NRDC Sues DOE for Records of Convos with the Chemical Industry

Today, NRDC filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in federal court for violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA); we’re seeking a court order to direct the DOE to provide NRDC (and the public) with the documents it has been withholding for more than two years. 

In 2020, the DOE announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the American Chemistry Council (ACC), formerly known as the Chemical Manufacturers Association. The agreement was for the chemical industry and DOE to “collaborate on innovative plastic recycling technologies” and “position the U.S. for global leadership in advanced recycling technologies.” The industry most often refers to these technologies as “chemical recycling” or “advanced recycling,” which are its favored greenwashing terms for plastic incinerators and other toxic technologies. The announcement specifically touted “plastic-to-energy conversion,” which has nothing to do with recycling (last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “reaffirmed” that converting plastic waste to energy or fuel is not recycling) and has instead been shown to be highly toxic and not a safe or viable way to dispose of plastic waste. The MOU was issued in conjunction with the DOE’s launch in 2019 of its Plastics Innovation Challenge, “a comprehensive strategy to develop advanced plastics recycling technologies and manufacture new plastics that are recyclable by design.” 

Curiously, when the DOE and chemical manufacturers announced their partnership, they did not provide the public with a copy of the actual MOU—only the press release—and the MOU did not appear on the DOE’s website. In December 2021, NRDC filed a FOIA request to obtain the memo and any communications between the DOE and the ACC, America’s Plastic Makers (ACC’s Plastics Division that includes member companies like Chevron, Dow, DuPont, Exxon, and Eastman), and any other parties outside the government that had communicated with the DOE about the MOU, the “plastic innovation challenge,” or “chemical recycling.” It took the DOE nearly six months to release the four-page MOU. It has also been nearly 2.5 years since we filed the FOIA request, but the DOE has still not released a single record of communication between itself and ACC, America’s Plastic Makers, or anyone else about the MOU, the Plastics Innovation Challenge, or “chemical recycling.” And the DOE still hasn’t withdrawn the MOU it signed with the chemical manufacturers almost four years ago, which expires by its own terms within five years after its effective date. Although the agreement calls for the DOE and ACC to review it annually and allows for amendments/supplements if they are agreed upon in writing, there is no public record of any such review or amendments. 

The public cannot afford a federal government under any administration that puts the interests of the chemical industry and plastic manufacturers over the health of people and the planet, whether it is proposing to weaken the Clean Air Act to exempt plastic incinerators, approving highly toxic cancer-causing aviation and boat fuels made with plastic waste, promoting false solutions to plastic disposal that only serve to perpetuate the plastic crisis and worsen global warming, or undermining efforts of high-ambition nations to negotiate a strong global treaty that will reduce production and eliminate use of the most toxic chemicals in plastic. To hold the government accountable, we need public information about how it is dealing with polluting industries, particularly when it has agreed to “collaborate” with those industries on harmful technologies. We look forward to promptly receiving the documents from the DOE and learning more about the department’s past and present communications and partnerships with the chemical industry and plastic makers.

The chemical industry is projected to actually triple plastic production in the next two decades, prompting growing global efforts to reduce plastic pollution, including ongoing negotiations around a global plastics treaty. Faced with the growing public resistance to their poisoning and polluting the planet, the chemical industry has launched an effort to greenwash its so-called solution to the plastic crisis, which is primarily to build a large number of incinerators, mostly in environmental justice communities, to make the plastic seemingly go away. The industry has branded this effort with a variety of marketing terms, including chemical recycling, advanced recycling, and molecular recycling. They all amount to the same thing: using either incinerators or other toxic technologies, which generate large amounts of air pollution and/or hazardous waste, and most often to create materials, such as fuel, that are then burned.

The industry claims that its toxic plastic disposal methods, coupled with a huge increase in plastic production, are an essential part of the solution to the plastic crisis; reducing plastic production and pollution and protecting communities where plastic production and disposal occur don’t make their list of solutions. Activities under the MOU could enlist the DOE as a key partner in the effort to sell the industry’s plastic vision.

At the end of April, nations will meet in Ottawa for the next round of negotiations for a global plastics treaty to address the global plastic crisis that increasingly threatens the health of people and the planet. The entire life cycle of plastic is toxic and harmful to the environment. A large and growing amount of plastic that is manufactured is both unnecessary—single-use and other plastic packaging—and toxic, containing some of the most problematic chemicals like vinyl chloride, styrene, PFAS, phthalates, bisphenols, and metals, such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. Unfortunately, the United States has thus far articulated a narrow and inadequate vision that has been largely unhelpful and remarkably similar to the views espoused by the chemical industry. 

The purpose of the Freedom of Information Act is to ensure that the public knows what the government is doing, and who the various departments and agencies are speaking with as they develop policies that have the potential to affect all of us, for better or worse. The public has a right to know how the DOE has been working to “collaborate” with the ACC on plastic incineration and related technologies, what it has been doing, and for how long.

This blog provides general information, not legal advice. If you need legal help, please consult a lawyer in your state.