Braskem Idesa chemical plant in Veracruz, Mexico

From an Article by Renzo Pipoli, Reuters Events, October 12, 2021

Brakem agreed on “adjusting” once very favorable terms on its long-term contract to buy Mexican ethane after a year of talks and following an initial adamant Brazilian stance later softened after Mexicans late last year temporarily forced its Veracruz cracker and polyethylene plant shutdown.

Braskem reported an accord that replaced the original terms of its 20-year contract with the Mexican state oil company Pemex. Braskem’s majority owner is Novonor, formerly known as Odebrecht. The biggest minority owner of Braskem is the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had sought changes claiming the deal had allowed Brazilians to buy Mexican ethane way below market, and get free shipping even when state oil Pemex needed to import the feedstock from the U.S. to deliver it.

Pemex will no longer face the dilemma of either importing ethane to give to Braskem below cost or else face hefty fines, and a full construction investment refund clause in case of early termination was scrapped, Mexican media reported.

Braskem and its minority partner Grupo Idesa completed the $5.2-billion complex with just over a million tonnes annual capacity in April 2016. The investment resulted from an auction by Mexico to sell ethane in 2009. The partners had won in public bidding, Braskem Idesa had stressed in past releases.

For nearly all of 2020 Braskem insisted on keeping terms, and reported an internal company investigation didn’t find any wrongdoing. Then Mexican President Lopez Obrador’s government forced Braskem Idesa to abruptly shut down the ethylene and polyethylene complex late last year by cutting off its energy supplies.

Shutting plant down — The Braskem Idesa venture said at the end of 2020 that Mexican officials acted irresponsibly as the abrupt power cutoff without notice prevented a shutdown under safety protocols. The sudden interruption of power and shutdown also caused supply problems for thousands of Mexicans that worked further downstream in the industry like distributors and plastic converters, it said. There was no warning before to at least alert customers, the company said.

A temporary agreement allowed a restart in early 2021 pending an accord as talks continued. The new agreement establishes new volume and price commitments for the supply of ethane from Pemex, Braskem Idesa said. Future deliveries will be “in line” with availability of this feedstock in Mexico, it said. It did not provide other details related to changes to the original 66,000-barrels-per-day supply accord.

New import terminals — Braskem-Idesa said the Mexican Gulf region where its cracker and polyethylene plant is located will see a $400-million investment but didn’t provide a breakdown.

Braskem’s project involves a 16-mile pipeline and a $50-million floating storage, El Sol de Mexico said on Aug. 24. Braskem Idesa is also building a bigger project to store fuel on land with a $150-million investment, it added.

It also said that the new accord involved using independent U.S. Gulf Coast references. Braskem Idesa imports ethane from the region.

The agreement eliminated fines that prompted Lopez Obrador to describe the deal with Brazilians as “leonine” (outstanding), El Sol de Mexico said.

Adjusting terms — Braskem Idesa said on Sep. 28 that the agreement will allow Braskem Idesa, “over time, to produce polyethylene at full capacity.”

.Braskem and Idesa, with 75% and 25% equity, announced in 2012 the borrowing of $3.2 billion to finance most of the project’s $5.2-billion total cost. Standard & Poor’s increased Baskem Idesa’s rating to B+ from B after the accord to adjust the terms was disclosed.

In the U.S. Braskem and Odebrecht pled guilty on Dec. 2016 in what was described at the time as the largest foreign bribery case in history and agreed to pay $3.5 billion to solve charges in Brazil, the U.S. and Switzerland.

Odebrecht trial delayed a year — On July 17 2020 Mexico was able to get extradited from Spain former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya. While Lozoya incriminated former Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto with Odebrecht-related campaign funding, the trial is so far delayed by a year, Expansion reported.

Braskem also said that despite not working at full capacity, resin production since its April 2016 inauguration has added $4 billion in exports and created thousands of direct and indirect jobs. The shutdown coincided with a Mexican polymer market that was very tight and inventory building was urgent.

Lopez Obrador had in the past estimated losses to Mexico from the Braskem Idesa contract at about $683 million. He won a six-year presidential term in 2018 that started in December of that year. The 67-year old president ran on a campaign centered on fighting corruption and retaining control of the country’s energy assets.

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Reuters Events News Brief: “Dow may expand ethylene, polyethylene complex in Canada” — Dow said on October 6th that it plans to triple its ethylene and polyethylene capacity in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta and turn the asset into a net-zero emissions complex.

Company directors must still approve the investment that would increase Dow’s ethylene and polyethylene global production capacity by 15% and de-carbonize 20% of its total output. The cracker will add 1.8 million metric tons of capacity “in a phased manner through 2030,” Dow added. This will allocate approximately $1 billion of capital expenditures annually if there is a positive decision.

Shale-fueled US plastics boom puts spotlight on sustainability

From S & P Global Platts News Service, October 22, 2019

Virgin plastic production is thriving in the US, fueled by the North American shale boom. But the reversal of fortune for the US chemical industry has highlighted a bigger challenge amid widespread concern about plastic waste and sustainability.

The growth of shale activity across the US unearthed ethane feedstock so cheap that a region that had been facing naphtha-fed plant shutdowns and petrochemical imports saw the cost advantage of home-fracked gas shaping its future as a global petrochemical supplier.

As such, the focus has overwhelmingly been on ethane-fed crackers and derivative polyethylene (PE), the resin used to make the most-used plastics in the world, and less on how to deal with the plastics they produce after use.

Companies are stepping up their efforts in recycled plastics, most notably with the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, to which dozens of companies have committed more than $1 billion to find solutions to the plastic waste problem.

While petrochemical giants like Dow, BASF, LyondellBasell, Sabic, Braskem, Sinopec, Sasol and Reliance Industries are among the alliance’s members, most efforts in the US focus on research and funding.

Production is still mainly virgin plastics, with inclusion of recycled resin in new plastic products being pushed by resin buyers. And resin producers face the same key challenge as their counterparts in other regions, of sourcing enough high-quality plastic waste as a feedstock.

