PROMOTING AND PROTECTING OUR RIVERS REQUIRES PUBLIC PARTICIPATION (Click to enlarge above image)

From the Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community (BCMAC), July 10, 2022

Join BCMAC and friends July 17th to celebrate the Ohio River! We’ll have a free cookout and food, summer games, an info session with the Three Rivers Water Keepers, kayaking (feel free to bring your own), and a river clean-up with Mountain Watershed Association. We’ll also be giving out free school supplies!

(**In the event of inclement weather please check the Facebook page for any day of updates.)

Please register (RSVP) so we know how much food to bring. And please spread the word!

The event is being held at the Monaca River Front Park, which does not require steps to enter and has a bathroom and handicap-accessible bathroom on site. Childcare is not provided, but the event is child friendly, with children’s activities and a playground on site.

Vegan and vegetarian food options will be available, but please mark in the registration form for other dietary needs.

If you are feeling sick, have had a direct covid exposure, or have tested positive for covid within the past week, please sit this one out and join us next time! The event will be held completely outdoors and is not in a scent-free or scent-reduced environment. COVID-19 vaccination is not required to attend, but masks are encouraged and will be available on-site, with event organizers asking that attendees respect the need for distance between themselves and others.

Our mailing address is: Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community, P.O. Box 31, Ambridge, PA 15003

Shell cracker on Ohio River will produce substantial air pollution

From the Eyes On Shell Watchdog Team, Beaver County, PA, June 8, 2022

It was great to have many of you on the June 1st “Eyes On Shell Watchdog Team” Zoom meeting! Thanks for participating because watching Shell closely is especially important now.

As discussed at the meeting, we expect Shell’s cracker to be starting up in phases over the next few months and as early as July. During startup, before the plant comes fully online (by late 2022 or early 2023, according to Clean Air Council), we can expect significant emissions.

We can’t predict exactly the amount or timing of startup emissions. Emissions during Startup, Shutdown and Maintenance may be slightly greater than when they are running in a Steady State, but they still cannot exceed their Total Permitted Amount without incurring an infraction. We have examined the list of chemicals permitted as emissions and how much of each Shell can release during the year.

For the June 1st meeting, many thanks go to Rachel Meyer for her “Health Impacts of Oil and Gas Infrastructure” presentation. Rachel posted the following related links:

>>> The Fractracker Threat Map allows you to see how close you live to oil and gas facilities, and at Fractracker.org you can find out more about the organization that creates so many good maps.

>>> The National Energy and Petrochemical Map shows just how many pipelines there are across the whole country.

Rachel Meyer closed with this comment: Thank you for listening to my presentation! I would love to hear from you. Rachel Meyer ~ rmeyer@momscleanairforce.org

Terrie Baumgardner, who works with Clean Air Council (CAC) as Outreach Coordinator for Beaver County, closed the meeting with a preview of CAC’s Good Neighbor Wishlist. As we approach the point when the cracker will start turning fracked gas into 1.6 million metric tons of plastic pellets per year, Clean Air Council is asking residents to urge Shell to justify its claim of being a “good neighbor” by doing more to protect the community than what is legally required. The specific steps that residents, starting with EOS participants, can ask Shell to take are summed up in the Wishlist–a scaffolding for actions to discuss in future meetings.

Terrie also asks this of EOS participants: Please contact me if you live within a few miles of the plant and would like to find out more about hosting a PID (Photoionization Detector) for air sampling during a malodor event like the September 2021 maple-syrup smell one in Beaver. Her email is ~ tbaumgardner@cleanair.org.

A really good, wide-ranging discussion facilitated by Dr. Cliff Lau included information about Beaver County’s Local Emergency Preparedness Committee (LEPC) and an appeal to participants to attend the quarterly LEPC meetings.

We are also looking for someone to host a Breathe Cam, which will help us watch for emissions from different parts of the Shell petrochemical facility so we can better understand what is in our air.

Aerial photographer and blogger Bob Donnan was a great contributor to the June 1st meeting. For Bob’s remarkable weekly selection of petrochemical alerts and images, please see here.

Before our next EOS meeting on Wednesday, July 6, we need to begin to pull together your journaling observations. We’re also getting ready to train participants for and to place both monitors and bucket air samplers. If you’re a Watchdog Team member who has completed our surveys and indicated your interest in hosting, you will be contacted about next steps.

Our next Eyes On Shell Watchdog Team meeting will be in early July.

>>> Nora Johnson, Secretary, Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community (BCMAC)

Falcon Pipeline to transport ethane from Ohio & West Virginia at high pressure

From an Invitation by Erica Jackson, FracTracker Alliance, April 30, 2021

Hello friends in the Ohio River Valley and beyond,

I’m writing to invite you to a virtual public meeting regarding how your health and safety may be impacted by Shell Pipeline Company’s Falcon Pipeline. It will be held online on Tuesday, May 4th, 2021 from 6:30 – 8:00pm, on Zoom. You can participate by calling in from a phone or by computer. [REGISTER HERE]

A representative of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) will be in attendance. Now is the time to make your concerns heard!

The Falcon Pipeline cuts through Washington, Allegheny, and Beaver Counties in Pennsylvania, Jefferson, Carroll, and Harrison Counties in Ohio, and Hancock County, West Virginia.

