Summary

In Chapter 6 the author introduces Bob Hardey, mayor of Westlake, which has just broken ground on a new facility for the petrochemical facility for Sasol, a South Africa-based energy firm. The author meets Hardey in his office, where he shows her a video of his speech at the groundbreaking ceremony speaking about his family’s history of living in the Westlake community and working in local plants, how he hopes the facility will bring employment to new generations of Westlake residents, and (jokingly) how outsiders smell chemicals from the plants, while locals smell “rice and gravy.” Despite what the author has learned about the shrinking contribution of the energy industry in the previous chapter, she notes that Tea Party voters in the community continually speak to the Sasol facility’s investment – always in the billions of dollars – toward the area. Hardey takes the...