Dow lands in Lake Jackson as West Virginia chemical controversy intensifies.

Dow flew a Bombardier CRJ-900 from Baton Rouge to Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport on May 21, a 62-minute hop that landed at 12:52 UTC. The aircraft, tail number N892D, is part of the company's internal shuttle fleet, large enough to move multi-disciplinary engineering teams between manufacturing sites.

The trip arrives the same week the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a Finding of No Significant Impact for Dow's proposed advanced nuclear reactor at its Seadrift Operations, per a corporate press release on May 18. The Long Mott Generating Station, developed with X-energy, would provide both electricity and high-temperature steam to what Dow calls the production of more than 4 billion pounds of materials per year. The NRC completed its environmental review in under a year, concluding the project would not significantly affect air quality or local habitats.

The pattern is familiar. The same aircraft spent May 18 and 19 shuttling between Louisiana's chemical corridor and Dow's Houston-area hub, then back to Midland. Dow's Midland headquarters sits in a county where the company last week presented its Risk Management Plan to a local emergency planning committee, detailing worst-case chemical-release scenarios that could affect a radius of up to 25 miles, as the Midland Daily News reported on May 15. For a company that manufactures industrial chemicals, a seat on the shuttle is just another day at the office.