In our oceans, yes, and in our rivers, yards and our own bodies

From an Article by Tik Root, Washington Post, March 2, 2022

For the first time, the international community has agreed on a framework to curb the world’s growing plastic problem. A resolution adopted March 2nd by the United Nations lays out an ambitious plan for developing a legally binding treaty by the end of 2024 to “end plastic pollution.”

“With plastic pollution getting worse every day, there is no time to waste,” said Rwandan Environment Minister Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya. “This decision is a historic milestone in the global effort to prevent our planet from drowning in plastics.”

The resolution came on the third day of the biennial U.N. Environment Assembly in Nairobi, where more than 150 countries are represented. It calls for the creation of an intergovernmental negotiating committee to hash out details of a treaty by the end of 2024.

“This is just an amazing show of what the world can do when we work together,” said U.S. delegate Monica Medina, the assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs. Choking back tears, she added, “It is the beginning of the end of the scourge of plastic on this planet. … I think we will look back on this as a day for our children and grandchildren.”

U.S. is top contributor to plastic waste, report shows

The committee’s mandate includes all phases of the plastic life cycle — from design and production to waste management. It comes at a time when the world produces billions of pounds of plastic waste annually — about 353 million tons in 2019, according to a recent report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and amid mounting scientific concerns about issues such as marine plastic debris and the potential impact of microplastics.

Millions of tons of plastic end up in the oceans each year, leading to alarming images of turtles and other wildlife caught in the waste. Even Mount Everest has not escaped microplastics pollution. The United States contributes most to this deluge, according to a National Academy of Sciences study, generating about 287 pounds of plastics per person.

“The high and rapidly increasing levels of plastic pollution represent a serious environmental problem at a global scale,” noted the U.N. resolution, which also acknowledged “the urgent need to strengthen global coordination, cooperation and governance to take immediate actions toward the long-term elimination of plastic pollution.”

Some countries, states and municipalities have taken action to curb plastic waste. Rwanda, for instance, has had a ban on plastic bags for more than a decade. In the United States, Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) have led congressional efforts on plastic pollution, including the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in 2020. But this latest move is the most concerted international effort yet to tackle the problem of plastic pollution.

Environmental activists and industry representatives alike welcomed the agreement. “It has all the critical components we thought were necessary at this stage in the process,” said Erin Simon, the head of plastic waste and business at the World Wildlife Fund. In a statement, the International Council of Chemical Associations, a trade association, wrote, “We commend the governments that spent long days finding common ground to develop a meaningful resolution to address plastic pollution.”

The U.N. resolution was years in the making, said David Azoulay, a lawyer at the Center for International Environmental Law. He says he remembers the idea first surfacing at the 2016 iteration of the U.N. Environment Assembly in the context of marine plastic. “Envisioning a treaty was unthinkable,” Azoulay said. But, he added, Wednesday’s resolution has gone even beyond that early focus.

“The issue is not just plastic in the ocean; the issue is plastic pollution throughout its life cycle,” Azoulay said. “There is very little in there that I wish wasn’t in there. Everything we need to have the conversations that will lead to a good treaty is in there.”

Azoulay was glad that among the achievements in the resolution, its final version specifically charged the negotiating committee with looking at plastic production, included the option for a dedicated fund to help finance the treaty and mentioned human health impacts of plastic pollution.

The world created about 8 million tons of pandemic plastic waste, and much of it is now in the ocean

“There were efforts to weaken the language on health that failed,” said Bjorn Beeler, the international coordinator at the International Pollutants Elimination Network, an advocacy and research group. Although he said he would have liked a more explicit mention of the chemical additives in plastics, that language was “negotiated out.” An aspect about which Simon is excited is the call for national action plans from each participating country. More harmonized and standard data is “critical,” she said but acknowledged that “the proof is in the action we take from here on out.”

Getting from resolution to treaty will not be easy. “The fact that they are headed toward binding rules I take as a very good sign,” said Steven Blackledge, who runs the conservation program at the nonprofit group Environment America. “The devil is in the details.”

The U.N. negotiating committee will have a multitude of specifics to wade through in a relatively short time. Among the many items, any treaty will have to tackle reporting standards, financing mechanisms and, perhaps the thorniest issue, plastic production. “The million-dollar question is how much we’ll talk about reducing the production of virgin plastic,” Azoulay said.

That topic is likely to prove contentious. Ahead of the conference, Joshua Baca, the vice president for plastics at the American Chemistry Council, the trade association for chemicals manufacturers, called restricting and regulating the production of plastic “a very shortsighted approach.”

With such major hurdles left to clear, Beeler said he is skeptical that the timeline will hold. “As you get into it, it’s going to be a monster. I don’t fathom how you can get a deal within two years,” he said. “This is meaningful; this is significant. But this is really the first step.”

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SEE ALSO: Spotlight on United Nations Environment Assembly With Legally Binding Pact to Address Plastic Pollution | The Weather Channel, March 2, 2022

On the third and final day at the resumed fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly taking place at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Kenya, all eyes are on the establishment of an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to work towards a global and legally binding agreement to address plastic pollution.

Petrochemical industry affected by “Act of God”

From an Article by Kristen Hays & Jacquelyn Melinek, S & P Global, September 1, 2020

Houston — More polymer producers have declared force majeure on polyethylene products in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura’s assault, according to customer letters obtained by S&P Global Platts.

Chevron Phillips Chemical on Sept. 1 and Westlake Polymers on Aug. 31 each declared force majeure on PE, which is used to make the world’s most-used plastics. Both companies have operations that were in the Category 4 storm’s path, knocking out electric power in far southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana.

“Unfortunately, it has become apparent that issues arising in connection with the hurricane and the associated outages have impacted our planned production and delivery of polyethylene products,” CP Chem said in its notice to customers.

Westlake Polymers said the company had begun to assess facility conditions and associated supply and distribution issues, and would have a better damage assessment and potential timing on restarts “in the forthcoming days.”

Those notices were in addition to a separate Westlake Chemical force majeure declaration on Aug. 31 for construction staple polyvinyl chloride and its precursor, vinyl chloride monomer. Sasol also on Aug. 31 declared force majeure for polyethylene.

