Shell ethane cracker polyethylene facility in Ohio River valley of southwestern PA

From the Staff, Youngstown Business Journal, June 15, 2020

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A group of economists and engineers from seven universities in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, including Ted Boettner and John Russo, have published a letter sent to the governors of these states warning that the projected impact of the petrochemical industry won’t be as great as initially thought.

The letter follows a recent report by Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis stating the Royal Dutch Shell ethane cracker plant in Monaca, Pa., “faces a combination of risks that weaken its anticipated financial performance.” Among the risks cited by the analysis group are overall economic uncertainty; the number of similar plants built worldwide, leading to a potential oversupply of ethane crackers and plastics manufacturing; and the decreasing price of plastics.

A similar report was released by the institute in regards to the proposed PTT Global Chemical cracker plant in Belmont County. A final investment decision on that project has been delayed indefinitely.

“We also see additional economic and technological barriers, which are likely to outlast the current economic crisis and make the construction of more crackers in the Ohio Valley and southwestern Pennsylvania highly unlikely,” the group writes. “Consequently, projects that depend on a build-out of four to five crackers, including development of large natural gas liquids storage facilities such as the proposed [Appalachian Storage Hub] and a major expansion of the downstream plastics manufacturing sector, are also unlikely to be realized as are the jobs they are expected to provide.”

Signing the letter are Ted Boettner, executive director of the West Virginia Center of Budget and Policy; University of Akron economics professor Amanda Weinstein; James Van Nostrand, professor at the West Virginia College of Law and director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development; Bethany College economics professor Wilfrid Csaplar Jr.; Nicholas Muller, professor of economics, engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University; Mark Partridge, professor at chairman of Rural-Urban Policy at Ohio State University and John Russo, founder and former director of the Center for Working Class Studies at Youngstown State University.

The group cited the cancellation of the Ascent ethane cracker plant in West Virginia, the indefinite postponement of the PTT cracker plant in Belmont County, Ohio, and the failure of China to follow through on an announced $84 billion investment in the region as signs that interest in such developments in the region are fading, while interest in other parts of the world are increasing.

In urging leaders to move away from focusing on petrochemical projects, the group also pointed to technological barriers, environmental concerns and health considerations.

“In addition to being major emitters of greenhouse gases, ethane cracker plants, processing facilities, and downstream manufacturers are also emitters of fine particulate matter as well as volatile organic compounds,” the letter said. “Residents in our region already suffer higher than average rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, upper respiratory disease, obesity, diabetes, and other conditions that make our region’s population among the nation’s most vulnerable to adverse health consequences from these substances.”

The group urged the governors of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia to instead direct more attention at renewable energy sources, such as solar power.

“The clean energy economy offers large-scale, high-visibility opportunities, like the Lordstown Motors electric truck plant in Ohio as well as new opportunities for existing businesses in communities all over our region in fields like lighting, HVAC, construction, building maintenance, and energy efficiency retrofits,” the letter said. “The construction of high-efficiency buildings and the retrofitting of existing buildings and homes generates knock-on benefits, including reduced demand for electricity, lower utility bills for ratepayers, greater comfort for workers and residents, and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.”

Note potential hub locations encircled in red

Letter submitted by Eric Engle to Parkersburg News & Sentinal, October 20, 2019

An October 2nd editorial, “Storage Hub: Legislation should be a priority,” states West Virginia’s congressional delegation should continue making the Appalachian Storage Hub a top priority and supports recent legislation from West Virginia’s U.S. House of Representatives delegation to direct the Appalachian Regional Commission to provide funding to aid in creation of the Hub. This is dangerous nonsense for several reasons.

First off, the editorial itself mentions a reason why the storage hub shouldn’t be built anywhere: “having about 95 percent of U.S. ethylene production on the Gulf Coast is risky business.” Why does the writer think that is? Well, maybe it has something to do with the increased intensity of hurricane and precipitation events in the Gulf of Mexico caused by anthropogenic global climate change.

Warmer air holds more moisture and warmer ocean surfaces provide energy to increase hurricane intensity. This is well-documented climate and atmospheric science. Why does this matter for the hub? Because the storage hub plays a huge part in the continued extraction and use of fossil fuels, contributing to the climate crisis. Methane, for example, is released at every stage of oil and gas development and use, even use for the petrochemicals industry, and methane is 86 times more efficient a heat-trapping greenhouse gas over a 20-year period than carbon dioxide.