New ethylene and polyethylene (PE) capacity growth

Fourteen new ethane crackers that are operational, under construction or planned from 2017 beyond 2020 will add nearly 18.5 million mt/year, or 52%, more US ethylene capacity. In addition, 28 new PE plants starting up or planned in the same span will increase capacity by nearly 60%, or 13.67 million mt/year.

Other derivatives are accompanying some of the new crackers, such as monoethylene glycol or alcohols units, and a new polypropylene plant under construction. The companies that went all in on these projects include the biggest global names in petrochemicals: Dow, ExxonMobil, Chevron Phillips Chemical, LyondellBasell, Formosa Plastics USA, Sasol and Ineos.

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Massive cranes, some over 700 ft. tall dominate “Cracker” construction site

Article by Gerry Ricciutti, WKBN News, September 24, 2019

“Work could take another year and a half to complete”

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ExxonMobil Scouting Property For 2nd Cracker Plant In Beaver County

From an Article by Reid Frazer, StateImpact Penna., October 17, 2019

ExxonMobil is reportedly looking for land to build a large chemical plant in Beaver County. If built, it would be the second major chemical plant in Beaver County built to take advantage of cheap natural gas from the region’s fracking industry.

Shell is already buidling a six-billion dollar plant in Monaca that will make plastic out of ethane, a common byproduct of natural gas. Other companies are looking at locations in Ohio and West Virginia.

“Certainly there is a a large supply of (natural gas liquids) which could potentially be converted into plastics for industrial use,” said Jennifer Van Dinter, an analyst at S&P Global Platts.

“By the early 2020s, we’re (projecting) between about 500,000 and 600,000 barrels a day of ethane being produced, and that would be capable of supporting four to five petrochemical facilities,” Van Dinter said.

NGL pipelines cross the Appalachian mountains in Penna.

From an Article by Harry Weber, S&P Global Platts, August 26, 2019

Houston, TX — Enterprise Products Partners has begun soliciting shipper interest in a proposed 50,000 b/d expansion of its ATEX ethane pipeline that would move more supplies from the Appalachian Basin to its NGLs storage complex in Mont Belvieu, Texas.

The operator has been looking to boost deliveries of oil, gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs) from key shale basins in the US Northeast and West Texas to downstream markets including the Gulf Coast to serve domestic and overseas demand.

Along the Houston Ship Channel and Gulf Coast, Enterprise’s connectivity has been a growth driver. For drillers, stripping ethane and propane from the natural gas produced at the wellhead creates two more revenue streams in addition to the dry gas that remains. Midstream operators benefit by increasing volumes on their pipelines, and in Enterprise’s case it has significant export capabilities from the Gulf, with Asian demand providing a key market.

The 1,200-mile ATEX, or Appalachia-to-Texas, pipeline transports ethane from the Marcellus and Utica shale plays in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio to Enterprise’s Mont Belvieu complex. The system has access to petrochemical facilities along the Gulf Coast.

The extra capacity that Enterprise is considering, which would be achieved by a combination of pipeline looping, hydraulic improvements, and modifications to existing infrastructure, is subject to sufficient customer commitments through the binding open season. The solicitation launched Monday runs through September 25. The expanded capabilities would be in service by 2022, Enterprise said in a statement.

Enterprise’s Mont Belvieu hub also gets NGLs fed to it from the south and west, via the South Texas NGL pipeline system, Seminole NGL Pipeline, and Texas Express Pipeline. In February, the mainline of Enterprise’s Shin Oak NGL pipeline entered service.

In Enterprise’s latest quarter, NGL pipeline transportation volumes edged up to 3.6 million b/d from 3.4 million b/d for second-quarter 2018. When it released its results in July, Enterprise said it was eyeing further expansions tied to its hub along the ship channel, as well as upgrades to existing natural gas processing facilities.

The efforts tie into its NGL expansion plans, as Enterprise wants to increase market share along the entire value chain from wellhead to processing plant to storage and export facility. In the Permian, for instance, Enterprise has projected that by 2020 it will have more than 1.6 Bcf/d of natural gas processing capacity and over 250,000 b/d of NGL production capabilities, as well as 1.5 million b/d of systemwide fractionation capacity.

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See also: Gov. Wolf tells pipeline activists he won’t shut down Mariner East pipeline | StateImpact Pennsylvania, August 26, 2019

https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2019/08/22/wolf-tells-pipeline-activists-he-wont-shut-down-mariner-east/

Report from Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)

From an Article by Madison Dapcevich, EcoWatch.com, May 17, 2019

Plastic pollution across the globe is suffocating our planet and driving Earth toward catastrophic climatic conditions if not curbed significantly and immediately, according to a new report by the Center for International Environmental Law (CEIL).

As first reported by The Guardian, a review of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) at each stage of the plastic lifestyle finds that increasing plastic and petrochemical industries expected to accelerate in the next ten years are threatening the ability to keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C degrees if the world does not immediately act. This year alone, the production and incineration of plastic will add more than 850 million metric tons of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere, equating to the pollution from 189 new 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants.

“Humanity has less than twelve years to cut global greenhouse emissions in half and just three decades to eliminate them almost entirely,” said Carol Muffet with CEIL. “The massive and rapidly growing emissions from plastic production and disposal undermine that goal and jeopardize global efforts to keep climate change below 1.5 degrees of warming.”

Comparing GHG estimates against global carbon budgets and emissions commitments, the report finds that if plastic production goes as planned, emissions will reach 1.34 gigatons per year by 2030. By 2050, the production and disposal of plastic may generate 56 gigatons of emissions, accounting for as much as 14 percent of the planet’s entire remaining carbon budget. The authors are quick to note their assumptions are conservative given the availability of data and the projection of plastic’s climate impacts are under a business-as-usual scenario. As such, realistic estimates suggest will actually be much higher.