Entergy, the power provider for much of the affected region, said on Sept. 1 that outages in Texas would be restored in early September. CP Chem’s southeast Texas operations include a cracker and a high density PE plant.

However, Entergy said Lake Charles — where Westlake and Sasol operate significant complexes — as well as other southwest Louisiana areas “face weeks without electrical power.”

Hurricane Laura came ashore near the Texas-Louisiana state line early Aug. 27 packing 150 mph winds, just 7 mph less than a Category 5 storm. Overall, 19% of US ethylene capacity remained offline, down from 29% shortly after the storm.

Here are operations and pricing effects of Hurricane Laura’s aftermath:

FORCE MAJEURE

CP Chem: Force majeure declared Sept. 1 on US polyethylene.

Westlake Polymers: Force majeure declared Aug. 31 on US polyethylene.

Sasol: Force majeure declared Aug. 31 on all North American polyethylene, including all LLDPE and HDPE grades.

Westlake Chemical: Force majeure declared on Aug. 31 on all North American PVC and VCM.

INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA: Force majeure declared Aug. 26 on HDPE at 460,000 mt/year unit in La Porte, Texas; plant is a joint venture with Sasol.

Formosa Plastics USA: Force majeure declared Aug. 14 on PVC at its Texas and Louisiana operations; unrelated to Hurricane Laura.

SHUTDOWNS OF CHEMICAL OPERATIONS

Lake Charles

Sasol: 1.5 million mt/year and 439,000 mt/year crackers; 470,000 mt/year LLDPE; 380,000 mt/year ethylene oxide/monoethylene glycol; a new 420,000 mt/year LDPE plant slated to start up in September. Assessing damage; restart pending availability of power.

Westlake Chemical: Three chlor-alkali plants, combined capacity of 1.27 million mt/year of chlorine and 1.36 million mt/year of caustic soda; two vinyl chloride monomer plants, combined capacity of 952,543 mt/year; a 1.8 million mt/year ethylene dichloride plant; two crackers, combined capacity of 1.19 million mt/year; 200,000 mt/year LLDPE; 60,000 mt/year HDPE/LLDPE; 386,000 mt/year LDPE; 258,547 mt/year styrene. Assessing damage; restart pending availability of power.

Lotte Chemical: 1 million mt/year joint-venture cracker; 700,000 mt/year MEG plant. Assessing damage; awaiting restart pending availability of power.

LyondellBasell: 400,000 mt/year and 1 million mt/year PP plants. Assessing damage; awaiting restart pending damage assessment and availability of power.

Orange, Texas

Dow Chemical: 882,000 mt/year cracker; 236,000 mt/year LDPE; no major damage found, awaiting restart pending restoration of external infrastructure, including power.

CP Chem: 420,000 mt/year HDPE; limited visible damage found, assessment continuing, awaiting restart pending restoration of power.

Port Neches, Texas

Indorama Ventures: 235,867 mt/year cracker; 1 million mt/year EO/MEG; 238,135 mt/year propylene oxide; 988,000 mt/year MTBE. Minimal damage assessed, awaiting restart pending restoration of power.

Port Arthur, Texas

CP Chem: 855,000 mt/year cracker; limited visible damage found, assessments continuing; awaiting restart pending restoration of power.

Total/BASF: joint-venture 1 million mt/year cracker, was shut for maintenance pre-Hurricane Laura.

RESTARTS OF CHEMICAL OPERATIONS

Beaumont, Texas

ExxonMobil: 826,000 mt/year cracker; 650,000 mt/year and 325,000 mt/year LLDPE; 225,000 mt/year HDPE; 220,000 mt/year HDPE/LLDPE; minor repairs needed, restarts began Aug. 28.

Port Arthur, Texas

Motiva Enterprises: 635,000 mt/year cracker; restart began Aug. 27, flaring expected to last through Sept. 1, per regulatory filing.

Pasadena, Texas

CP Chem: Three HDPE units, combined capacity of 998,000 mt/year; working to resume normal operations.

Houston

TPC Group: 544,000 mt/year butadiene; restart began Aug. 29.

Fairway Methanol: 1.3 million mt/year Fairway methanol facility in Clear Lake shut Aug. 26, restart began Aug. 28.

Baytown, Texas

CP Chem: 1.7 million mt/year and 837,000 mt/year crackers; working to resume normal operations.

ExxonMobil: Had reduced rates at 1.25 million mt/year, 962,000 mt/year and 1.59 mt/year crackers; resumed normal rates Aug. 28.

Bayport, Texas

INEOS Styrolution: 779,000 mt/year styrene monomer. Restart began Aug. 31, per company notice on community hotline.

LyondellBasell: 1.16 million mt/year, 455,000 mt/year, 235,000 mt/year PP; restarted Aug. 28.

Baystar: 400,000 mt/year joint-venture HDPE; assessing damage, began restarting Aug. 28.

Alvin, Texas

LyondellBasell: 180,000 mt/year HDPE; restart began Aug. 29-30.

PRICES FOR PETROCHEMICALS

US spot ethylene prices rose $2.5 cents/lb to an 11-month high of 26.5 cents/lb FD Mont Belvieu on Sept. 1; the FD Choctaw marker rose 4.5 cents/lb to 27 cents/lb, an all-time high since S&P Global Platts began assessing Choctaw; 19% of US ethylene capacity remained offline.

US spot export LDPE, HDPE prices reached their highest levels in months on Sept. 1 amid multiple producer having declared force majeure in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura. LDPE prices rose $110/mt, LLDPE butene prices increased $99/mt and HDPE blowmolding rose $88/mt.

A deal for September export PVC was done Sept. 1, up $165/mt since Aug. 26 after Westlake Chemical’s force majeure declared Aug. 31 on PVC and VCM and Formosa Plastics USA’s force majeure on PVC still in place after its Aug. 14 declaration.

PORTS AND RAILROADS

Houston Ship Channel: Closed Aug. 26, reopened Aug. 27.

Sabine-Neches Waterway, channel closed Aug. 26; on Aug. 31 parts open with restriction; status unchanged on Sept. 1.

Port of Lake Charles closed Aug. 25; resumed movements Sept. 1 for vessels with a 30-foot or less draft.