Then there is the storage of natural gas liquids. The proposed hub involves storage of these liquids (i.e. butane, ethane) in underground caverns around and even under the Ohio River. These liquids are highly combustible, for one, and the Ohio River is a drinking water source for 5 million people and already the most contaminated waterway in the country for the last 7 years running. Do we really want these highly combustible liquids stored under or near our already highly contaminated river and transported via pipelines to cracker plants up and down the Ohio River Valley?

And who really benefits from all of this liquid natural gas (LNG) production? The people of West Virginia? That MOU from China we’re not allowed to see for $84 billion might clarify, but I’m highly skeptical that the value-added benefits go to the people of our state. Our state’s history with extraction industries would suggest otherwise.

Finally, in case you haven’t noticed, we’re a world drowning in plastics that we cannot safely dispose of. The storage hub is not about energy production, as the editorialist obviously knows, it’s about the production of more plastics and polymers. No matter how you spin the industry-provided jobs and revenue numbers, that plastic will end up in our oceans and other waterways and landfills and, well, everywhere (microplastics have been found in the deepest depths of the oceans and the most remote corners of the Arctic).

Can we completely do away with plastics tomorrow? No. But 40 percent of the plastics market consists of single-use plastics we can do away with and engineering biodegradable plastics substitutes is the kind of thing Appalachian Regional Commission funds ought to go toward, not a massive increase in plastics production.

We need to say no to the Appalachian Storage Hub! For vital information on the hub and other oil, gas and petrochemicals issues, visit the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition website at ohvec.org.

>>> Eric Engle, Parkersburg, WV

Ethane would be pumped underground to likely spread and disappear

Who knows what an Ethane Storage Hub looks like; use your imagination! DGN

From an Article by Rick Shrum, Washington PA Observer-Reporter, June 7, 2017

Rick DeCesar, accompanied by a rendering of a storage facility, spoke Thursday at the Appalachian Storage Hub Conference. There was a lot of salty talk at the Hilton Garden Inn at Southpointe.

Natural gas liquids storage was the focal point of the third annual Appalachian Storage Hub Conference. The proposed hub, focused in the Ohio River Valley, is a $10 billion infrastructure project that would provide a midstream hydrocarbon storage system. It is related to the oil and gas industry.

Raw-material hydrocarbons such as ethane and butane would be placed separately in underground salt or hard rock caverns – 6,000 feet down. Many of the energy and chemical professionals who were on hand, to speak or to observe, seemed to have a preference.

“Salt is best,” one corporate official said from the audience.

“Ethane is not stored in any hard rock caverns today,” said another.

A storage hub feeds ethane to cracker plants, such as the $6 billion facility that Shell is building in Potter Township, Beaver County. The plant “cracks” ethane molecules into petrochemical building blocks that can be refined to create polyethylene, a plastic used for various purposes.

Salt cavern storage, according to the website storengy: “involves a series of caverns leached out of the deep, thick layers of rock salt. The caverns are created by injecting water to dissolve the salt, which is then extracted in the form of brine. There is then room for natural gas, which is injected and stored in gaseous form at high pressure.

“Impermeable and non-porous, these caverns are remarkably waterproof.”

The six-hour session played out before a decidedly pro-industry crowd, and also featured talk about other cracker plant projects being considered across the tri-state, along with pipelines, different energy sources and opportunity zones.

Joe Barone, president of Shale Directories, and Tom Gellrich, chief executive officer of TopLine Analytics, organized the event. Barone’s website, ShaleDirectories.com, connects the oil and gas industry with local businesses. Gellrich’s firm consults with the energy industry on downstream impacts of shale gas.

Gellrich kicked off the program with a list of industry-related predictions for the next 10 years. Among the highlights: the PTTGC ethane cracker, on the verge of approval for Dilles Bottom in Belmont County, Ohio, will get the go-ahead this year; that Shell, out of space, will announce plans to expand the Beaver County cracker in 2023 and again in 2028; and that in 2030, U.S. News & World Report will include the region on its list of the Top 10 Places to Work.

Jason Stechschulte, business development manager for MPLX LP, a partner with MarkWest Energy, touted a full portfolio of energy sources. “All forms are needed and fossil fuels will continue to be the lion’s share,” he said. “Fossil fuels make our lives easier.”

Rick DeCesar, a Washington County resident for 15 years, was part of a panel discussion during the morning session. He is vice president of pipeline and midstream services at AECOM in Pittsburgh, and said his firm has been a maintenance provider for the Beaver cracker since the beginning. DeCesar said 15 to 20 percent of the Falcon Pipeline, which will transport ethane to that plant, is in the ground.