The Falcon Pipeline is putting the public & workers at risk. Whistleblowers have bravely spoken out about the Falcon’s construction, prompting state & federal investigations. Secretary of the PA Department of Environmental Protection Patrick McDonnell stated that the pipeline may have been constructed with defective corrosion coating protection, and that these issues “pose a possible threat of product release, landslide, or even explosion.”

These developments have been featured in multiple news outlets, including the Observer-Reporter, the Beaver County times, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Yet our requests for information from PHMSA, the agency that oversees this pipeline’s operation and safety, have gone unanswered.

Where is the accountability? Why aren’t government agencies providing the public with the information we need to protect our families’ health and safety?

We’re demanding more transparency. If you live in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or West Virginia and believe that you deserve answers, please join us. This meeting will consist of an information session as well as an opportunity for attendees to ask questions and share their concerns.

You can register for the meeting here: https://tinyurl.com/FalconPublicMeeting

If you have questions or require special accommodations to participate, please reach out to me, Erica Jackson, at jackson@fractracker.org or by phone at 412-229-7514.

At the event, FracTracker will provide more information about the history of concerns along the Falcon Pipeline, residents will give testimonies, and we will share resources for whistleblowers and concerned community members. Afterward, you will have the opportunities to pose questions.

Speakers include: the prominent Mariner East pipeline protester Ellen Gerhart, Adam Arnold with Government Accountability Project, Terrie Baumgardner with Clean Air Council, Bob Schmetzer with Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community, myself, and Heaven Sensky with Center for Coalfield Justice.

Please share this information with neighbors and anyone who may be interested in attending by forwarding this email or sharing the Facebook event page. This event is being hosted by the People Over Petro Coalition.

Erica Jackson, Manager
Community Outreach and Support
FracTracker Alliance

The Falcon Pipeline passes through Hancock County, WV

From a Report by Erica Jackson, FracTracker Alliance, March 17, 2021

The Falcon Ethane Pipeline System is at the center of major investigations into possible noncompliance with construction and public safety requirements and failing to report drilling mud spills, according to documents obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) by FracTracker Alliance. These investigations, which are yet to be released, also uncovered instances of alleged data falsification in construction reports and Shell Pipeline Company firing employees in retaliation for speaking up about these issues.

Key Takeaways to Summarize

Shell’s Falcon Pipeline, which is designed to carry ethane to the Shell ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA for plastic production, has been under investigation by federal and state agencies, since 2019. The construction of the pipeline is nearing completion.
Allegations in these investigations include issues with the pipeline’s coating, falsified reports, and retaliation against workers who spoke about issues.

Organizations are calling on public agencies to take action to protect public welfare and the environment along the entire pipeline route through Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

These investigations reveal yet another example of the life-threatening risks brought on by the onslaught of pipeline construction in the Ohio River Valley in the wake in the fracking boom. They also reveal the failure of public agencies to protect us, as documents reveal the federal agency that oversees pipeline safety did not adequately respond to serious accusations brought to its attention by a whistleblower.

These new concerns are coming to light as people across the country are demanding bold action on plastic pollution and the climate crisis through campaigns such as Build Back Fossil Free, Plastic Free President, and Future Beyond Shell. On a local level, residents in the Ohio River Valley continue to shoulder the health burdens of the fracking industry, despite a recent ban on fracking in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, which a growing body of scientific evidence verifies. The Falcon Pipeline, which would transport fracked gas for plastic production, is directly at odds with these demands.

Shell’s attempts to cut corners while constructing this 98-mile pipeline, likely motivated by the increasingly bleak economic prospects of this project, present serious public safety concerns for the thousands of residents along its route in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio.

These allegations are serious enough to warrant immediate action. We’re calling on the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to thoroughly examine these allegations and suspend construction if not yet completed, or, in the case that construction is complete, operation of the Falcon Pipeline. Furthermore, we call on state environmental regulators to fully investigate construction incidents throughout the entire pipeline route, require Shell Pipeline to complete any necessary remediation, including funding independent drinking water testing, and take enforcement action to hold Shell accountable.

Pipeline workers speak out

According to documents obtained through a public records request, a whistleblower contacted PHMSA in 2019 with serious concerns about the Falcon, including that the pipeline may have been constructed with defective corrosion coating. PHMSA is a federal agency that regulates pipeline operation. The whistleblower also shared environmental threats occurring within the DEP’s jurisdiction, prompting the PA DEP and Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office to get involved.

Many of the issues with the Falcon relate to a construction method used to install pipelines beneath sensitive areas like roads and rivers called horizontal directional drilling (HDD). Shell Pipeline contracted Ellingson Trenchless LLC to complete over 20 HDDs along the Falcon, including crossings beneath drinking water sources such as the Ohio River and its tributaries. FracTracker and DeSmog Blog previously reported on major drilling mud spills Shell caused while constructing HDDs and how public agencies have failed to regulate these incidents.

Falcon Pipeline Horizontal Directional Drilling locations and fluid losses

The map in the Report shows the Falcon Pipeline’s HDD crossings and spills of drilling fluid spills that occurred through 3/5/2020. To see the data sources, click on the information icon found in the upper right corner of the map header as well as under the map address bar.

