When Oil Politics Abroad Fuel Pollution at Home: Why the Gulf South Must Not Be a Sacrifice Zone

For communities across the Gulf South, the fight for clean air, safe water, and a livable future has never been abstract. It is lived every day — in asthma rates, in refinery flares lighting up the night sky, in the steady creep of petrochemical buildout along our coastlines. There is also abject poverty that accompanies these policy driven conditions. And once again, national decisions about oil, foreign policy, and corporate power are placing frontline communities directly in harm’s way. People and Planet should never be sacrificed on the altars of Power and Profit.

Recent reporting has revealed a troubling through-line: political maneuvers around Venezuela’s oil sector, corporate strategies by major U.S. fossil fuel companies, and the ongoing expansion of polluting infrastructure in Black and Brown communities along the Gulf Coast are deeply interconnected. These stories — from Grist, The Intercept, and especially Capital B News — underscore a truth our communities have known for generations. When powerful interests fight over oil, it is our neighborhoods that pay the price.

The Global Oil Chessboard and the Gulf South’s Reality

Coverage from outlets like Grist has highlighted how U.S. political decisions toward Venezuela’s oil industry have long been shaped by corporate interests. Chevron, for example, has spent years positioning itself to benefit from shifts in U.S.–Venezuela relations, even as sanctions and geopolitical maneuvering destabilized the region’s energy sector. These decisions reverberate far beyond Caracas or Washington. They shape where oil is extracted, where it is refined, and who bears the environmental burden.

The Intercept’s reporting adds another layer: political leaders have used the language of “restoring democracy” or “stabilizing markets” while simultaneously advancing policies that benefit fossil fuel companies. These narratives obscure the real costs — both abroad and at home.

But it is the Capital B News investigation that brings the consequences into sharp focus for our region. As the U.S. government shifts its stance on Venezuelan oil, Gulf Coast refineries — many located in predominantly Black communities — are preparing to process heavier, dirtier crude. This means more emissions, more particulate matter, more toxic exposure, and more cumulative harm for families who already live in some of the most polluted ZIP codes in the country.

Black Gulf Coast Communities Are NOT Collateral Damage

The Gulf South has the largest concentration of black communities. For decades, the Gulf South has been treated as a national sacrifice zone — a place where the health and safety of Black, Indigenous, and low-income communities are deemed expendable in the name of “energy security.” The Capital B reporting makes clear that this pattern continues. As Venezuelan crude reenters U.S. markets, the refineries poised to handle it are overwhelmingly located in Black neighborhoods from Louisiana’s Cancer Alley to the industrial corridors of Texas.

These communities are already burdened by some of the highest cancer risks, asthma rates, and petrochemical exposure levels in the nation. Adding heavier crude to the mix only deepens the injustice. An effort to further pollute these communities should be considered chemical warfare.

At The People’s Justice Council, we reject the idea that geopolitical strategy must come at the expense of human lives. We reject the notion that Black communities must absorb the pollution created by decisions made in boardrooms and backrooms far from the Gulf South. And we reject the false choice between economic stability and environmental health.

A Just Future Requires Breaking the Cycle

The stories emerging from Venezuela and the Gulf Coast are not isolated events. They are symptoms of a fossil fuel system built on Colonialism and extraction — extraction of resources, extraction of wealth, and extraction of life from communities deemed politically convenient to sacrifice.

A just future requires us to break this cycle.

It requires:

• Ending the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure in frontline communities.

• Investing in clean, community-owned energy that keeps wealth and power where it belongs — with the people.

• Holding corporations accountable for decades of environmental harm.

• Demanding transparency and justice in U.S. foreign policy decisions that impact domestic pollution burdens.

• Centering Black, Brown, and Indigenous voices in every conversation about energy, climate, and economic development.

The Gulf South is not a dumping ground for the world’s dirtiest oil. It is home to vibrant communities, rich cultures, and generations of people who deserve clean air, safe water, and a future free from the violence of pollution.