Texas sues Shell, claiming fire at Houston area facility damaged environment

The state of Texas filed a lawsuit against Shell for over $1 million, claiming the environment was damaged by a fire at the oil company’s Deer Park petrochemical plant. On May 5, cracked heavy gas oil, cracked light gas oil and gasoline ignited in the olefins unit of a Shell Deer Park chemical facility, located just outside of Houston. Aerial pictures of the fire showed flames shooting from the facility’s smokestacks and huge billows of black smoke pouring from the plant. The fire reportedly took up so much space in...