Union Pacific: On Sept. 1, service restored to mainline network affected by Hurricane Laura, including a segment linking Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Beaumont, Texas; generators will continue to be used throughout the Lake Charles area until commercial power is restored; embargoes remain in place at southwest Louisiana locations.

Dr. Qingyun Sun, right, speaks during a meeting at the China University of Mining and Technology in 2016

From an Article by Steven Allen Adams, The Inter-Mountain, Elkins WV, July 24, 2020

CHARLESTON — A former professor at West Virginia University involved in the proposed $83.7 billion China Energy deal pleaded guilty in federal court for improper reimbursements for a trip to China.

According to information released Thursday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia, Dr. Qingyun Sun pleaded guilty to wire fraud and filing a false tax return.

Sun is a former associate professor at WVU and the associate director of the United States-China Energy Center at the university. He also worked with the West Virginia Department of Commerce and the State Development Office as an adviser and was the governor’s assistant on China affairs.

The wire fraud charge stems from a 2015 trip by Sun to China on behalf of the WVU and the Development Office to arrange for a visit by West Virginia trade officials. The visit involved leading a delegation at a coal expo and Beijing.

According to federal prosecutors, Sun paid for a coach ticket and a first-class ticket, submitting a reimbursement to WVU for the coach ticket and a reimbursement for the first-class ticket to Synfuels Americas Corp., where Sun also was employed. Synfuels, headquartered in China with offices in Virginia, specializes in coal-to-liquids and gas-to-liquids processing. Sun only used the first-class ticket.

According to the second charge, Sun exaggerated his business-related travel expenses on a joint income tax return with his wife in 2014. The business-related travel expenses were either paid for with a state purchasing card, reimbursed by WVU, or reimbursed by Peabody Energy, where Sun also was a consultant. Sun also failed to state his financial interests in accounts for Chinese businesses where he had partial authority.

Sun is no longer an employee of WVU, but was still part of the United States-China Energy Center as of at least 2019.

Sun completed his doctorate at WVU in 1996, remaining at the university to teach. Most recently, Sun served as assistant for China affairs for governors Earl Ray Tomblin and Jim Justice.

Sun was involved with working with Chinese officials that resulted in a memorandum of understanding signed by West Virginia and China. In November 2017, Justice announced the state had entered into an agreement with China Energy Investment Corp. The investment, valued at $83.7 billion, involved China Energy making numerous investments in Marcellus Shale natural gas production and downstream industries, such as chemical manufacturing interests.

The deal was part of a $250 billion trade deal negotiated between China and the U.S. Department of Commerce in 2017. Former West Virginia Commerce Secretary Woody Thrasher traveled to China twice to secure the $83.7 billion memorandum of understanding with China Energy. So far, nothing has ever come of the deal, though Chinese officials have visited the state since the agreement.

According to flight records, Sun and Steven Hedrick, the chairman, president and CEO of Mid-Atlantic Technology, Research and Innovation Center Inc., used a state plane to usher Chinese officials, including former China Shenhua Energy Co. President and Deputy Party Secretary Jiming Zhang, around the state.

The group visited several locations of petrochemical manufacturing businesses, manufacturers, natural gas production facilities, as well as a casino. Locations included: Dow Chemical in South Charleston; M and G Polymers in Mason County; Century Aluminum in Ravenswood; the Braskem production plant in Kenova; the Covestro plant in New Martinsville; the PTT Global America project in Belmont County, Ohio; Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack, and Resort in New Cumberland; The MarkWest Sherwood Complex in Doddridge County; and the Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemical Complex.

As part of the plea agreement, Sun will pay $6,233 in restitution to WVU. He also faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the wire fraud charge and up to three years in prison and another $250,000 fine for the tax fraud charge.

A federal judge will sentence Sun at a later date. A federal information plea implies that Sun is cooperating with federal investigators.

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See also: $84 Billion China Deal for West Virginia is a Continuing Mystery, Article by Steven Adams, Parkersburg News & Sentinel, July 14, 2019

Senator Manchin, environmental activists seek details on China Energy deal

Braskem petrochemical plant lighted up at night

News Briefs from PetroChem Update, June 4, 2020

1. Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical sets new FID deadline by March 2021

Thailand-based PTT Global Chemical’s Final Investment Decision (FID) on whether to build an ethylene-polyethylene complex in Belmont County, Ohio will be announced by the end of March 2021, PTTGC America said on June 1, 2020.

“While the pandemic has prevented us from moving as quickly as we would like within our previous timeline, our best estimate is for an FID by the end of this year or in the first quarter of next year,” said PTTGC America President and CEO Toasaporn Boonyapipat.

The new date is a postponement of the FID of up to nine months. A report by the Thai embassy in Washington D.C. had estimated in February an FID “by the middle of this year.”

As the mid-2020 date approached and following industry commentary related to an indefinite postponement, a company spokesperson replied in mid-May to an e-mail inquiry saying PTTGCA could not provide at that time any firm timeline for an FID decision.

2. Dow’s Fort Saskatchewan PE expansion timeline unchanged

(Story was updated on June 12 to include a reply from Dow saying project timeline unchanged.)

Dow Canada’s project to incrementally expand capacity at its ethylene facility in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta through the addition of another furnace remains ongoing, a company official said by email on June 12.

“We have not announced any changes to the project timeline,” a company spokesperson said.

The comment follows a request for an update following reports that the company was likely to delay construction work for an expansion of an existing polyethylene plant in Western Canada due to Covid-19 contagion concerns.

Bob Masterson, CEO of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada, estimated the project investment at about C$250 million. He had said early in the month in an interview that a potential delay was likely due to safety concerns as bringing contract workers could be a risk to adjacent operations.

The expansion will add 130,000 tonnes of annual polyethylene capacity to current production.

Dow announced the expansion on January 29, 2020 saying at the time that 700 workers were going to participate in the construction. It didn’t provide a cost but estimated completion by end of the first half of 2021. The Canadian Press estimated at the time the investment at C$200 million.

3. Braskem widens net losses in first quarter 2020

Brazil-based Braskem posted on June 3 a net financial result loss of 6.2 billion reais (about $1.2 billion) or more than double compared with a net financial result loss of 2.9 billion reais in the fourth quarter of 2019, as it cited currency depreciation.

