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Formosa Plastics and Whitney Plantation: EPA

Essay details the EPA's role in compliance with Formosa's attempt to build the proposed facility. Articles detail community meetings with EPA members, and an EIS investigation of Formosa.

Plantations History Whitney

This collection offers detailed history and personal accounts of Whitney plantation, giving context to Formosa's attempts to purchase the land as well as providing critical commentary to these atte

Formosa Plastics and Whitney: Fraud

This collection of news articles details the fraudulent activity of local officials in connection to Formosa, detailing the trial proceedings and findings. 

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The author primarily discusses the disaster investigation surrounding the aftermath of the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster. Dr. Knowles presents the investigation as having been marred by jurisdictional conflicts, clashes of authority among powerful institutions, competition among experts, and political pressure from both the public and the government. He argues that this phenomenon is not unique to the World Trade Center collapse but has occurred throughout every major disaster investigation in the United States, including the burning of the US Capitol Building in 1814, the Hague Street boiler explosion and building collapse in New York in 1850, and the Iroquois Theater Fire in Chicago in 1903. He argues that disaster investigation is not the "dispassionate, scientific verdict of causality and blame" but is instead a "hard-fought contest to define the moment in politics and society, in technology and culture."