“It has long been clear that plastic threatens the global environment and puts human health at risk. This report demonstrates that plastic, like the rest of the fossil economy, is putting the climate at risk as well. Because the drivers of the climate crisis and the plastic crisis are closely linked, so to are their solutions: humanity must end its reliance on fossil fuels and on fossil plastics that the planet can no longer afford,” said Muffet.

GHG emissions are emitted during each stage of the plastic lifecycle. Nearly every piece of plastic begins as a fossil fuel where extraction and transport can contribute significantly to GHG emissions directly through methane leaks and flaring, as well as fuel combustion and energy consumption. In the U.S. alone in 2015, emissions from fossil fuel extraction and transport attributed to plastic production was as high as 10.5 million metric tons of CO2 per year. The next phase, refining and manufacturing, is among the most GHG-intensive industries and are the fastest growing in terms of emissions.

Waste management processes contribute significantly to emissions levels because plastic is either landfilled, recycled or incinerated — each of which produces its own range of GHG emissions. Specifically, incineration is the primary driver of emissions from plastic waste management is expected to grow dramatically in the coming decades as society continues to use more and more plastic.

Lastly, plastics in the environment play a huge role on the climate as it degrades, continually releasing methane and other GHGs that increase as plastics break down further. Additionally, microplastics may interfere with the ocean’s ability to absorb and sequester carbon while microplastics contaminating phytoplankton and zooplankton may interrupt their ability to properly fix carbon through natural processes.

“Our world is drowning in plastic, and the plastics industry has been overlooked as a major source of greenhouse gases. But there are ways to solve this problem. We need to end the production of single-use, disposable plastic containers and encourage a transition to a zero-waste future,” said Courtney Bernhardt with the Environmental Integrity Project.

Report authors note that immediate action may curb these dramatic effects through the reduction of single-use, disposable plastic and the enforcement of ambitious targets to reduce GHG from all sectors including plastic production. The report also calls for the halting of new oil, gas, and petrochemical infrastructure and to pressure producers to act responsibly.

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SEE ALSO : Sweeping New Report on Global Environmental Impact of Plastics Reveals Severe Damage to Climate | Break Free From Plastic, May 15, 2019

Shell Cracker on Ohio River in March 2019 (FracTracker Alliance)

From an Article by Nick Cunningham, Yale 360 Environmental News, 3/21/2019

Once known as the Steel City, Pittsburgh is shedding its polluted past and embracing a rebirth built on health care, education, and technology. But the region’s surging fracking industry is attracting a $6 billion ethane plant and other petrochemical facilities, raising new pollution fears.

Pittsburgh is a city on the upswing, rebounding this century from its rustbelt past by developing more innovative sectors such as health care, education, and technology. Uber is testing its self-driving cars in Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon University is home to a world-renowned Robotics Institute. And the city made an aggressive bid for Amazon’s HQ2, which the mayor viewed as key to moving the Steel City beyond its roots in heavy industry.

Progress toward a cleaner, post-industrial future is not linear, however. Although the air in Pittsburgh has dramatically improved from the days when it was one of America’s most polluted cities, it still contains high levels of hazardous pollutants, in large part because of several major steel foundries and coke works still in operation, according to the Clean Air Council. The rise of hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas, now more than a decade old, has exacerbated regional air quality problems. Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, is out of compliance with federal air quality standards on fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) and sulfur dioxide. In 2018, the region barely met the federal ozone standard after falling short in years past.

Now, Pittsburgh and the surrounding area are embracing a new wave of industry tied to the fracking boom in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Nothing better embodies this surge than a massive, $6 billion ethane cracker currently being built 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh by Shell Chemical Appalachia, a subsidiary of the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. The facility will process huge quantities of natural gas and natural gas liquids from the prolific Marcellus and Utica shales and turn them into the building blocks of plastic. The plastic pellets produced by “cracking” ethane molecules will then be sold to manufacturers producing consumer and industrial products such as plastic bags, packaging, automotive parts, and furniture.

When it comes online in 2021, Shell’s ethane cracker will also add significantly to air pollution in western Pennsylvania, becoming the region’s largest source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are harmful gases emitted by solids or liquids, including combusted fossil fuels. The facility will also emit substantial amounts of nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), fine particulate matter, and other hazardous air pollutants, the Clean Air Council says. All of these have been linked to an increased risk of respiratory problems such as asthma, as well as to cardiovascular effects and a heightened risk of cancer.

Environmental groups, along with some local residents, have fought the ethane cracker. But local and state political leaders are almost uniformly supportive of the project, regardless of party affiliation. So are labor leaders and many local citizens, seeing the arrival of Shell’s facility as a pivotal moment in the creation of a new, large-scale industrial sector that could rival the region’s glory days of steel production.

“Employment in western Pennsylvania has never been better,” says Ken Broadbent, business manager at Steamfitters Local 449, noting that construction at Shell’s ethane cracker will eventually provide jobs for 1,500 steamfitters, some of whom will make more than $100,000 a year. “I’ve never seen this many jobs for construction workers in western Pennsylvania, and I’ve been a steamfitter for 45 years. Natural gas is going to be bigger than the steel industry back 30 or 40 years ago. There’s 50 years to 100 years of natural gas in this tri-state region. This thing is not going away.”

Asked if he is concerned about air pollution from the plant, Broadbent acknowledged the threat, but said the economic opportunities are too important. “It concerns everybody — we fish, we hunt, our kids breathe the air like everybody else,” he said. “But we’ve also got to realize that people have got to work for a living, too. If you’re not working, it won’t matter how much pollution you have.”

Construction of the Shell facility is expected to reach its peak this year, with up to 6,000 total workers on site. When operational, the plant will employ 600 people on a permanent basis.

Pennsylvania’s Governor Tom Wolf, a Democrat, has hailed Shell’s ethane cracker as the “biggest private-sector investment in Pennsylvania since World War II” and touted the prospect of a transformation of western Pennsylvania as a fracking-driven energy “hub,” with the cracker just the first in a series of petrochemical projects. Executives and industry analysts refer to Shell’s ethane cracker as an “anchor” project around which new infrastructure would be built — the associated pipelines, compressor stations, gas processing facilities, and a new ethane storage facility.