The first quarter net financial result loss is several times deeper compared with the Latin America’s biggest petrochemical company net financial result loss of 923 million reais in the first quarter of 2019.

Braskem also said the net loss attributable to shareholders for the first quarter of 2020 was only 3.6 billion reais. This compares with a similar net loss attributable to shareholders of 2.9 billion reais in the previous quarter.

Braskem also said its first quarter 2020 EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was $294 million, 22% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2019.

The on-quarter EBITDA increase resulted from higher sales volume of resins in the Brazilian market, polypropylene (PP) in the United States and Europe, and polyethylene (PE) in Mexico.

However, total EBITDA decreased on-year by 34% in dollar terms. The decline from the first quarter of 2019 was due to lower spreads in the international market, Braskem said.

EBITDA just for the United States and Europe was $62 million, up 33% from the fourth quarter of 2019 because of “capacity utilization rates normalization in the U.S. and the re-stocking trend in the chain in Europe due to (Covid-19) uncertainties.”

As for Mexico alone, the EBITDA was $79 million or 2% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2019. This represented 21% of the company’s consolidated EBITDA.

“The increase in (Mexico’s) EBITDA is mainly explained by the growth in PE sales volume supported by the higher supply of ethane,” the company said.

Braskem Idesa imported 12,600 tons of ethane from the United States during the first quarter.

This helped to offset in part a reduction in the supply of ethane by Pemex. Braskem said that resin demand in the Brazilian market (PE, PP and PVC) grew 3% compared with the first quarter of 2019, reflecting the recovery in construction, consumer goods, packaging and agriculture.

In relation to the fourth quarter of 2019, demand growth of 7% was due to seasonality, it said.

Braskem also reported an unscheduled shutdown of its Rio Grande do Sul polyethylene integrated unit, which resulted in lower capacity utilization rate of its cracker.

Ethylene production increased at the cracker in Bahia compared with the fourth quarter of 2019, when it underwent maintenance.

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A threat from above: Plastic rains down on US National Parks and Wilderness areas

From an Article by Kate S. Petersen, Environmental Health News, June 9, 2020

New research estimates more than 1,000 tons of microplastic particles, potentially circulating in global atmospheric currents, are deposited at conservation sites each year.

Last August, scientists delivered the chilling news that microplastics suspended in the Earth’s atmosphere were being deposited in remote areas of the Arctic and Europe. Now researchers report similar microplastic accumulation in iconic American protected areas including the Grand Canyon and Joshua Tree.

Publishing their results today in Science, the researchers estimate total yearly plastics deposition over their study area to be the equivalent of 123 to 300 million discarded water bottles.

The study is the first to calculate rates of microplastic pollution from the atmosphere onto American protected areas and adds to a growing body of research suggesting that microplastics are traveling long distances in the atmosphere. Microplastic pollution can harm wildlife health, and the researchers expressed concern about potential impacts to ecosystem stability in fragile and unique protected areas of the U.S.

Janice Brahney, an assistant professor at Utah State University and lead scientist on the new report, made the discovery while analyzing atmospheric dust—particles that get swept up into the atmosphere and then settle out again.

Examining the dust under a microscope, she found something she did not expect. “Scrolling around these samples, I started to see all these colorful pieces,” Brahney told EHN. “Nearly every single sample had plastic in it.”

WE ALL NEED TO REDUCE OUR PLASTICS USAGE A.S.A.P.

From an Article by Kevin Loria, Consumer Reports, June 2020 Issue, Volume 85, No. 6, pp. 26 – 35

Six (6) Ways to Use Less Plastic

While it’s practically impossible to eliminate plastic from modern life, there are a number of steps you can take right now to cut back.

1. Do: Drink tap water.
Don’t: Rely on bottled water.

Water from plastic bottles has about double the microplastic level of tap water on average, according to a 2018 study published in the journal Frontiers in Chemistry. So unless your tap water is contaminated with unsafe elements, such as lead, it’s probably best to drink tap. Fill up a metal reusable bottle for when you go out. You can always filter your tap water. Depending on the filter, that may further reduce microplastic levels. (Check CR’s ratings of water filters.)

2. Do: Heat food in or on the stove, or by microwaving in glass.
Don’t: Microwave in plastic.

Some heated plastics have long been known to leach chemicals into food. So if you’re warming up food, use a pan in the oven or on the stove, or if you’re microwaving, use a glass container. Also, avoid putting plastics in the dishwasher because of the high heat involved in cleaning.

3. Do: Buy and store food in glass, silicone, or foil containers.
Don’t: Store food in plastic, especially plastic that may contain harmful chemicals.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has said that plastic food containers with the recycling codes 3, 6, and 7 may contain potentially harmful chemicals, unless they’re labeled “biobased” or “greenware.” Don’t store food in these types of containers. Instead, use containers made of glass or silicone, or wrap your food in aluminum foil. If you’re storing food in or eating food out of plastic containers, know that plastics with recycling codes 1 and 2 are more likely to be recyclable—though they are usually recycled into lower-quality plastics. And there still may be harmful or unknown chemicals in any type of plastic.

4. Do: Eat fresh food as much as possible.
Don’t: Rely on processed food wrapped in plastic.

The more processed or packaged a food is, the higher the risk that it contains worrisome chemicals. Food cans are often lined with bisphenol A (or similar compounds). Buy fresh food from the supermarket, and—as much as possible—try to use refillable containers if your market allows. (Of course, with shopping made difficult by the coronavirus pandemic, prioritize your health and shop however is most feasible and safest.) Certain markets let you fill up cardboard or reusable containers with bulk items and weigh them, or you can use your own mesh bags for produce. Raw meat and fish need to be kept separate for safety reasons, but ask the store fishmonger or butcher to wrap these foods in wax paper instead of plastic. Take cloth—not plastic—reusable bags to the store to take your groceries home.

5. Do: Vacuum regularly.
Don’t: Allow household surfaces to get dusty.

The dust in your house could be loaded with microplastics and chemicals that are found in plastic, such as phthalates. Cleaning up dust may help reduce the amount of plastics you inhale, especially if you are stuck inside for long periods of time during a period of social distancing. CR recommends vacuuming regularly with a HEPA filter, which is best for trapping dust. (Check CR’s ratings of vacuums.)

