Posted on 10/05/2017 12:28:02 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Despite the promise of creating 600 permanent jobs, the ethane cracker plant being built about 40 minutes northwest of Pittsburgh by car continues to face scrutiny from environmental groups.
Shell Chemical Appalachia decided in 2012 that Beaver County would be the site of a new $6 billion plant to manufacture plastics. Shell chose the Beaver County location because of its proximity to natural gas supplies and because the majority of North American polyethylene — the most common plastic — customers are in a 700-mile radius of Pittsburgh.
In a statement published on its website, Shell said it expects to employ around 6,000 people for the facility’s construction, support 600 permanent employees and create an economic boom in Southwestern PA.
The plan to build the plant — dubbed a cracker plant because it takes oil and gas and “cracks” it into smaller molecules to produce ethylene, a building block for plastic — concerns environmentalists who say this plant will emit excessive pollution, which will increase Pittsburgh’s already high pollution levels. In the American Lung Association’s 2017 report, Pittsburgh ranked eighth for annual particle pollution out of 184 metropolitan areas.
Junior Sarah Grguras — a sustainability program assistant in Pitt’s Student Office of Sustainability and an environmental studies and ecology and evolution double major — is familiar with current and historical air pollution issues in Pittsburgh. She said pollution from the plant is going to diminish Pittsburgh’s air quality.
“It’s going to turn Pittsburgh into cancer alley,” Grguras said. “It’s not a long-term help, and it’s not a sustainable industry.”
Following a lawsuit, the Clean Air Council and the Environmental Integrity Project — two environmental advocacy groups — made a deal with Shell to install four “fenceline” monitors, or pollution detectors, along the perimeter of the facility. This will allow the surrounding community to receive updates on a public website if the plant’s emissions are linked to air pollution and exceed a certain threshold.
Based in Philadelphia, Joseph Minott, 63, who is both the executive and chief counsel for Clean Air Council, said even though this deal was made and Shell will install monitors, pollution will still occur.
“What our lawsuit did was try to make sure that the technology they use at the plant is the best technology, so it will minimize the impact on the local citizenry,” Minott said. “But it does not ensure that the plant will not be emitting any pollution.”
When asked specifically about the precautions Shell Oil Company is taking in order to prevent pollution, Ray Fisher, a spokesperson for Shell Oil Company, wrote in an email that the plant will utilize the “best technology available to control emissions along with fenceline monitoring” and Shell will make the data available to the public.
“In addition, we worked with the Commonwealth to offset emissions in a manner that will create better air quality over time,” Fisher wrote in the email.
Fisher did not answer specific questions regarding how Shell plans to prevent shale emissions.
Emeritus Professor of Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health Bernard Goldstein, 78, is concerned about the impacts the plant will have on the environment and public health. Goldstein explained the plant utilizes the nearby wet gas from Marcellus Shale — a unit of sedimentary rock that contains untapped natural gas reserves — to convert methane and other gases into plastics.
Since the petrochemical plant is so large, it will be subject to both state and federal regulations, including those from the Environmental Protection Agency. Goldstein said he is not as concerned about the plant itself because of this oversight.
“The pollution that I’m most concerned about comes out of the drilling and obtaining the shale gas, which is then used as feedstock for this chemical plant,” Goldstein said.
Goldstein said the construction of the cracker plant will create more sources of shale gas emissions. Goldstein and Evelyn Talbott, an epidemiology professor at Pitt, agree that, because the drill sites are small — but numerous — these sites are not regulated as well.
“When you’ve got 20,000 sites, how could you possibly check them everyday?” Talbott said.
Shell did not respond to questions about the specific types of pollution detectors it will use around the plant and whether these small drilling sites can produce additional shale emissions.
The EPA has standards that regulate six different air pollutants. Talbott said ozone (O3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are two pollutants that the plant could potentially emit, which could lead to health problems.
“Ozone … is bad for your lungs and is related to asthma. Nitrogen dioxide is also a pulmonary irritant that can cause pulmonary and respiratory disease,” Talbott said. “If you boil water and turn on your gas stove, there is a certain amount of NO2 that is a fossil fuel emission, so in the Marcellus Shale industry there’s bound to be nitrogen dioxide.”
From an economic standpoint, companies such as Marcellus Shale Coalition see this project as a game changer. President of Marcellus Shale Coalition, David Spigelmyer, released a statement June 7, 2016, saying that Shell’s decision to build the plant is “welcomed news.” The Pitt News called the Marcellus Shale Coalition several times and did not receive a response over the course of four business days.
However, environmentalists Grguras and Minott said there are other ways to create jobs without harming the earth. They said evidence supports more long-term jobs will be with green energy — such as solar, wind and geothermal.
“The green economy, where other countries are way ahead of us, produces far less pollution, employs more people and is more sustainable,” Minott said. “We seem stuck on fossil fuels in Pennsylvania.”
Many are worried about the fate of Pittsburgh’s air, but at the same time, many see the promise of jobs as a positive outcome.