PHMSA performed an incomplete investigation

Correspondence between the PA DEP and PHMSA from February 26, 2020 reveal the gravity of the situation. While PHMSA conducted an inquiry into the whistleblower’s complaints in 2019 and concluded there were no deficiencies, PA DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell wrote that his agency felt it was incomplete and urged PHMSA to conduct a more thorough investigation. Secretary McDonnell noted the PA DEP “has received what appears to be credible information that sections of Shell’s Falcon Pipeline project in western PA, developed for the transportation of ethane liquid, may have been constructed with defective corrosion coating protection,” and that “corroded pipes pose a possible threat of product release, landslide, or even explosions.”

FracTracker submitted a Freedom of Information Act request with PHMSA asking for documents pertaining to this inquiry, and was directed to the agency’s publicly available enforcement action webpage. The page shows that PHMSA opened a case into the Falcon on July 16, 2020, five months after Secretary McDonnell sent the letter.

PHMSA sent Shell Pipeline Company a Notice of Amendment citing several inadequacies with the Falcon’s construction, including:

>> inadequate written standards for visual inspection of pipelines;
>> inadequate written standards that address pipeline location as it pertains to proximity to buildings and private dwellings;
>> compliance with written standards addressing what actions should be taken if coating damage is observed during horizontal directional drill pullback; and
>> inadequate welding procedures

Shell responded with its amended procedures on July 27, 2020, and PHMSA closed the case on August 13, 2020.

Of note, PHMSA states it is basing this Notice on an inspection conducted between April 9th and 11th, 2019, when construction on the Falcon had only recently started. PHMSA has con­firmed its in­ves­ti­ga­tion on the Falcon is on­go­ing, however we question the accuracy of self reported data given to PHMSA inspectors should be questioned

The PA DEP also brought the matter to the attention of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Ohio and West Virginia are also involved

The Falcon pipeline also crosses through Ohio and briefly, West Virginia. While we do not know how these states are involved in these investigations, our past analyses raise concerns about the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s (OEPA) ability to regulate the pipeline’s HDD crossings.

One of the focuses of the Pennsylvania DEP’s investigation is the failure to report drilling fluid spills that occur while constructing a HDD crossing. The PA DEP shut down all HDD operations in November, 2019 and forced Shell to use monitors to calculate spills, as was stated in permit applications.

PHOTO IN REPORT — A horizontal directional drilling (HDD) construction site for the Falcon Pipeline in Southview, Washington County, Pennsylvania. You can see where the drilling mud has returned to the surface in the top left of the photo. Photo by Cyberhawk obtained by FracTracker Alliance through a right-to-know request with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

PHOTO IN ARTICLE— The Falcon Pipeline’s HDD locations are often close to neighborhoods, like the HOU-02 crossing in Southview, Washington County, Pennsylvania. Photo by Cyberhawk obtained by FracTracker Alliance through a right-to-know request with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

To our knowledge, the OEPA did not enforce this procedure, instead relying on workers to manually calculate and report spills. Shell’s failure to accurately self-report raises concerns about the safety of the Falcon’s HDD crossings in Ohio, including the crossing beneath the Ohio River, just upstream of drinking water intakes for Toronto and Steubenville, Ohio.

The Shell ethane cracker is involves dangerous chemical pollution

The Falcon is connected to one of Shell’s most high-profile projects: a $6 billion to $10 billion plastic manufacturing plant, commonly referred to as the Shell ethane cracker, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. These massive projects represent the oil and gas industry’s far-fetched dream of a new age of manufacturing in the region that would revolve around converting fracked gas into plastic, much of which would be exported overseas.

Many in the Ohio River Valley have raised serious concerns over the public health implications of a petrochemical buildout. The United States’ current petrochemical hub is in the Gulf Coast, including a stretch of Louisiana known colloquially as “Cancer Alley” because of the high risk of cancer from industrial pollution.

Construction of the ethane cracker and the Falcon pipeline have forged forward during the COVID-19 pandemic. In another example of the culture of fear at the worksite, several workers expressed concern that speaking publicly about unsafe working conditions that made social distancing impossible would cost them their jobs. Yet the state has allowed work to continue on at the plant, going so far as to grant Shell the approval to continue work without the waiver most businesses had to obtain. As of December 2020, over 274 Shell workers had contracted the coronavirus.

Weak financial outlook for Shell’s investment

While the oil and gas industry had initially planned several ethane crackers for the region, all companies except for Shell have pulled out or put their plans on hold, likely due to the industry’s weak financial outlook.

A June 2020 report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), stated that:

Royal Dutch Shell owes a more complete explanation to shareholders and the people of Pennsylvania of how it is managing risk. Shell remains optimistic regarding the prospects for its Pennsylvania Petrochemical Complex in Beaver County, Penn. The complex, which is expected to open in 2021 or 2022, is part of a larger planned buildout of plastics capacity in the Ohio River Valley and the U.S. IEEFA concludes that the current risk profile indicates the complex will open to market conditions that are more challenging than when the project was planned. The complex is likely to be less profitable than expected and face an extended period of financial distress.