6. Do: Work with your community.
Don’t: Assume your impact is limited to what you do in your personal life.

Legislation to limit the use of single-use plastics and plastic production may pull the biggest levers, but joining forces with community-level recycling groups can truly make a difference. Look for so-called zero-waste groups, which can offer guidelines for how to recycle or compost all your garbage—and which lobby for local rules that can restrict throwaway items. When possible, shop at markets that source goods locally, so they don’t require as much packaging and shipping. Seek out groups such as Upstream, a nonprofit working to create reusable takeout packaging for restaurants. And when possible, educate yourself about and support any city, county, and state legislation limiting single-use plastics.

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See also: Many Simple Ways to Reduce Your Plastic Use Everyday | Two Wandering Soles, Katie Diederichs, June 17, 2018

See the westernvaluesproject.org

From the FracTracker Alliance, March 30, 2020

The COVID-19 health crisis is setting off major changes in the oil and gas industry. The situation may thwart plans for additional petrochemical expansion and cause investors to turn away from fracking for good.

Persistent Negative Returns

Oil, gas, and petrochemical producers were facing financial uncertainties even before COVID-19 began to spread internationally. Now, the economics have never been worse.

In 2019, shale-focused oil and gas producers ended the year with net losses of $6.7 billion. This capped off the decade of the “shale revolution,” during which oil and gas companies spent $189 billion more on drilling and other capital expenses than they brought in through sales. This negative cash flow is a huge red flag for investors.

“North America’s shale industry has never succeeded in producing positive free cash flows for any full year since the practice of fracking became widespread.” IEEFA

Plummeting Prices of oil AND natural gas are BOTH problematic

Shale companies in the United States produce more natural gas than they can sell, to the extent that they frequently resort to burning gas straight into the atmosphere. This oversupply drives down prices, a phenomenon that industry refers to as a “price glut.”

The oil-price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia has been taking a toll on oil and gas prices as well. Saudi Arabia plans to increase oil production by 2 – 3 million barrels per day in April, bringing the global total to 102 million barrels produced per day. But with the global COVID-19 lockdown, transportation has decreased considerably, and the world may only need 90 million barrels per day.

If you’ve taken Econ 101, you know that when production increases as demand decreases, prices plummet. Some analysts estimate that the price of oil will soon fall to as low as $5 per barrel, (compared to the OPEC+ intended price of $60 per barrel).

Corporate welfare vs. public health and safety

Oil and gas industry lobbyists have asked Congress for financial support in response to COVID-19. Two stimulus bills in both the House and Senate are currently competing for aid.

Speaker McConnell’s bill seeks to provide corporate welfare with a $415 billion fund. This would largely benefit industries like oil and gas, airlines, and cruise ships. Friends of the Earth gauged the potential bailout to the fracking industry at $26.287 billion. In another approach, the GOP Senate is seeking to raise oil prices by directly purchasing for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the nation’s emergency oil supply.

Speaker Pelosi’s proposed stimulus bill includes $250 billion in emergency funding with stricter conditions on corporate use, but doesn’t contain strong enough language to prevent a massive bailout to oil and gas companies.

Hopefully with public pressure, Democrats will take a firmer stance and push for economic stimulus to be directed to healthcare, paid sick leave, stronger unemployment insurance, free COVID-19 testing, and food security.

The industry is now grasping at straws

Fracking companies were struggling to stay afloat before COVID-19 even with generous government subsidies. It’s becoming very clear that the fracking boom is finally busting. In an attempt to make use of the oversupply of gas and win back investors, the petrochemical industry is expanding rapidly. There are currently plans for $164 billion of new infrastructure in the United States that would turn fracked natural gas into plastic.

There are several fundamental flaws with this plan.

One is that the price of plastic is falling. A new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) states that the price of plastic today is 40% lower than industry projections in 2010-2013. This is around the time that plans started for a $5.7 billion petrochemical complex in Belmont County, Ohio. This would be the second major infrastructural addition to the planned petrochemical buildout in the Ohio River Valley, the first being the multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.

Secondly, there is more national and global competition than anticipated, both in supply and production. Natural gas and petrochemical companies have invested in infrastructure in an attempt to take advantage of cheap natural gas, creating an oversupply of plastic, again decreasing prices and revenue. Plus, governments around the world are banning single-use plastics, and McKinsey & Company estimates that up to 60% of plastic production could be based on reuse and recycling by 2050.

Sharp declines in feedstock prices do not lead to rising demand for petrochemical end products.

Third, oil and gas companies were overly optimistic in their projections of national economic growth. The IMF recently projected that GDP growth will slow down in China and the United States in the coming years. And this was before the historic drop in oil prices and the COVID-19 outbreak.

“The risks are becoming insurmountable. The price of plastics is sinking and the market is already oversupplied due to industry overbuilding and increased competition,” said Tom Sanzillo, IEEFA’s director of finance and author of the report.

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See also: Proposed PTTGC Petrochemical Complex in Ohio Faces Significant Risks, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, March 2020

“Financial outlook dims as financial and policy pressures mount”

The PTTGC Petrochemical Complex planned for Belmont County, Ohio by Thailand-based PTT Global Chemical (“PTTGC”) and Daimler of South Korea promises jobs, taxes and spinoff benefits to the State of Ohio and the people of southeastern Ohio. The project is also a critical element of a larger plan to establish a second U.S. petrochemical hub in the Ohio River Valley, akin to the Gulf Coast. This report highlights risks to the PTTGC project. The risks, left unheeded, strongly suggest that the plant will face financial distress when it opens and into the foreseeable future, reducing potential economic benefits.

Market Headwinds Buffet Appalachia’s Future as a Center for Petrochemicals

From an Article by James Bruggers, Inside Climate News, March 21, 2020

A Wealth of Financial Problems

The headwinds began blowing in Appalachia last year, when the Braskem and Odebrecht companies ended their plans to construct an ethane cracking plant in West Virginia.