But this reindustrialization of western Pennsylvania, and the resulting increase in air and water pollution, is of growing concern to some in the region. They note that in recent years the Pittsburgh area has benefitted from a job-creating shift to cleaner economic sectors, driven by major local institutions like the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

“This region for [the last] 30 years started making some really smart decisions — investing in education and health care, letting universities lead the way, letting innovation be the driver, having a much more diversified economy and, especially, climbing up the value chain and getting away from those basic commodities that leave a toxic legacy,” says Matt Mehalik, executive director of the Breathe Project, a local nonprofit working to reduce air pollution.

Although the fracking boom has undeniably created jobs and pumped money into the region, scientists and environmentalists say it is bringing with it polluted wastewater, dirty air, roads crowded with gas industry trucks, and rural areas dotted with noisy and unsightly drilling platforms.

Ted Auch of the FracTracker Alliance, a non-profit that keeps tabs on the health effects of the shale gas industry, notes that it has gone through several phases over the past decade. At the start of each phase, he says, the industry pushed for new investments that justified the next level of intensification. First, the industry needed more pipelines in order to move excess gas out of the region. Then it needed more wells to dispose of fracking wastewater, says Auch. Then the ability to export gas abroad. A year ago, exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) began from a newly constructed terminal on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, moving Marcellus shale gas across the world to Japan.

===== Pittsburgh’s work on combatting climate change through 2030 would be negated by this single Shell plant.=====

Auch says he fears that Shell’s ethane cracker, plus others in the works, may unleash yet another wave of drilling. “So now we’re on like our third or fourth version of reasoning for why [the industry] needs X, Y, and Z,” says Auch.

Auch and others say that at a time when scientists are issuing increasingly stark warnings about the worsening impacts of global warming and the need to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the fracking boom in northern Appalachia, coupled with the construction of related infrastructure and facilities, is moving the region and the U.S. in precisely the wrong direction.

They note that in 2017 the city of Pittsburgh unveiled an ambitious plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 (using a 2003 baseline), which would equate to a reduction of 2.1 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. Shell’s ethane cracker, which needs to burn natural gas to create the high temperatures needed to “crack” ethane, is expected to emit 2.2 million tons of greenhouse gases annually. In other words, all of Pittsburgh’s work on combatting climate change through 2030 would be negated by a single plant.

The plant’s critics also maintain that Shell’s ethane cracker represents a significant setback in the region’s long battle to clean up its air. Pittsburgh is ranked in the top 10 nationwide for most polluted cities in terms of year-round particulate matter. Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, is ranked in the top 2 percent nationally in terms of cancer risk from hazardous air pollutants, according to a 2013 study by the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Shell refutes the notion that its Pittsburgh-area ethane cracker will adversely affect the health of nearby communities. “Shell takes the health of the community and our staff very seriously,” says Joe Minnitte, a company spokesman. He notes that the potential health effects from hazardous air pollutants were evaluated when Shell applied for, and received, its air permits from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP). Indeed, the DEP concluded that the air and health impacts would not exceed federal standards.

“Inhalation risk assessments performed by Shell and PA DEP during that period concluded that chronic cancer and non-cancer risks as well as acute non-cancer risks do not exceed PA DEP’s benchmarks,” Minnitte says. Shell agreed to implement air quality monitoring around its facility.

Moreover, Shell purchased pollution credits to offset its emissions. Industrial emitters frequently buy such credits, particularly in areas that don’t meet federal air quality standards. In Shell’s case, however, this has been controversial, because while the company secured enough credits for its nitrogen oxide pollution, it could not find enough credits for its VOC emissions. So it lobbied the Pennsylvania DEP to convert surplus nitrogen oxide credits into VOC credits. While this may help reduce pollution in a neighboring county from a shuttered facility, pollution will increase in the vicinity of the cracker plant when it comes online, opponents warn.

Another ethane cracker about 75 miles downriver in Ohio — backed by PTT Global Chemical, a Thailand-based petrochemical giant, and its Korean partner, Daelim Industrial Co. — has cleared the regulatory process and expects a final investment decision soon. A third ethane cracker has been proposed nearby in West Virginia. A 2017 report from IHS Markit, an industry consulting firm, found that northern Appalachia – the tri-state area of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia – could support four additional crackers after Shell’s project comes online.

According to the Breathe Project, the Shell facility, plus the PTT Global Chemical and the West Virginia plant, could result in additional health care costs of $20 million to $46 million annually just for Beaver County, where Shell’s facility is under construction. Those estimates include treatment for increased respiratory ailments, lung cancer, asthma, and cardiovascular disease, as well as for loss of work. Neighboring Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, could see $14 million to $32 million in additional health care costs annually due to the toll exacted on public health from the three plants, the Breathe Project estimated, based on modeling used by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Those numbers only accounted for fine particulate matter, not the array of other pollutants expected from the plant. In addition, the region already is impacted by the pollution, including methane leaks, from thousands of shale gas wells, compressor stations, and storage facilities.

Shell’s ethane cracker alone would require 1,000 fully producing shale gas wells to feed it on an ongoing basis, according to John Stolz, director of the Center for Environmental Research and Education at Duquesne University. But he notes that shale gas wells are known to have steep declines in their production rates, meaning that many more wells will need to be drilled to keep the cracker plant running for decades to come.

Some citizens in the region already are alarmed by the health and environmental impacts of the fracking boom. Allen Young is a correctional officer who lives roughly a mile or two from a shale gas well in Powhatan Point, Ohio that exploded and leaked gas for several weeks in February 2018 before it was contained by its owner, XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil. In the days following the explosion and gas leak, Young, his wife, and their two children started having nosebleeds, headaches, and respiratory problems, which he attributes to the leak.

When asked about the possibility of several ethane crackers coming into the region, including the proposed PTT Global Chemical cracker that would be built just a few miles from his house, Young replies, “I’ve seen firsthand there’s no regulation with these people. They do what the hell they want, when they want, how they want to do it. Money talks … This is kind of like the little Cancer Alley of the Ohio Valley.”

