Philadelphia Activist: ‘Oil Refinery Explosion Literally Rocked the Very Foundation of my Community’

1. "It started as a bulk petroleum storage facility in 1866 and began refinery operations in 1870." the refinery was there before most of the housing, youre all so ignorant and quick to blame rather than take accountability for the fact people choose to live near a dangerous toxic refinery, and even to say because it was cheap or that's where their government provided housing was located is a lame excuse as public housing is meant to be temporary assistance not a way of life and there is equally low rent in west and north philly, as well as monto and bucks. and its just a flat out lie to say the area is black, it used to be mostly Italian with some blacks sprinkled in, now its mostly Vietnamese with some black people sprinkled in, hop off the cross…

2. This woman is off her rocker, your the only one sacrificing yourself. Get educated.

3. Wasn’t this place built in the 1860’s? I’m outraged that all the 150 year old residents. Have let this industry harm the community.

4. I live a couple blocks away and yes it did “literally” shake the house. It was unbelievable. I agree with what she is saying but the whole “it’s in black and brown neighborhoods” that’s total horse hockey. It’s been around for the last 150 years and the area up until the 70s were mainly Italian and Irish immigrants. Also remember a lot of the houses that are there weren’t built until the 50s.

5. CHEMICALS IN THE FOOD, WATER AND AIR. "Dont let them fool you or even try to school you", think for yourself even though you are only one. It is planet/earth, peoples and never profit. Profit is greed driven.

6. I'm sorry. The explosion was a terrible event. No doubt, but there is absolutely no way that millions of people would have died if the ENTIRE refinery were to explode. That is a terribly irresponsible statement for this guest to me. I'm very disappointed this misinformation is being spread on The Real News Network.

7. Alright, so I worked there when the explosion occurred and I have a few issues with this. First, millions would not have died, that is a disgusting exaggeration. The chemical they reference is hydrofluoric acid and while dangerous, was used entirely correctly and safely removed from the unit before the explosion. There was never a chance of it "killing millions". Saying the refinery "Has been killing people with invisible chemicals which you can't see or smell" well apparently they can't be detected either as there are no reports of strange chemicals and our fence line monitoring analyzers haven't seen anything either. Saying the refinery wasn't built in a wealthy white community is bull too. This refinery was first built in 1865, there was no community… What we know as South Philly didn't even exist then; it was swamp. You say workers have to join with you while demeaning them and trying to destroy their families. My coworkers are potentially going to lose their jobs, their homes, their families and perhaps their lives. South Philly is going to suffer because of this plant closure.

8. It's sad we have to make everything a racial issue.

9. Green Deal is not going to happen.

10. "Millions would have died" [ Really?!? ]… Ms. O.; she is not an expert to make that claim and if there were a greater explosion or a widespread chemical fires would not kill millions… she makes it sound that the deaths would be instantaneous?!? Long term exposures to harmful chemicals would result but she is making it a whole lot scarier to place 'FEAR'…
    Maybe if it was a nuclear weapon that would kill millions very quickly!

11. Now the air is racist?! Come on, I was with you, didn't have to go there. Makes you sound completely nuts to 90% of people. Unnecessary…

12. Philly is too north for solar to be profitable, a better option would be to invest in solar farms much south and paying a transfer fee.

13. OIL REFINERIES ARE BEING BLOWED UP WHOS DOING IT

14. literally. literally.

15. Great interview and coverage of a progressive event; fyi – that should be "weeks" without food, and "days" without water.

16. Blame the media because the media doesn’t report all what President Trump and the other presidents did to our regulation like the EPA all they care about is profit Remember the Television 📺 networks are own by the same people that all they care is about how much money they are going to make.

17. So what do you propose? Shut down every refinery in the world? Please someone tell me. Tic toc

18. Good luck Ms. O because the people in power certainly aren’t going to change the status quo. We already see the construction of concentration camps on the southern border and more will be coming in the heartland of America. Except it’ll be full of poor white people and blacks and Mexicans, And Arabs and Chinese and everybody who doesn’t fit in white America.

19. Flint children are being poisoned through the water they drink. Philadelphia children are being poisoned through the air they breathe. Access to clean air, clean water, fresh food and shelter are necessities, not luxuries.

20. racist

21. You cannot live months without food. I hear ya bout fresh air but everyone in the country is suffering from pollution, just as much as those suffering from living in food deserts. Black or white, everyone is suffering from these issues.

22. And was your community there prior to the refinery moving in?

23. Solution:……Like its soda tax…Philly's Leftist lunatics need to tax businesses out existence
    …so evil soda, CO2, plastic straws, standardized tests, accountability, and modern life
    …don't harm the disadvantaged, aka people more virtuous than me and you.

24. "I'd love just to leave ya, but it's good to see ya in old filthadelph hostile city, PA." RIP -Erik Peterson

25. Good reporting except that given the age of that refinery I suspect the refinery wasn't built in the black community but rather the black community was built around the refinery for lack of better employment and land opportunities. It is a small point but I different problem then putting a polluting business into a community. Both are bad issues that need to be addressed.

26. Why would you move to these neighborhoods? Cheap rent?

27. Big companies do not want to pay welders / pipefitters / machinist decent wages, this is what happens. Also these big companies KNOW these facilities are under funded and unsafe. They do not care, they'll call their fixer lawyers after something like this and get off scott free, MURICAN ECONOMY BTW!

28. Hey! Guess what happens when you get rid of all the health and safety rules in heavy industry? Can't guess??? Question too hard for you??? Congratulations! You just won a Maga hat! Stand in the middle of the freeway and a nice man will stop to give it to you…

29. Repugs will still rail against the Green New Deal and single-payer healthcare. Truly sad and outrageous.

30. Deregulation = Death

31. Black and African American has no standing in law so stop calling the people black we are the original people of America

32. You will never get the WICKED to be good. Job 9:24 .
    The most high will send more plagues storms and earthquakes to destroy this place.
    The most highs will is to bring in a new KINGDOM of RIGHTEOUSNESS.

33. People over profit. What they call profit, is really a big loss.

34. Literally

35. "Not a white community, you know affluent" I really heard that 😂

    The indoctrination of the sjw is real. Classicism is real and yes there is a correlation with race but it doesn't mean that every white community is affluent. Wtf 😂

36. When Allah is punishing and disgracing a nation that's what happens. Fires, floods, twisters, gun terror etc. Let America evaluate her stance with God.

37. white'E Devil Racist supremacist CODE put us in areas like that to Kill us off!

38. Ms. O: An example of pitting us against each other is excluding white people, in particular white men, from those impacted by the harm posed by the fossil fuel industry. Air or pollution does not discriminate. Why do you? I understand the low-brow tribalistic politics that Trump uses to fire up his base. Sadly Democrats use exclusionary politics also by attacking white men in general – to their own political harm, because that racist language will help Trump get elected. True progress will come about by erasing the divisive language that pollutes identity politics. I do not identify myself as a white man first, but a human being. As long as a person's racial or sexual identity, which is at root in the case of race an artificial distinction or in the case of gender a secondary distinction, is front and center, we will always be pitting ourselves against each other, as you do in this interview. I am a human being, male, who happens to be white, who happens to live in the artificially bounded country in North America know as the United States of America, who demands progress in every sphere of human activity, so by choice I am a Radical Progressive Constitutionalist.

39. That's something that's not talked about a lot environmental racism.

40. black people create their own problems.

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