Bryce Custer, of NAI Ohio River Corridor, spoke about opportunity zones, which he called “a great gift.” He said the basic concept of these zones “is forged in a fractured economy,” and that the purpose is to drive economic development in low-income areas.

Custer said there are 320 opportunity zones in Ohio, 300 in Pennsylvania and 55 in West Virginia. Using a map, he pinpointed several areas in the Ohio River Valley. Moundsville, according to Custer, is “a great area” for development. It is essentially across the river from the PTTGC proposed cracker.

Asked about potential environmental impacts of various energy endeavors, Custer replied: “I couldn’t say. The companies that are here are out to make a profit, but they want to do it right. If you can control environmental issues, this can be a major benefit.”

He closed by saying: “We are at the beginning of an economic revolution along the Ohio River corridor.”

Severence taxes are needed for local & regional infrastructure, etc.

From an Article by David Beard, Morgantown Dominion Post, June 9, 2019

SOUTHPOINTE, Pa. — West Virginia legislators and lobbyists are vigorously debating raising the severance tax on oil and gas extraction.

Proponents argue that the gas developers make millions and can afford the pay their fair share to maintain the state’s infrastructure and support such things as PEIA. They don’t want a repeat of the old-time coal industry’s take-the-money-and-run behavior.

Opponents argue that neighboring Pennsylvania and Ohio have significantly lower taxes and industry wil simply pick up its rigs and take them across the borders; West Virginia already lags behind both in rig counts and production, despite an abundant supply of gas.

But the severance tax debate isn’t unique to West Virginia. In Pennsylvania, Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf is leading a severance tax-hike movement, termed his Restore Pennsylvania Program. His chief opponent is the Republican-led House of Representatives.

Gas industry leaders learned something about the struggle from Pennsylvania’s Republican Speaker of the House Mike Turzai during a session of the Appalachian Storage Hub Conference at Southpointe.

Pennsylvania has no severance tax now. It has an impact fee that’s generated more than $2 billion, Turzai said. “It has transformed southwestern Pennsylvania.” It’s helped counties grow that haven’t seen population or economic growth for decades.

The proposal passed the Senate once, he said, but died in the House. He doesn’t understand why Wolf is still pushing it. “Why are we talking about this ‘Restore PA.?’ I thought we had put this aside.”

Wolf has brought his plan back under HB 1585 [with some GOP support from the southeast part of the state] and SB 725, both introduced on Wednesday. Wolf’s new “commonsense severance tax” would be volumetric and tiered according to sales price, ranging from 9.1 cents per unit to 15.7 cents,

The revenue would fund the issue of $4.5 billion worth of bonds to pay for various projects: broadband access, flood control, disaster response, storm water and transportation infrastructure, blight restoration and more.

Wolf promoted his plan in a press release: “We have a real opportunity to make impactful infrastructure investments in Pennsylvania. Restore Pennsylvania is the only plan presented that can actually address the needs in every community.

He continued, “We have an opportunity to provide all of our students’ internet access, an opportunity to help our municipalities truly address the crippling effects of blight, an opportunity to help families devastated by flooding when the federal government turns its back on them, and so much more. We need to seize this opportunity for all Pennsylvanians.”

Turzai thinks it’s a bad idea. “My notion is it is completely irresponsible.” For one, it would depend on borrowed money, he said.

And it would be self-defeating because the businesses it taxes to pay the loans would lose incentive to do business in Pennsylvania – an argument similar to the anti-tax-hike arguments in West Virginia.

Also, while he believes in public-private partnerships, he said, he doesn’t see a point in using borrowed money to subsidize broadband providers such as AT&T and Verizon to do what they could afford to do on their own.

Countering Wolf, Turzai had his own Energize PA initiative, consisting of eight bills. They include a tax credit to attract manufacturers using methane to power production; creating 20 Keystone Energy Enhancement Zones where businesses will be eligible for state and local tax exemptions and credits for 10 years; expanding the state’s gas-fuel pipeline program to make low-cost gas energy available to residents, manufacturers and pad-ready industry and business sites; and streamline permitting for brownfield cleanup and environmental permits.

On that last point, Energize PA proposes to put the state Department of Environmental Protection’s permitting process under a separate independent commission. PA-DEP would retain its enforcement powers.