Many of Pennsylvania’s elected officials have gone to great lengths to support this project. The Corbett administration enticed Shell to build this plastic factory in Pennsylvania by offering Shell a tax break for each barrel of fracked gas it buys from companies in the state and converts to plastic (valued at $66 million each year). The state declared the construction site a Keystone Opportunity Zone, giving Shell a 15-year exemption from state and local taxes. In exchange, Shell had to provide at least 2,500 temporary construction jobs and invest $1 billion in the state, giving the company an incredible amount of power to decide where resources are allocated in Pennsylvania.

Would the state have asked Shell for more than 2,500 construction jobs if it knew these jobs could be taken away when workers spoke out against life-threatening conditions? Will the politicians who have hailed oil and gas as the only job creator in the region care when workers are forced to hide their identity when communicating with public agencies?

States fail to adequately regulate the oil and gas industry

The PA DEP appears to have played a key role in calling for this investigation, yet the agency itself was recently at the center of a different investigation led by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. The resulting Investigating Grand Jury Report revealed systematic failure by the PA DEP and the state’s Department of Health to regulate the unconventional oil and gas industry. One of the failures was that the Department seldom referred environmental crimes to the Attorney General’s Office, which must occur before the Office has the authority to prosecute.

The Office of Attorney General is involved in this investigation, which the PA DEP is referring to as noncriminal.

The Grand Jury Report also cited concerns about “the revolving door” that shuffled PA DEP employees into higher-paying jobs in the oil and gas industry. The report cited examples of PA DEP employees skirting regulations to perform special favors for companies they wished to be hired by. The watchdog research organization Little Sis listed 47 fracking regulators in Pennsylvania that have moved back and forth between the energy industry, including Shell’s Government Relations Advisor, John Hines.

National attention on pipelines and climate

The Falcon Pipeline sits empty as people across the nation are amping up pressure on President Biden to pursue bold action in pursuit of environmental justice and a just transition to clean energy. Following Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, Indigenous leaders are calling for him to shut down other projects including Enbridge Line 3 and the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Over a hundred groups representing millions of people have signed on to the Build Back Fossil Free campaign, imploring Biden to create new jobs through climate mobilization. Americans are also pushing Biden to be a Plastic Free President and take immediate action to address plastic pollution by suspending and denying permits for new projects like the Shell ethane cracker that convert fracked gas into plastic.

If brought online, the Falcon pipeline and Shell ethane cracker will lock in decades of more fracking, greenhouse gasses, dangerous pollution, and single-use plastic production.

Just as concerning, Shell will need to tighten its parasitic grip on the state’s economic and legislative landscape to keep this plant running. Current economic and political conditions are not favorable for the Shell ethane cracker: financial analysts report that its profits will be significantly less than originally presented. If the plant is brought online, Shell’s lobbyists and public relations firms will be using every tactic to create conditions that support Shell’s bottom line, not the well-being of residents in the Ohio River Valley.

Politicians will be encouraged to pass more preemptive laws to block bans on plastic bags and straws to keep up demand for the ethane cracker’s product. Lobbyists will continue pushing for legislation that imposes harsh fines and felony charges on people who protest oil and gas infrastructure, while oil and gas companies continue to fund police foundations. Shell will ensure that Pennsylvania keeps extracting fossil fuels to feed its ethane cracker.

The Falcon pipeline is at odds with global demands to address plastic and climate crises. As these new documents reveal, it also poses immediate threats to residents along its route. While we’re eager for more information from state and federal agencies to understand the details of this investigation, it’s clear that there is no safe way forward with the Falcon Pipeline.

Royal Dutch Shell has been exerting control over people through the extraction of their natural resources ever since it began drilling for oil in Dutch and British colonies in the 19th Century. What will it take to end its reign?

>>>>>>>>>>……….>>>>>>>>>>……….>>>>>>>>>>

See also: Federal, state agencies probing Shell’s Falcon ethane pipeline after whistleblowers’ allegations | Anya Litvak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 17, 2021

PHMSA con­firmed that its in­ves­ti­ga­tion into the proj­ect was on­go­ing. “We looked into the con­cerns raised by the PA-DEP but the re­sults are not yet avail­able,” the agency said.

Even to­day, as the pipe­line is al­ready com­pleted, bur­ied and wait­ing for the Shell petro­chem­i­cal plant to be­come op­er­a­tional some­time in 2022, the PA-DEP’s in­ves­ti­ga­tion of the Fal­con proj­ect con­tin­ues.

The Shell workers were paid to rally for Trump

From an Article by Reid Frazier, Allegheny Front, September 21, 2020

At a marina in Moundsville, West Virginia, Dan Williamson looked out across the Ohio River at a quiet stretch of land on the other side. “There’s a little activity going on,” said Williamson, a spokesman for PTT — an oil and gas company based in Thailand that wants to build an ethane cracker on the far side of the river, in Dilles Bottom, Ohio. “But really we’re kind of in between phases right now.”

The plant would turn the region’s plentiful natural gas into plastics. It’s taken years to develop, and a final decision on whether the company would build the plant was due this summer. But then came the pandemic. “It just kind of changed the game for all industries, including this one. And so they have had to put off their announcement of a decision,” Williamson said.

For years, industry boosters in Appalachia have promoted the idea of a building boom for petrochemical plants like the PTT ethane cracker. Oil and gas backers have said there’s enough gas in the region for four or five chemical plants like this. But so far, only one of those plants is a ‘go’ — Shell, with the help of $1.65 billion in state tax breaks, is building a giant plastics plant in western Pennsylvania.