Tens of billions of dollars in petrochemical investment from China, announced in 2017, never materialized. (The West Virginia state government seems fixated on “pie in the sky.” DGN)

And a company seeking to secure $1.9 billion in federal loan guarantees to construct massive underground storage for ethane, promoted as essential to support a petrochemical bonanza along the Ohio River, ran into Congressional opposition. The money would come from a fund that has primarily been used to back wind power, solar and other types of clean energy.

Plastics: From the Gas Well to Your Home

The company, Appalachia Development Group, announced more than a year ago that it had been invited by the Trump administration to submit a second phase of an application for the money. Steven Hedrick, the chief executive officer of the Appalachian Development Group, said this week that he’s still working to complete the application.

And while Pennsylvania lawmakers last month passed a bill that could deliver hundreds of millions of dollars of tax breaks to new plastics, petrochemical or fertilizer plants that use Pennsylvania natural gas as a feedstock, Gov. Tom Wolf has said he would veto the bill.

Suddenly, however, local factors such as tax incentives and financing issues have been dwarfed by the coronavirus pandemic, which, along with Saudi Arabia’s oil price war with Russia, have sent the crude market plummeting to levels not seen in nearly two decades.

That makes Appalachia’s ethane, though still cheap, less competitive as a basic building block of plastics, compared to naphtha — a petroleum product found in other regions whose price falls along with oil.

The Economics Have Never Looked Worse

IHS Markit had removed the proposed $5.7 billion ethane plant in Belmont County, Ohio, from its long-range plastics supply forecast even before the coronavirus pandemic seized the global economy. The project is a collaboration between Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical America and South Korea’s Daelim Industrial.

There has been an oversupply of polyethylene, the product the Ohio plant would make. And IHS sees that overage continuing for at least three more years. Plastics demand will continue to rise, but at a slower rate.

Coronovirus will take its own, additional bite out of global plastics demand. The economics that would support approval of a final investment decision of the (Ohio) project are less compelling today than they have been the entire time it has been under consideration.

Twice since June 2018, Moody’s bond credit rating business, which is used by investors to decide where to put their money, raised doubts about the project. Most recently, in mid-February, Moody’s predicted that PTT Global Chemical this year would “not embark on any new capacity expansion plan until margins improve on a sustained basis.”

In Ohio, the state’s private economic development corporation —JobsOhio — remains optimistic. It has invested nearly $70 million in the project, including for site cleanup and preparation, saying thousands of jobs are in the offing. The companies have obtained their environmental permits. A final investment decision is still expected to be announced by summer, Dan Williamson, a project spokesman said, declining further comment.

But market conditions do not bode particularly well for the venture. Plastics prices today are much lower than what they were from 2010 to 2013, when the Ohio project was being planned, said Tom Sanzillo, director of finance for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. He added that future prices are also projected to be weak.

PTT Global Chemical’s profits were down 60 percent last year, and they’ll have a lot of competition in the United States, he said.

The region’s gas exploration and production companies are also teetering on a financial cliff. They were burdened by debt even as they continued to boost production in 2019. “Taken together, there are a lot of red flags,” said Sanzillo.

Financial Uncertainty Hangs Over Shell—and the Region

All the financial and economic factors at play with regard to the proposed Ohio ethane plant also weigh on the region’s one actual facility, a multi-billion plastics manufacturing plant being built by Shell Polymers in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, 25 miles north of Pittsburgh.

Shell this week temporarily halted construction after some workers and public officials raised concerns about unsafe practices related to the coronavirus.

The project’s future may also be uncertain, said Beckman, the University of Pittsburgh chemical engineering professor. If demand for polyethylene stays strong in China, Shell “may come out OK,” he said.

But that may not happen, and to a big oil company like Shell, “five to six billion bucks in not the end of the world if you have to write that off,” Beckman said.

Shale gas exploration and production companies in the Appalachian Basin were teetering on a financial cliff, even before the coronavirus pandemic’s economic fallout.

A Shell spokesman, Ray Fisher, said Shell does not see “the current price environment” affecting plans at its Beaver County plant. “We take a long-term view of the demand for the products that will come from this site,” he said.

Whatever Shell’s future, the region’s shale deposits are not limitless, said Andrew R. Thomas, the executive in residence at Cleveland State University’s Energy Policy Center.

Natural gas production from the Marcellus and Utica shales has a lifespan of 30 years—possibly 50, if gas wells can be fracked a second time, said Thomas, who has worked in the energy industry as a lawyer and geophysicist,

Losing even 10 years could mean “we lose the opportunity to develop our own petrochemical region,” he said, adding that a recession would frustrate “any investment opportunities.”

In Belmont County, Ohio, Larry Merry, an economic development official, agreed that these are “uncertain times,” a considerable understatement, given the coronavirus’s rapid spread across the nation. But he said that petrochemical firms are “thinking long term—not just about the next couple of months, or even just the next couple of years. So I remain very optimistic.”

Three (3) States’ Natural Gas Boom

Even if multiple ethane cracking plants are never constructed, the region will still be grappling with environmental and health concerns from thousands of fracking sites. And the region could continue to produce natural gas and pipe it elsewhere, said Matthew Mehalik, executive director of Pittsburgh’s Breathe Project, a collaboration of some 40 organizations working to improve air quality and fight climate change.

Long before Shell began construction on its ethane plant outside Pittsburgh, nearby residents and doctors had been alarmed by air pollution from fracking and natural gas processing.

They’ve called for answers on why there has been a surge in Ewing sarcoma, a rare childhood cancer, in a four-county area outside Pittsburgh.

“The health risks and environmental costs never made any sense,” said Mehalik. Now, the economics aren’t making any sense, he said.

There is tremendous uncertainty, including how far state or federal governments are willing to go to prop up the shale gas and plastics manufacturing industries, he said.

“The expansion of natural gas 10 to 15 years ago was made with a different mode of thinking and different market conditions,” Mehalik said. “It’s time for a rethinking, and a rethinking on this opens up prospects for a different economic development vision.”

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See also: Health & Economic Impacts of Cracker Plants 3/24/20

Come and learn from Matt Mehalik, PhD, Executive Director of the Pittsburgh-based Breathe Collaborative, as he talks about the health impacts and economics of cracker plants and the oil and gas industry. This is information that has been gathered through researching the impact that the Shell cracker plant (about 20 miles west of Pittsburgh) would have on the community. Matt brings his expertise to the Ohio Valley to educate people on the truth behind what the PTTG cracker could do to our area if it is built. He also looks at what this plant would do to short and long term economics of the region.