“It’s a trade-off,” Talbott said. “Everyone wants jobs and for our economy to flourish, but I think there’s a lot of concern by environmental groups that the pollution is not going to be curbed and it could be a problem.”
Beaver County is just a few miles from Ohio.
Come one over. The taxes are lower.
Per their website, the plant would be in Potter and Center townships.
However, environmentalists Grguras and Minott said there are other ways to create jobs without harming the earth. They said evidence supports more long-term jobs will be with green energy — such as solar, wind and geothermal.
I wonder, does one go to school to become an environmentalist or is it just the nature of leftist Arschlochs to hang themselves with the cool sounding name?
Um, this is the student newspaper. The birds revolt if you put it on the bottom of their cage. Read for amusement only.
Crackers are always creating controversy.
It’s about 10 miles up the Ohio R. from the world’s first atomic energy plant (energy only use). They’ve been driving environmentalist batty there for 70 years, lol!
“Shell Chemical Appalachia decided in 2012 that Beaver County would be the site of a new $6 billion plant to manufacture plastics.”
“Don’t you wish you could be 21 again and know everything?”
Yup.
For those not familiar with Pittsburgh area media, the Pitt News is the student newspaper at the University of Pittsburgh.
Shell spent piles of money figuring out where to build a cracker. State governments from all three states (that is, PA, OH, and WV) fell all over themselves offering tax incentives for Shell to locate the plant in their state.
As it is, that location will end up benefiting all three. It will draw workers living in OH and WV as well as PA — the geography comes into play.
Don’t confuse Cracker with Craicer. One is an Irishman who loves a good time.
I am offended
I love those environmentalists. They know everything, except when they don’t, which is 99.98% of the time. Green energy can make plastics? How can it be done?
Crackers only need apply?
USA becomes a big exporter of Coal, Oil, Natural Gas and plastics raw materials.
In fact, the tremendous increase in natural gas supply has actually revived America’s plastics industry, since natural gas is a perfect base material to make plastics. Low energy cost and abundant supplies of oil and gas
Feedstock for various petrochemicals, agrochemicals industries.
The USA will end up owning big chunks of these industries The U.S. is expected to see a wave of petrochemical plant openings between now and next year. Those plants represent about $50 billion of $160 billion in manufacturing investment earmarked by the industry since 2012, according to James Fitterling, president and COO of Dow Chemical. Among them are several big ethylene plants, including one expected to be opened by Dow in Freeport, Texas, in the second quarter.
"It's about 1.5 million tons of new capacity for us. It will be up in the second quarter sometime," said Fitterling, speaking in Houston at the CERAWeek conference, sponsored by IHS Markit. He said Dow also opened a billion-dollar propane dehydrogenation plant in Freeport at the end of 2015. "That was the first megaproject we've done on the Gulf Coast for quite some time."
Exxon Mobil this week announced a $20 billion spending program to expand its manufacturing capacity along the Gulf Coast, including some previously announced investment. The announcement came at CERAWeek.
Industry executives say this is the first big wave of chemical plant construction in decades.
President Donald J. Trump tweeted congratulations on Exxon's investment and promise of jobs. But the petrochemical renaissance has been building for several years. Trump's policy may unleash more if it results in the creation of pipelines and other infrastructure.
"The U.S. has gone from a shale gas boom to a petrochemical boom," said Scott Sheffield, CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources. While natural gas industry experts discussed the outlook for a long period of low gas prices at the conference, the petrochemical industry described what only can be viewed as a boom in an industry that had been declining in the United States.
Fitterling said there was a wave of plants that started construction back in the 2012 time frame, and between 2017 and 2018, there will be approximately $50 billion of that total $160 billion of capacity up and running. "These are all downstream petrochemical plants, including ethylene facilities, propylene facilities and all the downstream products associated with them. Another wave of plants — some that started and some that were a little bit delayed and slid out to the 2019 time frame — represent another $12 billion," Fitterling said. There are more than 20 big projects and other smaller ones, all which should be completed by 2023.
Another wave of new capacity is likely to be planned after that, Fitterling said. There are estimates that the current planned investment could generate 70,000 to 80,000 direct jobs.
Just a little bit of the President Donald J. Trump leadership in MAGA.
I like to say “the older I get the more I realize how little I know”
Technically “green energy” can produce plastic. Use corn to make ethanol via fermentation, and then synthesize ethylene from the ethanol via dehydration (”bioethylene”), and then polymerize the ethylene. There are also cellulosic resins that can be synthesized, but I’m unfamiliar with the technologies. Use windmills and solar to produce electricity for a 100% electric process plant and for 100% electric-driven farm equipment.
The technology already exists to do all of this. The problem is that it would cost over an order of magnitude more per pound of plastic to produce it via this route. BTW, when environmentalists talk about how green energy creates more “jobs”, they really mean that it makes everything much, much more expensive, and will certainly reduce the standard of living for poor and middle-class Americans. (Google “ragpicker” for images of real-world green jobs.)
We don’t need no mo crackuhs ‘round heah!....................
Racists. ;-)
Yeah, I thought this was another diatribe about white people.
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