Young was referring to Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” a stretch of petrochemical and chemical facilities along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge that has been emitting toxic pollution into nearby communities for decades. Late last year, the U.S. Department of Energy laid out the case for locating a network of petrochemical plants in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, citing the national security concerns of having too many storage and petrochemical facilities concentrated near the Gulf of Mexico coast due to its vulnerability to natural disasters — a danger that will only grow as the climate continues to change.

The ethane crackers under construction or planned in the Ohio River Valley are illustrative of a broader wave of investment flowing into petrochemicals. According to the American Chemistry Council, from 2010 to late last year, more than $200 billion in investment poured into 333 chemical and petrochemical projects in the U.S., much of it “geared toward export markets for chemistry and plastics products.”

Although the growth in consumption of natural gas and oil is expected to slow worldwide in the decades ahead, in part because of the wider adoption of electric vehicles, no end is in sight for the consumption of plastic. “Petrochemicals are rapidly becoming the largest driver of global oil consumption,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a 2018 report. By mid-century, according to the IEA forecast, petrochemicals will account for half of the total growth in oil demand – more than trucks, aviation, or shipping.

It’s increasingly common for consumer plastic to make a mind-boggling journey that begins with drilling for oil and gas in Texas, separating out the various natural gas liquids from one another, cracking the ethane to produce polyethylene along the Gulf of Mexico coast, and shipping the plastic pellets to Asia to be processed into plastic wrap or packaging, which is then shipped back to grocery stores in the U.S. Ultimately, when that plastic reaches the consumer, it is often used once and discarded in a matter of minutes or seconds. The climate impact is profound. Carbon dioxide emissions from the petrochemical sector are expected to rise by 20 percent through 2030, according to the IEA.

In the Ohio Valley, the lure of major sources of new employment in a region that has seen an exodus of industries is hard to pass up, says Mehalik of the Breathe Project. But he adds that these communities shouldn’t have to bear the burdens of pollution that might also preclude other forms of cleaner economic development. Pittsburgh’s recent comeback has had little to do with heavy industry, Mehalik says, and the emergence of a major petrochemical industry puts a lot of that progress in jeopardy.

“So now, all of a sudden, it’s like, ‘Here we go again,’” says Mehalik. “It’s like we’re going back on a bender, doing things that we know are bad for us. And yet it’s happening. That, to me, is the ultimate outrage. It’s just an insane economic development strategy.”

Single Use Plastics are dominating our lives

From an Article by Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch.com, February 22, 2019

With eight million metric tons of plastic entering the world’s oceans every year, there is growing concern about the proliferation of plastics in the environment. Despite this, surprisingly little is known about the full impact of plastic pollution on human health.

But a first-of-its-kind study released February 19, 2019 sets out to change that. The study, Plastic & Health: The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet, is especially groundbreaking because it looks at the health impacts of every stage in the life cycle of plastics, from the extraction of the fossil fuels that make them to their permanence in the environment. While previous studies have focused on particular products, manufacturing processes or moments in the creation and use of plastics, this study shows that plastics pose serious health risks at every stage in their production, use and disposal.

“The heavy toxic burdens associated with plastic—at every stage of its life cycle—offers another convincing argument why reducing and not increasing production of plastics is the only way forward,” report co-author and Break Free From Plastic Movement (BFFP) Global Coordinator Von Hernandez said in a press release. “It is shocking how the existing regulatory regime continues to give the whole plastic industrial complex the license to play Russian roulette with our lives and our health. Plastic is lethal, and this report shows us why.”

The report was a joint effort by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Earthworks, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), Healthy Babies Bright Futures (HBBF), IPEN, Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (t.e.j.a.s.), University of Exeter, UPSTREAM and BFFP. It explains in depth how each stage in the plastics life cycle puts human health at risk.

1. “Extraction and Transport of Fossil Feedstocks for Plastic“: The extraction of the oil and gas needed to make plastic releases toxic chemicals into the air and water. The chemicals used to produce plastic feedstock via fracking are particularly dangerous: More than 170 of them can cause documented health problems including cancer and damage to the nervous and immune systems.

2. “Refining and Production of Plastic Resins and Additives“: The process of refining fossil fuels into plastic resin releases toxic chemicals into the air that can cause cancer and damage the nervous system, among other issues. Industrial workers and communities near refineries are especially at risk.

3. “Consumer Products and Packaging“: Plastic products themselves can harm their users both in the form of microplastics that break off from the larger product and chemicals contained in the product that can cause cancer and developmental problems, as well as disrupt the hormone system.

4. “Toxic Releases from Plastic Waste Management“: Every method for eliminating plastic waste, such as incineration and gasification, releases acid gases, organic substances like dioxins and furans and toxic metals like lead and mercury into the air, soil and water. This is also particularly dangerous for plant workers and surrounding communities.

5. “Fragmenting and Microplastics“: As plastics break down, they release tiny fragments into the environment that humans can swallow or inhale. Doing so can cause problems like inflammation, genotoxicity, oxidative stress, apoptosis and necrosis, which can lead to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke and other potentially deadly or chronic ailments.

6. “Cascading Exposure as Plastic Degrades“: The chemicals added to plastics easily spread into the surrounding environment as the plastic breaks down, posing an ever-increasing risk to water, soil or body tissue where plastic is present.

7. “Ongoing Environmental Exposure“: Plastic degrading in the ocean or on land builds up in the food chain as it is ingested by larger and larger animals. The plastic both leaches the chemicals it already contained into the environment and accumulates other toxic chemicals present in the environment as it works its way up the food chain.

In order to combat the problem, the report recommends treating plastic exposure as a human rights issue, making sure every stage in the plastic life cycle is addressed, drafting laws that require accurate information about what goes into plastics during all stages of production, ensuring transparency in the development of solutions and making sure that solutions take into account the global reach of plastic production and proliferation.