But other projects have either been dropped or put on hold, and now the pandemic has left some some communities in the Ohio River Valley wondering if those plants will ever get built.

A project in West Virginia was canceled last summer when its Brazilian owners backed out. A planned $84 billion Chinese investment in West Virginia’s gas and chemical industry has yet to materialize. And PTT has watched as potential partners backed away from the project. Matsubeni, a Japaneese company, initially signed on as a partner but was out of the picture by 2016.

In July, Daelim, a Korean chemical company that had agreed to invest in the PTT plant, cited the pandemic when it backed out of the project, which could be the largest of its kind ever built in the U.S. according to PTT.

Williamson says PTT is still looking for investors, but he says the real barrier for the plant is simple: COVID-19. “I believe and the project leaders believe that if not for the pandemic, it would be under construction right now,” Williamson said.

Problems Before the Pandemic

Some aren’t so sure. “Don’t believe company announcements — believe the ribbon cutting,” said Kathy Hipple, an analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a left-leaning think tank that works toward sustainable energy.

She says Daelim’s decision to pull out of the PTT project is a red flag. “We view this as a market signal that the project has possibly become far too risky for them to continue,” Hipple said. “The other possibility is that the economics of building a petrochemical complex have changed tremendously.”

Hipple said the price of plastic has fallen by around 40 percent since PTT first announced its interest in the site five years ago, pushed down by new supply from new plants built on the Gulf Coast. She thinks a wave of environmental policies around the globe — like bans on single-use plastics — could threaten the industry’s bottom line.

Steve Lewandowski, an analyst at the research firm IHS Markit, thinks there will still be demand for plastic in the next few decades. But he also wonders if delays in the Ohio project might be a sign that the $10 billion plant is looking too expensive for investors.

“If it was such a compelling case to build there, that cracker would have been approved under construction and then it probably would be another one on top of that — and it’s not,” Lewandowski said. “So there’s something going on that is causing companies to say, ‘That’s probably not the right place to be.’”

Advantages for Appalachia

Lewandowski said Northern Appalachia has advantages — Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania sit atop the Marcellus Shale, the biggest natural gas formation in the country. And it’s close to East Coast and Midwest manufacturers that would use the plastic. But he thinks companies might want to keep their production centered on the Gulf Coast, where dozens of similar plants have been running for decades.

“We’re assessing that the cost to build [in Ohio] is higher than on the Gulf Coast. And we would we would argue it’s probably going to be a bit more expensive to operate only because they’re not really in a cluster of industry.”

If a part breaks down at a plant in Louisiana, there’s a better chance that a supplier nearby will be able to replace or repair it than there would be in Ohio, he said.

But closer to the proposed Ohio plant site, there are fewer doubts. In August, a senior Trump administration official visited the site and said it would boost the Ohio River valley’s economy.

‘100 Percent Positive That This Will Be a Go’

That has people like Matt Coffland confident. “I’m 100 percent positive that this will be a go,” Coffland said. “No doubt about it.”

Coffland is a big proponent of the PTT project — and it’s easy to see why. He owns Matt’s Tiger Pub — a tavern in the town of Shadyside, Ohio, a few miles from where thousands of hungry construction workers could one day build the project. “I mean, it’s three miles away from my doorstep. And you’re talking an influx of close to ten thousand people at one point,” Coffland said.

Coffland sees the plant as a good thing not just for his restaurant but for his part of southeastern Ohio — which he says has been neglected by the state in favor of the ‘three Cs” — Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus. “I think we deserve it by now,” he said. “Finally, something is going to land right here in our lap. You know, it’s about time.”

Someone else who’s hoping the project moves ahead works in a school building a few blocks away. John Haswell is superintendent of the Shadyside Local School District.

On the wall of his office hangs a set of drawings showing what a K-12 school complex would look like. If PTT builds its chemical plant, the company agreed to pay for the new building. “Any time that I can build something or we can build something for $30 million and it does not cost our taxpayers a cent — that’s a pretty good deal,” Haswell said.

The district’s 700 students are in a school built 1932, and Haswell says a new building is badly needed. Uncertainty over whether the PTT project will go forward — or whether he’ll have to ask taxpayers for more money to build a new school — has made him anxious.

“I would really love to get really busy on a building project, but until we have that final investment decision, I can’t do anything but sit. Sit and wait and wait and wait,” Haswell said.

Opposition to Cracker

If the delay has made Haswell antsy, it’s been a reprieve for Amanda Petrucci. She and her husband live with their four children and seven goats on a hillside across the Ohio river in Moundsville, West Virginia.

On a recent afternoon, she pointed out a few landmarks — a hilltop across the river where a well owned by an ExxonMobil subsidiary blew out in 2018, releasing 60,000 tons of the potent greenhouse gas methane, a natural gas processing plant a half-mile from her front door, which flares gas at all hours, and a Superfund site just down the hill.

The site used to house a chemical plant. In the 1990s, the U.S. EPA declared it a superfund site, and began a cleanup. Around that time, her family endured a spate of health problems — her son developed a rare blood disorder, her husband was diagnosed with asthma, and she developed Tourette’s syndrome and migraines.

