industries, and homeowners, the differences between candidates in party primaries can have a significant impact on your pocketbook, and your job. There’s no question that Republicans currently dominate Texas politics with 25 of the 36 Congressional seats, 20 of the 31 State Senatorial seats, and 95 of the 150 State House seats. But we shouldn’t assume that all Republican candidates think alike. Many Republicans holding office today prioritize social conservatism over business conservatism. While they may support less government regulation, it also means they do not support government economic development incentives that attract new industry investment and job growth. This can impact the ability for our industry to expand and add new jobs.
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