By Barbara Lazaridis, Staff Writer
Philly Thrive, Philadelphia’s environmental activist group that works to raise awareness about pollution in Philadelphia through their #RightToBreathe campaign, achieved another milestone last month after years of restless activism.
On the 13th of February, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court decided that southern Philadelphia’s PES refinery would be sold to Hilco Redevelopment Partners, a Chicago-based real estate firm that specializes in repurposing industrial land. This means that the refinery will be shut down for good after 150 years of operation.
The refinery was previously owned by Philadelphia Energy Solutions and was shut down in June 2019 after a dangerous fire and explosion destroyed parts of its infrastructure. Soon after, it was placed for auction, which Hilco won. After an “aggressive” battle with rival company Industrial Realty Group LLC (IRG), Hilco bought the refinery for $240 million. IRG made a slightly higher bid after the auction had ended and was linked to the previous owners of the refinery. IRG was likely to have reopened the factory if they were to win this industry battle, despite it being detrimental to the local community. Therefore, Philly Thrive organized political action in order to pressure decision-makers into selling the refinery to Hilco.
Over the years, Philadelphia residents living nearby the refinery have suffered from high rates of heart disease, cancer, asthma, and other respiratory conditions. According to an Environmental Integrity Project report, the refinery emitted the highest level of carcinogenic benzene in the US at the end of the third quarter of 2019. The refinery’s pollution also had other negative implications. In Philly Trive’s official statement on the closing of the 150-year-old south Philadelphia refinery, they write:
“The truth about the issue is a matter of racism, classism, & ecological destruction—instead of just “the environment”—[which] birthed a new force for climate justice in Philadelphia that shook the foundation of power relations in our city.”
Philly Thrive is now bound to keep building a grassroots movement that will ensure that the repurposed refinery will benefit Philadelphia’s locals. Their demands include beginning plans to dismantle the refinery infrastructure, having no new polluting projects installed on the site, actively involving the public in decisions about redevelopment, and creating union jobs for the refinery’s nearby neighborhoods.
Hilco Redevelopment Partners will now work with Philly Thrive and the rest of the community to clean and transform the former factory into an eco-friendly project. On January 25th, Sunrise Bryn Mawr, together with other environmental groups from the Philadelphia area, joined an event hosted by Philly Thrive where the organization’s members spoke about their work on the case of the PES refinery and about their fight for the #RightToBreathe. According to Philly Thrive, the new project for the refinery under Hilco ownership will be one of the first demonstrations of how the Green New Deal can be done, and its success is therefore important to the future of US handling of climate change.
Image credit: Philadelphia Magazine