Petrucci blamed dust from the Superfund site for their health problems. (The EPA says dust levels at the site never endangered human health.) She worries about the oil and gas infrastructure that ring her property, and isn’t happy about PTT’s proposed ethane cracker a mile from her house.

“I think we’re going to get hit with more toxic air. How many more layers can we throw on everybody in the community?” Petrucci said. She says she’s been thinking about moving somewhere where the air and water are clean, and there’s no oil and gas. But she hasn’t found anywhere that fits that bill just yet.

So it was welcome news for her when she heard PTT was delaying a final decision on its ethane cracker. “I [felt] like I could kind of just hang out here for a little bit longer and enjoy life here,” she said. “I feel relieved and feel like I can enjoy my property a little more.”

NOTE: John Haswell is superintendent of the Shadyside Local School District in Shadyside, Ohio. His district would get a $30 million school building if PTT builds a proposed ethane cracker in Belmont County, Ohio.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

See also: Project Design Planning for Ethane Cracker Complex at Belmont County, Ohio, FrackCheckWV, June 21, 2020

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See also: THE SHELL ETHANE CRACKER, As the world grapples with plastic pollution, Pa.’s ethane cracker promises more plastic, Reid Frazier, StateImpact Penna., YouTube, September 21, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R01yOnk_ynw

Some work is underway at the Shell Cracker in spite of COVID -19

From an Article by Chrissy Suttles, Ellwood City Ledger, April 15, 2020

Some work is underway at Shell Chemicals’ $6 billion ethane cracker plant in Potter Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania in the Ohio River valley.

Shell has no plans to fully restart production during the COVID-19 crisis, but an additional 200 employees will return gradually over the next week to join the roughly 300 workers already tasked with repairing and maintaining the facility. More could be called back in the coming weeks.

At least 500 Shell Chemicals workers will be back at Beaver County’s ethane cracker plant by next week, company representatives said Wednesday.

Shell has no plans to fully restart production during the COVID-19 crisis, but spokesman Michael Marr said an additional 200 employees will return gradually over the next week to join the roughly 300 workers already tasked with repairing and maintaining the petrochemical complex. More could return in the coming weeks.

“We anticipate reintroducing more workers to the site at a measured pace so we can integrate limited personnel onsite while maintaining social distancing guidelines,” Marr said. “Next week, we anticipate having approximately 500 workers onsite, which, for now, is the number we believe we need to do the critical repair, preserve and maintain work. We will be reviewing our staffing numbers week by week.”

On March 18, Shell temporarily suspended construction activities at Potter Township’s ethane cracker plant to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 amid public pressure. Union officials said on Wednesday that two employees have since tested positive for COVID-19 and were told to self-isolate.

The plant’s closure came two days ahead of Gov. Tom Wolf’s order to stop all non-life-sustaining businesses, including most construction activities. Shell’s construction company later applied for a waiver to resume some work during the shutdown, asking the state to allow up to 800 workers back for limited construction activities.

Staff at Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development, which reviews waiver requests, said Shell applied for an exemption to continue as a cogeneration power plant. Utility operations are considered essential under Wolf’s order, and the site’s pending gas-powered electricity plant makes it an eligible utility.

Shell will operate in compliance with social distancing and other mitigation measures established by federal and state officials, Marr said, noting the majority of the company’s 8,500 workers will remain furloughed for the duration of the shutdown.

Employees will park within the site itself to avoid the use of busing, eliminating a key challenge to social distancing guidelines. Other protocols in place include temperature screenings and lunchroom spacing, Marr said.

A number of Shell Chemicals workers, local residents and elected officials demanded the company temporarily cease cracker plant construction in mid-March, with employees reporting a variety of health hazards.

Beaver County Commissioners called for the plant’s closure early on. At last week’s commissioners meeting, Chairman Dan Camp said he and his colleagues received multiple calls from concerned Shell workers who didn’t understand why they were being called back following the shutdown.

“A lot of the employees don’t know what to do,” he said. “They don’t know if they should be going back to work or not, or if the governor gave (Shell) a waiver.”

Marr said Shell management plans to update local and state leaders at “appropriate intervals” moving forward.

Commissioners on Wednesday varied in their response to the news. Camp called it a “loophole,” and said protecting Beaver County’s health care system should be a top priority.

“We are starting to see the COVID-19 peak here in Beaver County, and we have to make sure our health care system can accommodate what will happen,” he said. “Even if they’re able to follow CDC guidelines on site, what they take back to their families and communities may not be what’s best for their health.”

Commissioner Jack Manning disagreed with Camp, arguing a few hundred additional workers are unlikely to overwhelm the region’s hospitals. He feels comfortable with the protocols Shell has put in place to protect Beaver County from further COVID-19 exposure, and said those jobs are precious at a time when Pennsylvania is seeing unprecedented levels of unemployment.

“Five hundred people coming back to the area could be what keeps a few small businesses afloat,” he said. “Most of our small businesses could barely go two weeks, let alone two or three months, with a fraction of what they need as income.”

Doctors say major construction projects like the cracker plant make nearby communities more susceptible to the virus due to a large number of transient workers, but Manning said he’s been assured many of the workers returning are permanent residents.

“They’ve told us in the past that these folks returning are local, and they are not bringing a ton of people across state lines,” Manning said. “There might be some Ohio or West Virginia people, but for the most part it’s regional people from the union halls who have relocated here permanently.”