We will connect as a community over what CORR is doing in the Valley to protect the public and what others can do as well. We have plenty of volunteer needs in our effort to educate, inform, and empower communities.

Come and fill out our anonymous community health survey. This helps CORR gather important info. on the health and other concerns folks might have about the cracker plant.

DETAILS: Date: March 24th 2020; Time: 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Place: 50 East 39th St. Shadyside, Ohio 43947

Organizer: Concerned Ohio River Residents (CORR)

... more companies are coming around ...

From the Trade Arabia News Service, February 12, 2020

Honeywell has unveiled a new “Refinery of the Future” concept, which will be showcased at the annual Middle East Technology Forum for Refining & Petrochemicals (ME-TECH), taking place from February 18-20 in Abu Dhabi.

The concept demonstrates how carefully planned investments in refining operations — including integration with petrochemicals production — can help refiners improve profit margins.

At ME-TECH, Honeywell UOP, a leader in the oil and gas industry, will explain how its “Refinery of the Future” concept can help refiners unlock new value from crude oil, potentially improving net cash margin by almost $30 per barrel.

Honeywell will also showcase the impact of integration between refining and petrochemicals on the oil and gas sector in the Middle East and explain how new production technology is enabling economies of scale that lower the cost of petrochemical production.

“The history of refining crude oil is rooted in the production of fuels, but forward-looking refiners are branching out into petrochemicals to stay competitive and ensure continued profitable growth,” said Hesham Tashkandi, vice president and general manager, Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies, Middle East.

“Changes in market dynamics, combined with advanced technologies in the efficient management of hydrocarbon molecules, are opening up alternative paths to profitability for refiners. With the right retrofit technology and domain expertise, the ‘refinery of the future’ is now within reach.”

Recent projections show that by 2022, the top quartile of refineries by margin will be integrated with petrochemicals. World-scale refineries employing new technologies are being built in regions with growing fuels demand. These new, global, integrated plants will be considerably more resilient to shrinking gasoline and diesel margins and will remain more competitive than much of the current installed base.

A new Honeywell white paper titled ‘Refinery of the Future’ will also debut at ME-TECH, detailing how petrochemical integration requires a strategy that is designed to maximize value at each step and Honeywell UOP technologies provide the right solutions.

Honeywell’s case studies show potential diversification pathways to petrochemicals, which can be completed through a series of economically viable investments in bottom-of-barrel conversion, hydrocracking to naphtha technologies, and an aromatics complex integrated with a Toluene Methylation unit. These technologies enable production of enough heavy naphtha to support profitable world-scale paraxylene production from the same crude rate.

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Ineos, UPM Biofuels reach raw material supply deal, Plastics Today, February 11, 2020

UPM Biofuels has agreed to supply Ineos with UPM BioVerno naphtha, a renewable raw material made in pulp production, to produce bio-attributed polymers in Germany. Ineos will use the feedstocks to produce plastics for various applications, including Ineos business Inovyn’s Biovyn bio-attributed polyvinyl chloride.

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Sustainability, innovation go hand in hand at Covestro, Ethical Corp., February 11, 2020

Sustainability has always been a pillar of Covestro’s operations and is intertwined with every aspect of its innovation, including research and development and business decisions, says executive Rebecca Lucore. Covestro has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions 40% below 2005 levels, is working toward 50% by 2025, and uses events such as the annual Intern Sustainability Challenge to find new solutions that support its sustainability goals.

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Company produces 100% renewable nylon, Forbes, February 11, 2020

Bioengineering company Genomatica has advanced the world’s march away from fossil fuels on a new front, producing a key component of nylon from plant sugars. The key was the use of engineered micro-organisms and a thoroughly renewable fermentation process to turn the sugars into caprolactam, the basic nylon ingredient that’s normally refined from crude oil.

Plastic debris and microplastic particles have already polluted the oceans

From an Article by CAROL ROIG, River Reporter, February 12, 2020

By now, most New Yorkers are aware that a ban on single-use plastic bags will go into effect on Sunday, March 1, 2020. While there has been some criticism of the bill’s numerous exemptions, it’s a good start to reducing the 23 billion single-use bags state residents use each year; that amounts to more than 1,000 per person according to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.

Building on the regulatory trend, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently proposed limits on another significant source of plastic pollution: single-use food containers and packing peanuts made from expanded polystyrene, commonly known as Styrofoam.

The full picture of plastic pollution is pretty horrifying, not only because of the sheer volume of plastic we discard every year but also the health impacts of the material’s life cycle. Much of this litter makes its way to the oceans, spoiling beaches and clogging waterways around the world. Whales, fish, birds, turtles and other wildlife die each year after ingesting or becoming entangled in plastic waste.

Plastic never biodegrades—it just keeps breaking down into increasingly smaller pieces called microplastics that absorb a range of chemical pollutants, travel up the food chain to our plates and our drinking water, and accumulate in our bodies.

A new study published in Environmental Science & Technology, the journal of the American Chemical Society, synthesized data from 26 separate studies to calculate that the average American’s annual microplastics consumption ranges from 74,000 to 121,000 particles each year. Americans who drink bottled water for most of their daily intake may be ingesting an additional 90,000 microplastic particles annually. The study’s authors believe these values are likely underestimated.

Plastic & Health, a study published under the auspices of a consortium led by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), provides a comprehensive analysis of the health impacts of the full life cycle of plastics: from the 170-plus chemicals used in fracking to produce fossil fuel feedstocks; through the refining process, exposures to consumers and toxins released as plastic waste is processed and managed; and the long term effects on air, soil, water and human health.

The study documents impacts such as cancer, neurotoxicity, reproductive and developmental problems, immune system impairment, damage to the skin and eyes, and respiratory and gastrointestinal problems, all especially intense for workers in the industry and people who live near plastics facilities.

