Your Turn: Does Shell plant bring more harm than benefit to our communities?
There was shockingly little fanfare when Shell announced its massive $6 billion petrochemical plant in Beaver County was officially operational on Nov. 15. Why was a project that had been in the works since 2012 only announced via Facebook post?
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The answer is the plant that is now operating isn’t the job-creating, economy-revitalizing, profitable, environmentally safe facility Shell has been claiming it would be for the past decade.
The project is the largest facility of its kind in the Northeastern United States. From the start, Shell promised a lot: an economy-wide growth boom, renewed business investment, and the creation of tens of thousands of jobs, according to industry executives and government officials.
However, Shell has yet to deliver on its promise. In 2012, Pennsylvania awarded Shell $1.7 billion in subsidies, the largest tax break in state history to a single corporation. Now that the plant is operational, it’s becoming clear our tax dollars were used to pay for a plant that failed to spark economic prosperity during development and might struggle to make a profit.
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The global petrochemical industry is facing a severe bust cycle and the polyethylene market is extremely overbuilt. Capacity for “Virgin” plastic production, as it is called, in North America has grown by 60% since 2017. The result is too much potential supply at a time when communities across the globe are taking action to lower demand and even eliminate plastic in their lives. All across the world, and even as close as 25 miles away, a single-use plastic ban passed. It’s a problematic reality for Shell.
When Shell received the $1.7 billion tax break to build and pollute in Beaver County, we were told we were on the edge of a regional petrochemical renaissance. The vision was for 5 world-class plastic plants, two hydrogenation plants, and an Appalachian Storage Hub connected by 500 miles of pipelines.
Yet again, today’s reality shows the shortsightedness of this fantasy both on the regional and local level. Shell’s plant in Monaca is the only petrochemical facility even to cross the starting line and new development in the region is unlikely to move forward. Shell struggled to complete the project on time and, although the plant is now operational, it isn't a success story. Shell Chemicals was already showing declining profitability and use in the year leading up to the plant opening.
Despite all of this, we still hear industry boosters say that the Shell plant is a benefit and a job creator in the community. But, the truth is Shell isn’t even paying for the jobs at the plant –– we, the Pennsylvania taxpayers, are. The nearly $2 billion subsidy is enough to cover payroll for the 600 people the plant is expected to employ at $95,000 a year for 25 years. This plant and the jobs Shell claims to have created wouldn’t have been possible without our money.
Although Shell didn’t deliver on the economic or jobs promise, it has delivered in other ways. A smell event so pungent in 2021 resulted in a violation from PA Department of Environmental Protection. Excess light pollution is so bright an eerie orange glow over the plant is visible from miles away. And it has received a total of 11 Notice of Violations from the PA DEP and exceeded its permit for 12 months’ rolling VOC emissions even before coming online. Shell has received two Notices of Violation from the PA DEP and submitted five malfunction reports since it become operational.
This gamble didn’t just waste our tax dollars but has and will continue to cost the community in health impacts.
In every sense of the word, Shell’s plastic plant is a bust. The job boom and revitalized economy never showed up. The light, air and noise pollution is worse than we were told it would be. And now it’s clear, the plant won’t do as well financially as promised despite years of policymaker and industry hype. It’s time we stop listening to the same folks who’ve misled us. Shell’s plant is just another failed fossil fuel dream that was only economically feasible because our elected officials decided to make Pennsylvania taxpayers pay for it.
Anais Peterson is a Pittsburgh resident and the petrochemicals campaigner for Earthworks, a national environmental advocacy group.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Your Turn: Does Shell plant bring more harm than benefit to our communities?