Other organizations who work on plastic pollution have praised the report for its in-depth investigation of the crisis.

“This new report provides further evidence of plastic’s detrimental effects on a global scale — and it’s more personal than ever,” Oceana chief policy officer Jacqueline Savitz said in a statement. “Plastic is impacting human health through every single stage of its life cycle, from extraction and production to consumer use, and it is entering our food chain. The risks to human health begin long before plastic even makes it onto store shelves, providing yet another reason why waste-management efforts alone can’t reverse this crisis. We need companies to take responsibility for plastic’s effects on our health and the environment, stop wasting time with false solutions and turn to sustainable alternatives to plastic before it’s too late.”

Plastics have become worse than bad and ugly

West Virginia Shale Development Falls Short of Economic Promise

By Sean O’Leary, WV Center on Budget & Policy, February 7, 2019

The nearly six-fold increase in West Virginia’s natural gas production in the last decade, due largely to shale development, or fracking, has fallen short of expectations for economic growth, job creation, and tax revenue generation, according to a new report released by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. Read report.

The report, Falling Short: Shale Development in West Virginia fails to deliver on economic promises, finds that the shale industry has underperformed economically due to the falling price of natural gas, which has cut into the industry’s profits and under-delivered state tax revenues. It has also missed expectations of creating jobs, reducing poverty, and spurring wider economic growth.

The paradox of a region rich in natural resources that fails to develop economically is known as the “resource curse.” The report asks how West Virginia, which historically exhibits signs of a “resource curse” in the coal industry, can avoid a similar fate with natural gas.

The report recommends increasing the severance tax rate from 5 to 10 percent on all minerals, or at least natural gas, natural gas liquids, and oil that are mostly coming from shale development. Proceeds would finance a Future Fund to diversify economic development and promote state initiatives that rely less on resource extraction and the vagaries of energy markets.

Key findings include:

>> The economic development gains of the shale industry have underperformed initial projections partly due to exaggerated early claims made by the industry and industry-funded studies.

>> Planners failed to anticipate the significant and sustained collapse in natural gas prices resulting from large increases in production.

>> Severance tax revenues grew through Fiscal Year 2015 and then fell off. Fiscal Year 2018 natural gas severance tax revenues were only 15% higher than FY 2008 revenues, adjusted for inflation.

The growth in employment from 2008 to 2017 has been in natural gas pipeline construction, largely temporary jobs while jobs in drilling and related activities have actually declined—about 40% of pipeline construction jobs are held by out-of-state workers.

Natural gas production is concentrated in six of the state’s 55 counties which produce 80% of West Virginia’s natural gas.

Early studies failed to anticipate the collapse of coal mining, driven in large part by the glut of inexpensive shale gas.

“Today, the natural gas industry is again promising significant economic benefits from what it sees as the next big opportunity: Appalachian petrochemical development,” said IEEFA energy analyst Cathy Kunkel, adding, “We find that such claims are likely to be overstated.”

West Virginia has a long history of economic boom-and-bust tied to coal extraction. Despite its vast natural resource wealth, the state has consistently ranked among the poorest in the nation.

“We are looking at how West Virginia can avoid repeating the same mistakes it has with the coal industry and use its natural gas and other resources to contribute to lasting in-state wealth,” said Ted Boettner, Executive Director of the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy.

See the report here:
http://ieefa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/West-Virginia-Shale-Development-Falls-Short_February-2019.pdf

The construction workforce will peak at 6,000. The landscape is rapidly changing.

From an Article by Martina Asbury, Petrochemical Update, December 15, 2017

Construction at Shell’s world scale $6 billion petrochemical complex near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has begun, and as the first major U.S. project of its type to be built outside the Gulf Coast in 20 years, Shell is paving the way for a major Appalachia chemical region, industry analysts told Petrochemical Update.

When built, the facility will include an ethane cracker with an approximate annual average capacity of 3.3 billion pounds of ethylene; three polyethylene (PE) units with a combined annual production capacity of approximately 3.5 billion pounds; and power and steam generation, storage, logistics, cooling water and water treatment, emergency flare, buildings and warehouses.

Commercial production is expected to begin early in the next decade.

In an exclusive interview with Petrochemical Update, Hilary Mercer, VP Shell Pennsylvania Chemicals, shares her personal insights and reflections on her role in building Shell’s new PE business.

From game-changer to crisis manager through a variety of primarily Integrated Gas (LNG) projects and geographies across Shell, Hilary Mercer’s 30-year career trajectory has landed her as the recently named VP, Pennsylvania Chemicals. She joins this adventure from her project leadership role at Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard in Geoje, South Korea, contributing to readying Prelude, the world’s first floating LNG facility, for it sail away to gas fields off the coast of Western Australia.

First in Appalachia

Mercer radiates excitement and pride as she describes building the legacy she now leads with her General Manager of PE Marketing, the Asset Manager and the Project Director. As the Business Opportunity Manager (BOM) for the new asset, she describes so many “firsts:” Shell as a new entrant to the PE market, having exited it decades ago; the facility, a first of its kind in the Appalachian region.

As BOM, she describes her role as forging alignment between the PE Marketing, the Project Director and Asset Manager and their respective organizations to optimize the long-term life cycle costs of the asset and to ensure that Operations and Maintenance have all the data they require to be agile and innovative in meeting customer needs.

With her background strongly rooted in capital project effectiveness, Mercer is rapidly climbing the learning curve of what it takes to penetrate an existing, growing commodity product market, both domestically and globally.

“For me, this is a once-in-a-career chance to write the script on blank paper for Shell’s imprint on a region and a new business,” Mercer told PCU. “It’s all about the creation: of jobs; of product; of a customer base; of being a welcome neighbor in the community”, says Mercer. “Adaptive leadership is required to meet the business goal of sustainable, quality production.”

Supply chain

After exploring JV options for a product partner, Shell elected to forge its own way, recognizing the logistic advantage of shorter and more dependable PE supply chains, compared to supply from the Gulf Coast.