“We think that would actually put law enforcement where it should be,” he said. The new commission would consist of gubernatorial appointees approved by the Senate.

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

Marcellus Shale Coalition Opposes New Severance Tax

By the Editor, PA Business Central, June 10, 2019

The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), representing the local natural gas development industry, expressed opposition to Governor Tom Wolf’s proposed natural gas severance tax at a recent meeting of representatives from MSC, the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce and other regional leaders. But, Pennsylvania is the only major gas-producing state in the United States that does not have a severance tax in effect.

Governor Wolf’s proposed severance tax on the natural gas industry would fund the Restore PA initiative, which is a plan to address critical infrastructure needs across the state. The plan includes initiatives to mitigate flooding, expand broadband, address blight and build green infrastructure, among other benefits to the state.

MSC President David Spigelmyer said at the meeting, “Governor Wolf’s proposal to triple-tax Pennsylvania’s energy industry will hurt our ability to compete for investment capital, cost Pennsylvania jobs and harm consumers through higher energy costs. We are committed to working with elected officials on solutions to leverage our natural resource abundance for continued job growth, environmental progress and a brighter future for the entire Commonwealth.”

Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce president Jason Fink added, “Development of the Marcellus Shale has spurred investment in Lycoming County and the surrounding region, bringing in hundreds of new businesses and generating thousands of good-paying jobs for our residents. The Governor’s proposal to add a tax on top of the existing Impact Tax would stifle the kind of investment interest that has been transformational for Lycoming County.”

Dustin White of OVEC speaks at press conference

Contacts: Dustin White, OVEC-Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, 304-541-3144, dustin@ohvec.org; Deb Smit, Breathe Project, 412-760-7677

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.—Today more than 50 people representing more than a dozen grassroots groups from West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania gathered to show their opposition to the Appalachian Storage and Trading Hub, a petrochemical mega-complex build-out proposed for the Ohio and Kanawha river valleys.

The group gathered outside the Marriott at Waterfront Place as the West Virginia Manufacturers Association was hosting the Marcellus and Manufacturing Development Conference, where the Hub was to be a main topic.

Among those gathered was Melcroft, Pa., resident Ashley Funk, a community organizer for Mountain Watershed Association, who said, “We are standing together to show the shale gas and petrochemical industries that, unlike the plastics from which they want to profit, our communities are not disposable.”

The end products of a Hub would be plastics, and its feedstock would come from an increase in regional fracking, which is already wreaking havoc in some north-central West Virginia counties. The infrastructure related to a Hub would stretch along more than 400 miles of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, and reach into 50 counties in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky.

A Hub would include underground storage caverns for volatile natural gas liquids, six major pipelines (new pipelines in the region have already exploded*, resulting in destroyed buildings including a home, property damage, livestock deaths and evacuations), thousands of miles of feeder pipelines, and huge polluting factories including fractionators and cracker plants, like the one being built in Beaver County, Pa.**

“It is of upmost importance that people see these current and proposed petrochemical projects in Appalachia for what they are: a scheme that the oil and gas companies are using to bail themselves out of debt. Appalachia has been exploited enough. Every stage of the life-cycle of plastic is toxic and harmful to human health and the environment—from the extraction of the natural gas liquids to the manufacture and use of the products, to the disposal of them. The tide needs to shift to alternatives to plastic, rather than creating more,” said Bridgeport, Ohio, resident, Bev Reed, who attended today’s event. She lives near the site of one component of the Hub, the planned PTTG ethane cracker plant.

Participants in the protest worried about the human health aspects of the Hub. They spoke about the warnings they are receiving from their allies who live in petrochemical regions of Louisiana and Texas known as “Cancer Alley,” and cited the recent petrochemical fires near Houston as reason enough to question the proposed Hub. They talked about Bayou Corne sinkhole, an ongoing incident in Assumption Parish, La., where residents who had been living near a collapsing storage cavern operated by Texas Brine Company and owned by Occidental Petroleum have been evacuated.

Due to the direct human health impacts and the potential for deadly and costly disasters, participants in today’s protest questioned the wisdom of government loans and tax breaks aimed at facilitating the construction of components of the Hub. Given the likelihood of a dramatic increase in regional greenhouse gas emissions from Hub-related infrastructure, participants also questioned the sanity of the Hub.

“It’s nuts for our state to bow down to another round of abuse from fossil fuel corporations,” said Dustin White, project coordinator with OVEC, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, which is based in Huntington, W.Va. “We deserve a diverse and sustainable, community-led economy that is not dependent on fossil fuels with all the associated health and safety risks. Workers deserve better than more toxic jobs.

