Word just out that Asarco will not reopen their El Paso copper smelter [right, credit Sierra Club] and in fact, will demolish it and clean up the site.
The plant has been temporarily shut down since 1999 but Asarco has been waging an aggressive public relations campaign about reopening it, arguing it would have created 300 hourly jobs and 80 salaried positions. But the economic downturn and dramatic drop in copper prices seem to have trumped that. Environmentalists have been opposing the smelter for years.