"MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Brad Robinson's eyes roll upward in thought as he counts them out — his mother, father, grandmother, his father-in-law and more.

'All of 'em,' he said. 'Died of cancer, and we never knew why.'

At 63, he thinks he knows why: the smokestacks near where he grew up in Riverside, a blue-collar Black part of southwest Memphis. He lived there for years in the shadow of a refinery now owned by Valero Energy Corp.

'Over there, you can get away with anything,' Robinson said. 'Companies like Valero have gotten away with murder.'

That's why he's come down on a cool but sunny April afternoon to City Hall to see a protest against the Byhalia Connection pipeline, a 50-mile oil conduit planned to run from the refinery through and around Memphis."

Mike Soraghan reports for E&E News May 3, 2021. [2]