Oil and gas plants throughout North America harm women and communities of color the most, a new report finds. And they’re only building more.
The Women’s Earth, & Climate Action Network (WECAN) released a report this month addressing the harmful impacts of pollution and emissions from companies in the oil and gas industries on women and communities of color. According to the report, women are disproportionately vulnerable to health threats caused by air pollution in particular, since their bodies biologically inhale more pollutants and are more sensitive to toxins. And those toxins can cause a plethora of health issues, including breast cancer, as well as heart and reproductive diseases.
Beyond the physical harm, though, fossil fuel activity is also a source of “major mental and emotional distress for women” living in frontline communities, researchers also found.
One woman who has witnessed the psychological impacts of environmental injustices is Roishetta Ozane, founder of The Vessel Project, a Lousianna-based grassroots organization that fights environmental racism and provides disaster relief to at-risk communities. Ozane told researchers, as part of the study, that financial insecurity caused by extreme weather, chronic healthcare costs from treating exposure to pollution, and a general lack of tangible disaster aid can exacerbate mental health issues in women, especially single mothers.
“I can’t tell you the number of women who have called me, and they have given up,” Ozane said. “Sometimes it’s as simple as, ‘I don’t have my rent today; my children and I aren’t going to have anywhere to live, and so I’m suicidal.’”
Women in communities along Texas’ Gulf Coast are among those who suffer the most, the study also notes. Other research efforts back this up: A 2023 study revealed that Total Refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, emitted levels of benzene — a toxic carcinogen — roughly 148% above the EPA’s action level, which has significantly impacted the endocrine and reproductive health of women in the area, most of whom are Black.
Even exploitation of workers in the oil industry has been connected to an increase in violence against women, WECAN’s report reveals. The construction of the copper and gold Mount Milligan Mine — built between 2010 and 2013 in Alberta, Canada — resulted in a 38% increase in sexual assaults by workers against indigenous women and girls.
Despite these harmful impacts, fossil fuel companies continue to expand into communities across the nation. In fact, extraction of crude and gas oil in Texas reached record levels in 2023, the Texas Tribune reported, with the state supplying 42% of the nation’s oil supply. And GlobalData estimates that more than 550 oil and gas projects are poised to start operations throughout the U.S. within the next four years.
In an effort to save and protect their communities from further harm, women leaders like Ozane of the Vessel Project, Sharon Lavigne of Rise St. James in Louisiana and others are organizing movements to prevent oil and gas companies from building near their homes. Having women as leaders in the fight against climate justice can be a gamechanger, WECAN’s report states, with research proving that “involving women in environmental management and decision-making leads to more successful outcomes and improvements in conservation.”
As one such community organizer, Maricruz Ramirez, said in the report: “Without women, there is no life – we give life. If the women are suffering, so are the children, so are the men, so is everyone. We are all connected.”