“The ASH scheme is an unimaginative regression to 1950s era economic development. Why can’t we have real innovation? Development focused on tourism and cottage industries could allow our area to be part of real progress, toward a world we’d want our grandchildren to live in,” White added.

“West Virginia is commonly referred to as ‘almost heaven’ and I could not think of a better way to describe it myself. The places and people here are what makes West Virginia like no other, and for far too long large corporations have plundered our beautiful land and harmed its people,” said Abby Minihan with WVU Sierra Student Coalition. Another coalition member, Ethan Cade, added, “As a young West Virginian, I can say that we are tired of dealing with the negative economic, environmental, and health consequences of corporate pollution and are coming out to fight for a cleaner, better West Virginia.”

“Our oceans are drowning in plastic waste. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, up to 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die each year from eating our plastic garbage,” said Brenda Jo McManama, a campaign organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network. “Recycling has become a convenient myth as facilities shut down across the U.S., and other countries close their ports to our garbage. We are literally burying our future in discarded plastic. We are here to demand: No more plastics, no more petro over people! Greed and hubris is destroying any hope of a healthy and safe future for the generations to come.”

Groups involved in the planning of this event include OVEC-the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Concerned Ohio River Residents, Indigenous Environmental Network, Sierra Club WV, Sierra Club OH, Center for Coalfield Justice, Breathe Project, Mountain Watershed Association, and Climate Reality Project: Pittsburgh.

*For April 2, 2019 aerial photos of the site of September 10, 2019 Center Township, Pa., pipeline explosion

**For April 2, 2019 aerial photos of the Beaver County, Pa. Shell cracker plant construction site on the Ohio River

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For more photos and an article on the Morgantown conference see:

WV MetroNews Downstream opportunities touted at annual Marcellus and Manufacturing Development Conference. – WV MetroNews

Join in the protest of fossil fuels to climate change !!!

From Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC), www.OHVEC.org

Details — The WV Manufacturers Association is hosting the Marcellus Manufacturing Conference at the Marriott at Waterfront Place/Morgantown Event Center. The conference will promote the Appalachian Storage and Trading Hub/petrochemical complex, which would mean a huge increase of fracking in our region, six large pipelines running along the Ohio River, thousands of miles of smaller pipelines, underground storage caverns for natural gas liquids, huge, polluting cracker plants and fractionators, and other infrastructure—all for an end product of plastic.

We want to show up for two reasons. First, to stand in opposition to the petrochemical hub and the threat to human health it would bring to our region. Second, the WV Manufacturers Association is responsible for pressuring the WV Legislature to pass state water quality standards without making important updates to protect human health.

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Press Conference 12:00pm-12:30pm – Behind the WVU Visitors Resource Center

Join us as we start the action with a press conference at 12:00pm at the Singing Tree of Diversity mosaic, behind the WVU Visitors Resource Center (beside the Marriott) along Caperton Trail. We will have speakers from WV, OH, and PA who are fighting the petrochemical threat.

Protest Action 12:30pm-3:00pm – In front of Marriot at Waterfront Place along Don Knotts Blvd.

After the press conference, we will move to the sidewalk out front of the Marriott/Event Center along Don Knotts Blvd. for a visible protest with signs, etc.

Co-Hosts Include: Center for Coalfield Justice, Indigenous Environmental Network, Sierra Club, Breathe Project, Mountain Watershed Association, Climate Reality Project, and more!

Some ideas for signs: Honk if you *heart* Water/Air, People Over Petro, People Over Profit, People Over Plastic, Keep Your Greed Out Of Our Water/Air, Every body deserves clean water, No Cancer Valley, No Petrochem Poison, No Toxic Jobs

** Since the purpose of this monster petrochemical complex is to make more new plastics in a world already drowning in plastic pollution, make your own monster from plastic trash to bring too! Find ideas here.

Schedule · Tuesday, April 9, 2019 — 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Press Conference – Behind WVU Visitors Resource Center (Tree of Diversity Mosaic), Noon to 12:30 PM

Protest – In front of Marriott at Waterfront Place along Don Knotts Blvd. 12:30 – 3:00 PM

Action Network Page: https://tinyurl.com/april9action

See also: https://www.facebook.com/events/morgantown-marriott-at-waterfront-place-hotel/actionpress-conference/690196644733959/