The climate impact of plastics has received less attention, but CIEL’s companion study, Plastic & Climate, tracks greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from every stage of plastic production, use and disposal, including waste to energy. The report points out that “chemical manufacturing is profoundly energy-intensive, and the production of plastic feedstocks and resins is the most energy-intensive sub-sector of the chemical industry.” The authors estimate that the production and incineration of plastic over the past year alone will add more than 850 million metric tons of GHG to the atmosphere, equal to the emissions from 189 500-megawatt coal power plants.

Given the industry’s plans for expansion, the report estimates that by 2050, GHG emissions from the plastic lifecycle could reach over 56 gigatons. This is equivalent to 10 to 13 percent of the entire remaining carbon budget available if we are to maintain global warming below the below 1.5°C degrees threshold.

The International Energy Agency’s 2018 report, The Future of Petrochemicals, calls this expansion “one of the key ‘blind spots’ in the global energy debate… Petrochemicals are rapidly becoming the largest driver of global oil consumption. They are set to account for more than a third of the growth in oil demand to 2030, and nearly half to 2050. Petrochemicals are also poised to consume an additional 56 billion cubic meters of natural gas by 2030, equivalent to about half of Canada’s total gas consumption today.”

Facing a decline in the use of oil and natural gas for energy generation and transportation because of progress with renewables and electric vehicles, the industry is looking to petrochemicals to perpetuate their profits, and they’ve invested more than $200 billion in the sector over the past decade, according to the American Chemistry Council.

Ethane, a by-product of natural gas, is a plastics feedstock that the industry is particularly keen to exploit, given its plenitude because of the fracking boom. Long centered in Texas and Louisiana, the industry is moving aggressively into the Ohio River corridor to create a plastics hub that will exploit the Marcellus Shale; it’s being hailed as “the new coal.” Royal Dutch Shell’s new polymers plant, under construction near Pittsburgh, is the first of several ethane crackers planned for Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

These multi-billion dollar facilities will turn ethane into ethylene and polyethylene pellets, the raw material for most plastics and, according to climate experts, they could also wipe out much of the GHG reduction gains we have achieved in recent years. The US Department of Energy is spearheading $1.9 billion in loan guarantees to develop underground storage of ethane, and Pennsylvania provided roughly $1.65 billion in tax incentives for the Shell facility.

That is the bigger picture. Despite admirable local and state efforts, we are going down the wrong road with plastic production:

1. We need to eliminate single-use plastics and all non-essential plastics throughout the economy.

2. We need to make producers fully responsible for the full life cycle of the material.

3. We should stop making virgin plastic altogether, and invest in innovative recycling technologies to make essential items like medical devices.

4. We should ban incineration of all plastic waste, including waste to energy, because the GHG impact and toxic exposures for host neighborhoods are just too damaging.

5. We should include workers’ health risks in our cost/benefit analyses before awarding giant subsidies to the plastic industry.

We grew up with plastic, but we need to face the environmental damage that comes with throwaway convenience.

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See also: How Is Plastic Totally Ruining The Oceans In The Worst Way Possible? From Marine Insight, January 3, 2020

As is commonly known, plastic isn’t biodegradable, which accentuates the threat of lingering waste plastic for years and for generations to come. According to estimates, people around the world throw away almost four million tons of trash every day, of which 12.8% is plastic, polluting land, air and water. While plastic thrown into landfills contaminates the soil and groundwater with harmful chemicals and microorganisms, the effects of marine pollution caused by plastic are immeasurable.

Just like on land, even in the oceanic areas, the effects of plastic on marine life has started to be felt. The studies reveal that around 12.7 million tonnes of plastic waste are washed into the ocean every year. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates there could be as many as 51 trillion microplastic particles in the oceans already.

Chemical industry impacts to residential areas?

Date: January 26th 2020, Time: 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Place: Eddy Theatre, Chatham University, 1 Woodland Road,
Pittsburgh, PA 15232

The 14th Ward Independent Democratic Club is pleased to announce that the Club’s Annual Meeting will host a panel discussion on Sunday, January 26th titled “The Petrochemical Build-Out: Not What It’s Cracked Up To Be?” The speakers will be Dr. Erin N. Mayfield and Dr. Patricia M. DeMarco, who have both received distinguished awards for their research.

On December 8, 2019, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette featured as its front-page story the article: “Study: Shale gas job gains don’t offset the damage done: CMU Study finds build-out causes early deaths, affects environment.“ The 14th Ward Independent Democratic Club has invited the authors of the Carnegie Mellon University report to share their findings with the community.

Recent analysis has indicated that the proposed building of additional cracker plants in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia may have serious environmental and economic consequences. With regard to the City of Pittsburgh alone, Mayor Bill Peduto in a Public Source interview said “there was no meeting that occurred that shifted our economic future away from the growing eds and meds to cracker plants . . . but that’s what happened.”

Erin N. Mayfield, Ph.D. is the lead author of the CMU Report. Dr. Mayfield completed her doctorate at CMU and is now with the Princeton Environmental Institute – Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

Patricia M. DeMarco, Ph.D. is Resident Scholar at Chatham University, and is the author of the recently published Pathways to Our Sustainable Future: A Global Perspective from Pittsburgh. She will be available to sign copies after the Danko Forum.

The Barbara Daly Danko Political Forum is named after the late Allegheny County Council Member Barbara Daly Danko. Ms. Danko, a longtime member of the 14th Ward Democratic Committee and 14th Ward Independent Democratic Club, served as the Chair of the 14th Ward Democratic Committee from 2006 until 2012, and served on Allegheny County Council representing the 11th District.

The Danko Political Forum provides a venue for candidate debates and discussion of important public policy issues affecting the 14th Ward and the City of Pittsburgh.

This year’s Danko Forum is intended to draw more attention to the trade-offs between the impacts, costs, and stated benefits of fossil fuel development and the expansion of the petrochemical industry in the region.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their questions to help clarify the actual community consensus on these trade-offs and, if there is significant divergence from this consensus and current developments, discuss a political response.

The 2020 Danko Forum is co-sponsored by the 14th Ward Independent Democratic Club, the Chatham University College Democrats and the 14th Ward Democratic Committee.

The event is free and open to the public. Free parking is available in the lots off Murray Hill Avenue.

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See also: Is shale development worth the costs? A CMU study says no. | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 8, 2019