Commissioner Tony Amadio said he’s concerned about how the move could affect public health and safety, but it’s ultimately up to the state — not commissioners — to make those decisions. “Workers who don’t want to return are not penalized for it,” he said. “It’s voluntary.”

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See also: Car protest rally puts focus on Sunoco pipeline work during pandemic, Daily Local News, Chester County, Penna., April 23, 2020

After Gov. Wolf ordered that all non-life sustaining work across the state was to be halted, the pipeline builder was given permission to continue digging at several locations through waivers granted by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

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)

Royal Dutch Shell yields to government actions

From an Article by Tom Fontaine, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, March 18, 2020

Shell Chemicals said Wednesday it will temporarily halt its multibillion-dollar project to build an ethane cracker plant in Beaver County because of coronavirus concerns. The company then plans to gradually ramp work back up at the sprawling site where about 8,000 people have been working.

“The decision to pause was not made lightly,” Shell Pennsylvania Chemicals Vice President Hilary Mercer said in a statement. “But we feel strongly the temporary suspension of construction activities is in the best long-term interest of our workforce, nearby townships and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Mercer added.

The decision came hours after Beaver County government leaders called on Shell to suspend work on the project.

“It’s time to shut down. Do what you have to do, but get to that point where we won’t have anyone on that site,” Beaver County Commissioner Dan Camp said at a news conference late Wednesday morning in front of the county courthouse in Beaver.

Camp, who was joined by fellow Commissioners Tony Amadio and Jack Manning and state Reps. Jim Marshall, Rob Matzie and Josh Kail, said his office had received more than 500 calls in recent days from concerned residents and Shell employees and contractors.

Callers reported crowded conditions on buses that take the project’s thousands of workers to and from the work site, limited hand sanitizer and other problems.

“With 8,000 workers, if something happens there, our health care facilities will not be able to undertake what they will have to do,” Camp said, noting that the Heritage Valley Beaver hospital is equipped with only 40 ventilators.

“There’s potential for a very catastrophic outbreak,” Manning added.

The government leaders said they had been in communication with Shell and Gov. Tom Wolf’s office about their concerns. “I believe Shell understands the problem and our concerns. I have confidence they will do the right thing,” Camp said.

The company did not say how long it would suspend work or how long it might take to ramp work back up to full capacity. “As of now, there is no definitive timeline to return to construction activities,” spokesman Curtis Smith said. “It’s too early to know that. For now, our focus is on the 8,000 workers who have dedicated their time and talent to this project.”

The company said it would spend the coming days installing what it called “additional mitigation measures” at the site. Smith said those measures haven’t been finalized, but could include using additional buses to transport workers to and from the site and installing more sanitizing stations and work tents on the site.

No workers at the site have shown symptoms of covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, according to Smith.

Work on the project is expected to be completed sometime in the early 2020s, Smith said. When the plant begins operating, it will process ethane from the Marcellus and Utica shale reservoirs into ethylene and polyethylene, the building blocks of plastic. Officials have said it will employ about 600 full-time workers, and hundreds of others jobs could be created by spinoff companies related to the plastics industry.

“Our goal is to build a positive, decades long legacy in the region,” Mercer said in her statement. “That means earning our right to live and work here every day. It also means caring for people. While (suspending work is) understandably disappointing to many, we believe this decision honors that approach.”

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Shell ‘s construction crew at risk of COVID-19 sickness

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (WPVI) — Gov. Tom Wolf is tightening his directives to businesses to shut down, issuing a dire warning and saying Thursday that all “non-life-sustaining” businesses in Pennsylvania must close their physical locations by 8 p.m. to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Enforcement actions against businesses that do not close their physical locations will begin Saturday, March 21st, Wolf said in a statement.

You can also find the list at this link.

Shell plant promotes fracking, air pollution, plastic pollution & virus risks

From an Article by Andy Sheehan, KDKA Local CBS News 2, March 16, 2020

BEAVER COUNTY (KDKA) — Over the last few days, KDKA has received questions about the Shell Cracker plant that is under construction in the Ohio River valley in Beaver County, PA.

The coronavirus has not slowed construction at the multibillion-dollar cracker plant as thousands of workers continue to speed the project towards completion. But those same workers say the site is riddled with unsanitary conditions and standard social distancing protocols are being ignored.

In more than a dozen emails to KDKA, workers raised concerns about being transported to the site on crowded buses and called daily to mandatory mass meetings.

Further, the workers say the portajohns are unsanitary and frequently run out of hand sanitizer, making the entire site what one person calls a huge Petri dish for the virus.

But it now appears that Shell is listening. Responding to KDKA’s inquiries, the oil giant said on Monday that changes are in the works to ensure the health and safety of those who work here.

“We are currently obtaining more busses and staggering shifts and lunch times to improve social distancing amongst workers. We are also curtailing large meetings on site,” the company said it a statement.

The statement goes on to talk of deeper, more frequent cleaning measures and increased placement of hand sanitizer on site. Shell says it is responding to a fluid situation but emphasized that no one has tested positive for the virus. Shell also says it is committed to the health and safety of its workers.

Shell made no mention of shutting the site down, so construction will continue.