More than 70% of North American polyethylene customers are within a 700-mile radius of Pittsburgh. According to IHS Markit, the U.S. can satisfy domestic demand with a good margin with export capacity to spare to competitively serve European markets via East Coast ports in proximity of the Appalachian region.

Main Works Construction

Mercer joins the initiative at a crucial junction – the start of Main Works construction for a petrochemical complex that includes processing facilities for 1000 kta of high-density polyethylene and 550 kta of linear low-density polyethylene; as well as infrastructure comprised of a cogeneration unit, water treatment plant, water detention pond, dock, rail, and truck loading. She is witnessing the massive build-up of a construction workforce that will peak at 6,000. “The landscape is rapidly changing,” she remarks.

When asked her first impressions of the project itself, she told PCU she was impressed by the condition of the site, specifically the closure of essentially all underground work. She is also encouraged by the competency and continuity of both Shell and EP contractor leads who followed the project from EP offices to the site. She remarks “this is a first for Shell – 100% of the detail engineering is complete before the first concrete pour.”

Given that Bechtel served not only as the EP contractor for the Utilities and Infrastructure (non-process, or OSBL) portion of the plant, but also as the EP Integrator for the entire facility, and is now the single Construction Manager for the project, she has high expectations of a seamless transfer of data from design to construction.

In most projects, OSBL facilities (steam, power, water, instrument air) that are dependent on final data requirements from processing units, are the last to be designed — and first systems required for start-up. Mercer sees a unique advantage to ready these OSBL systems as required for commissioning.

In support of Anca Rusu, Project Director, she continually reinforces the message that there is no scenario in which Bechtel loses and Shell wins. “A Bechtel success = a Shell success.” As with any uber-project, there are tensions to be navigated as the project undergoes multiple, changing critical paths, many of which are tied to major equipment and/or module delivery dates. In her experience, Mercer says that in the end the critical path is almost always completion of piping.

Workforce

The last perspective she shared with PCU in this interview is the overwhelming support of the community and region as they welcome the influx of economic growth. Shell is building a 50-year asset with 600 permanent jobs.

Academia and industry have partnered across state borders to provide workforce development options. As it should, the region has its eye on a goal larger than a sustainable workforce for Shell. Never has she seen such strong support from external stakeholders.

Petrochemical Update will check in with Hilary Mercer in the coming years as the skyline of Shell site at Monaca, Pennsylvania changes, and as the first railcars and fleet of trucks filled pellets make their way to customers.

Petrochemical Update has a free 33-page whitepaper on the US North East Petrochemical Industry Market Outlook 2018 available for download.

Anti-pipeline protesters marched at United Church of Christ -- East Goshen Prayer Walk

From an Article by Bill Rettew Jr., Daily Local News, West Chester, PA, December 2, 2017

WEST GOSHEN, PA — Three dozen peaceful protesters marched Saturday for a half-mile along the Sunoco Mariner East 2 pipeline right-of-way.

Many of the participants in the pipeline prayer walk are members of the United Church of Christ East Goshen.

Marchers carried signs and paused for prayer a couple of times along Boot Road, starting at Wellington at Hershey’s Mill, where pipeline construction runs within 100 feet of the assisted living facility. They ended up at the Goshen Fire Company.

UCC Pastor and teacher Rev. Angelee Benner-Smith led the group in prayer. She recited the Serenity Prayer and talked of hope.

“We have to believe that we can make a change,” she said. “Pray for hope. Hope does not disappoint us.”

The reverend then asked the demonstrators to act. “Speak of the things we can change. Give us the energy to move forward with hope and your grace.”

The pastor then asked the group what they were thinking. They told her they felt anger, disappointment, frustration, resentment, fear and betrayal by those they had elected.

Eve Miari said that faith communities are paying attention to pipeline construction. Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County and Swarthmore Friends will be holding pipeline-related events Sunday.

The group got down on their knees outside Ss. Peter and Paul Elementary School. Melissa DiBernardino said she has not received an adequate response from school officials.

Her children attend the school, which is less than 100 feet from construction. DiBernardino said that if the pipeline is completed and becomes operational, she will pull her kids from the school that she and her children love.

Al Benner-Smith is Angelee’s husband. He also led the group in prayer. “Remind us every day that the grass and trees and the water and the air is in our control,” he said. “Remind us that all of this is here to sustain us.”

Marchers carried signs that read “No Pipeline-Stop,” “Damage is Not Progress,” and “Respect Our World.”

Al Benner-Smith said after the rally that cooperation helps. “It’s much better when people work together than separately,” he said.

Eric Friedman of the Middletown Coalition and Andover Homeowners Association said that the rally was a “fine way for people to express their concerns” but “more than prayer” is needed to stop the pipeline.

Linda Ardao of West Goshen marched and is a member of the UCC congregation.

“We may take the easy way out on energy and we may need to pursue more environmentally friendly and lower risk ways to get energy,” Ardao said.

Jeff Shields, Sunoco Pipeline Communications Manager, released the following comment: “We support everyone’s right to protest peacefully. We understand that there are differing opinions on infrastructure projects. Safety is our company’s first priority and we have shown our commitment to safety by exceeding federal requirements with thicker pipe, enhanced testing, and X-ray inspection of welds far beyond what regulations call for. We have operated safely in Chester County for nearly a century, and we will continue that tradition with Mariner East 2.”

Plans call for the Sunoco Mariner East 2 pipeline to carry highly volatile liquids, ethane, butane and propane, 350 miles from Marcellus Shale deposits in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania to the former Sunoco Refinery in Marcus Hook, Delaware County.

Excessive Volatile Organic Compounds in Air

Could Shell’s Ethane Cracker Erase Recent Gains in Air Quality?

From an Article by Reid Frazier, The Allegheny Front, September 9, 2016

Officials around the state are optimistic about the impact of Shell’s new ethane cracker on the local economy. It will bring thousands of construction jobs to western Pennsylvania and 600 permanent ones once it’s built along the Ohio River in Beaver County. The plant will produce 1.6 million tons of plastic a year out of the region’s natural gas.

