It’s actually interesting that you give the example of Singapore when mentioning the “world class” cracker plant. Singapore has good air quality, and the only times when it’s not is when the Indonesians are burning forests to clear land for biofuel production.

Well pads are now much further apart precisely because new completion techniques allow for the construction of multiple wells from a single pad, with each well potentially branching out to multiple laterals. If you’ve seen pictures of the Pennsylvania oil patch from a hundred years ago, you’d understand just how far technology has advanced since then, and how much less impact the industry has on the land now than it did then.

In fact, perhaps in general you need to familiarize yourself with the history of the place where you live. You’d discover that southwest PA was built on a foundation of resource development and industrial activity. What’s now moving in to take the place of the old coal-fired steel industry is much cleaner, and has much higher value added than anything that preceded it.

What you should, however, complain about, is the way the governor is squandering the value of this development to the taxpayer. Even the industry is in shock at just how little it is contributing to the state coffers. This gravy train, like all before it, won’t keep going forever, and PA should do the most with it by investing in its future. Instead, the governor is cutting education spending like it was a burden on taxpayers, not understanding that a better educated workforce pays back that investment in education with dividend. You want to be mad about something – that’s something to be mad about.

Not only the cracker plant but many subsidiary plants equally polluting the air and water will be built. While every mile or two there will be well pads for drilling up to sixteen wells. Along with equal amounts of condensate tanks, compressor stations along the many miles of pipeline, and cryogenic plants so as to transport the gas.

The Pittsburgh area will never again be #1 place to live or visit, it will revert back to “the smoky city” without visible smoke.