Shell full statement can be found below:

“Our goal is to always keep our workers safe from health and safety risks, including that of COVID-19.

We are reviewing new guidance from OSHA and will incorporate relevant new elements from that guidance into our response, as appropriate.”

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See also: Workers, residents: ‘Shell should halt cracker plant construction’ — Chrissy Suttles, Ellwood City Ledger, March 17, 2020

Some Shell Chemicals workers and residents are demanding the company temporarily cease cracker plant construction as Beaver County reels from its first confirmed COVID-19 case.

Shell Cracker and Trump protesters rally in rainstorm at Beaver, PA

From an Article by Davenport Rae Kurutz, Beaver County Times, August 13, 2019

BEAVER — Linda Stanley remembers playing outside as a child in Ambridge and coming inside with burning nose and lungs. Her parents fluffed it off, saying they couldn’t smell anything.

Decades later, the county’s steel mills have closed, but Stanley believes there’s a bigger threat in play — Shell Chemicals ethane cracker plant.

“That’s when I learned that kids and older people are a barometer for what is happening … Now I want to try to protect the most vulnerable members of our community,” said Stanley, of Economy, as she was standing outside the Beaver County Courthouse on Tuesday protesting the cracker plant. “Shell’s not going to do anybody in Beaver County any favors. What is the benefit for us? We certainly don’t need more plastics.”

Under the bouncing watch of a towering orange baby Donald Trump inflatable holding a cellphone — and his chicken-suit wearing compatriot — about 200 protesters brandished signs decrying the plant and President Donald Trump. The protest was concurrent to Trump’s tour and speech at Shell Chemicals’ $6 billion development in Potter Township, 5 miles from the courthouse.

Trump came to Beaver County on Tuesday to tout economic development, manufacturing and energy production and his administration’s role in supporting them. The visit was initially scheduled for Aug. 8, but was postponed following mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, the prior weekend.

While the majority of the protest was directed at Shell and Trump’s changes to environmental policies, signs and speakers addressed other issues, ranging from gun control to women’s rights and abortion.

Rob Conroy, director of organizing for Cease Fire PA, reminded the crowd of the mass shootings earlier this month and called Trump a child who “fans the flames of white supremacy and racism” during his speech. “Enough, I say, is enough,” Conroy said. “We can do better.”

Numerous protesters had signs to that effect, exclaiming “Hate does not make America great,” “I stand for respect for the environment,” “Dump Trump 2020” and “Silence is compliance.”

Others carried umbrellas adorned with streamers, and a group were covered in plastic bags calling themselves “trash flowing” on the sidewalk.

Not all protesters were from Beaver County — some came from Ohio, and numerous came from Pittsburgh. Wanda Guthrie, of the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and friends Terri Supowitz, of Wilkinsburg, and Catherine Gammon, of the Greenfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh, said they came because the cracker plant needs to be stopped. While it’s located in Beaver County, it will affect people all throughout the region, they said.

“We really don’t want to have the cracker plant here,” Guthrie said.

“It’s bad enough it will destroy (Beaver County),” Supowitz said. “But it’s going to hurt all of southwestern Pennsylvania.”

And the 600 permanent jobs Shell promises isn’t worth it, they said. “There are other ways to invest in jobs,” Gammon said. “This is not it. It’s shortsighted.”

Terrie Baumgardner, a member the Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community, said she participated in the protest because she wants people to be more aware of the impacts of the cracker plants — including those proposed outside of Pennsylvania. She said she doesn’t want to see the region become a “cancer alley,” a term coined for an area in Louisiana with clusters of industrial plants and corresponding clusters of cancer patients.

“I’d like this area to be a safe haven from the petrochemical industry,” Baumgardner said. “This is not the best thing for our economy.”

Teenage organizer Natalie Leslie, a 16-year-old junior at Blackhawk High School, said she got involved with organizing the protest because people need to understand the lasting effects of what Trump’s policies are doing to the environment.

“I hope this spreads the light of the situation with the cracker plant,” said Leslie, of Chippewa Township. “I’d like to see a lot of younger people involved.”

Across the street, more than a half-dozen teenagers watched the protest. Some wore “Make America Great Again” hats, while one wore a flag featuring Trump depicted as Rambo. One of the young men taunted the protesters using a bullhorn, encouraging them to go home.

As a car drove past, honking as dozens of others had, a teenage girl called out the window “Bernie 2020” as the counter-protesters yelled “Trump 2020″ repeatedly.

Their presence wasn’t planned, said Chris Gordon, a student at Beaver Area High School. “I was passing by here when I saw the balloon of Donald Trump as a baby, and that got me thinking, ‘You know a few years ago when Obama was here, there weren’t any protesters for him,’” said Gordon, 17. “And I was thinking, ‘If they had a giant balloon of Obama, Republicans would be called racist or discriminating against him.’ So I came down to see what they were protesting about.”

Don Houghton quietly and thoughtfully watched the protest from Irvine Park. He was sorting through the information he had, noting that there was more regulations on the cracker plant than any of the steel mills or other industrial plants in the region, simply because it’s newer. While he is a registered Democrat, he said he respects Trump as the president. He doesn’t understand the hatred he hears spewed most days.

“I miss Sept. 12,” he said, referring to the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “Everyone was united. No Democrats, no Republicans, no independents.”