But Jim Fabisiak, an environmental and occupational health professor at the University of Pittsburgh, is concerned about another impact on the area—how the facility could affect air quality.

Audio Stream in Original Article:

LISTEN: “How Shell’s Ethane Cracker Will Impact Air Quality”

At his office, Fabisiak pulls out a sheet of paper with a simple line graph on it. It shows the amount of industrial pollution in Beaver County for volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. These are a broad class of chemicals that help form ground-level ozone, or smog, which can exacerbate asthma and other lung problems.

“There’s a steady improvement,” Fabisiak says. “From 1999 to current, there’s been about a 50 percent reduction in VOCs released by industry over time. That’s significant progress in air quality.”

But beginning in 2016, the line on Fabisiak’s paper starts going up, and up, until the year 2021. That’s the year Shell’s ethane cracker is slated to come online in Beaver County.

“Adding the cracker to this point in time brings the levels greater than what we’ve seen in 1999,” Fabisiak says.

In fact, with a projected 522 tons of VOC emissions per year, the plant would be the largest source of VOC pollution in western Pennsylvania, according to the most recent data available in the EPA’s 2011 National Emissions Inventory. It would be the third largest source in the state, behind an oil refinery in Philadelphia and a styrofoam plant in Reading.

The next largest nearby VOC polluter is U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works, with 336 tons. In addition, the cracker is classified as a major source of hazardous air pollutants like benzene and formaldehyde, which can cause cancer and other serious health problems.

Fabisiak says these emissions are a concern because Pittsburgh’s air already fails to meet federal standards for several pollutants—including ozone—and routinely ranks poorly in national air health surveys.

Because of these emissions, environmental groups are appealing the cracker’s air permit and asking the state to require Shell to install air monitors next to the plant.

But Shell and state officials say the cracker isn’t a threat to public health.

Mark Gorog, air quality program manager for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Southwest region, says since the Pittsburgh metro area doesn’t meet federal air standards, Shell has to install modern controls for pollutants like nitrogen oxides and install a leak detection system in the plant itself.

“Their emissions limitation has to be at least as stringent as the best [technology] out there,” Gorog says. “So the technology they install has to be the ‘latest and greatest.’”

In addition, the company had to show the PA-DEP that its plant wouldn’t make the air unhealthy in Beaver County.

“They modeled to show they will not cause an exceedance of [federal air standards], and they did a risk estimate for [hazardous air pollutants] that showed there was not going to be an undue risk to the public,” Gorog says.

On top of these measures, the company will buy more than 1,000 tons of pollution offsets to make up for the pollution that will come from its smokestacks, storage tanks and flares. These offsets are called Emissions Reduction Credits, or ERCs. They work kind of like a cap-and-trade system. The idea is that a company that wants to build a facility that would add pollution to an area, like Shell, pays other companies to clean up emissions at existing facilities. The way they do this in many states is by buying credits from a plant that is either closing or installing pollution controls.

Under state law, Shell is allowed to buy credits from plants that are already closed. The University of Pittsburgh’s Jim Fabisiak says this means pollution that’s been gone from the region will be coming back—in the form of emissions from Shell’s ethane cracker.

“I don’t see that as improving the air quality to any great extent. It’s like three steps forward 2.99 steps back,” Fabisiak says.

Workers are already preparing the site in Beaver County for Shell’s multi-billion dollar ethane cracker.

For instance, the company is buying 70 tons of credits from FirstEnergy for two coal-fired power plant units it closed in Armstrong County in 2012. It’s also buying 100 tons of credits from FirstEnergy’s closed Mitchell Power Station, which ceased operation in Washington County back in 2013.

Fabisiak says the best way for the system to work would be for Shell to buy credits for future cuts to pollution—from, say, a company investing in new pollution reductions at a power plant.

“If everyone’s still staying in the area and operating, that results in slow decreases in the amounts of emissions over time,” Fabisiak says.

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which approved Shell’s plan, doesn’t see a problem with how the pollution credit system is working. Under state law, closed facilities have 10 years to sell their emissions credits. The DEP’s Mark Gorog says new plants have to buy 15 percent more pollution credits than they will actually emit. So if Shell wants to emit 100 tons of pollution, it will have to buy credits for 115 tons.

“Over time, what the [ERC program] does is shrink the pool of emissions and bring the area into [federal air rules] attainment,” Gorog says.

This won’t happen overnight. Krishnan Ramamurthy, acting director of DEP’s Bureau of Air Quality, says its plans call for the region’s air to meet federal guidelines within five years. He says the emissions credit program actually helps them reach that goal by providing incentives for companies to clean up.

“The emissions reduction credits have a cash value. It’s supply and demand,” Ramamurthy says.

And if demand goes up—for example, if more companies want to build new plants alongside Shell’s facility—then the price of the emissions credits will go up too. And that could encourage companies to close or clean up older, dirtier plants.

“They can put additional controls to justify the control cost by selling some of their credits,” Ramamurthy says.

The U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works is one of the region’s biggest sources of VOC pollution with 336 tons of annual emissions. The ethane cracker’s 522 tons of projected VOC emissions would make it the largest source of VOC pollution in western Pennsylvania.

Currently, credits in Pennsylvania are reportedly selling for $2,000 to $10,000 a ton. That puts the price tag for Shell’s credits in the $2 to $10 million range.

In an emailed statement, Shell declined to say how much it spent on its emissions credits. But a company spokesman emphasized the plant was built on the site of the Horsehead zinc smelting plant, which had a heavy environmental footprint of its own. Some of Shell’s pollution credits actually came from that plant, which closed in 2014.

With or without Shell’s ethane cracker, DEP officials admit it won’t be easy for Pittsburgh to meet federal air standards in the future—especially after the EPA enacted stricter rules for ozone last year.

“It is working,” Gorog says. “There are areas being [cleaned up]. But part of the issue is EPA has ratcheted down limitations on [air pollution] over the years, so it’s kind of a moving target for us.”

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