Pennsylvania’s Petrochemical ‘Renaissance’ Hasn’t Panned Out
Over a decade ago, Shell announced it would build a major petrochemical complex on the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, lured to the state by historic public incentives amid what was hailed as the coming of a new petrochemical corridor outside the Gulf Coast. At the time, local and state leaders hoped the massive facility, drawing on cheap shale gas drilled nearby to produce the feedstock for plastics, would bring economic growth and thousands of jobs to the Ohio River region in western Pennsylvania.
The corridor never materialized. Instead, Beaver County’s economy continues to fall behind, according to a new report from the Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) published Wednesday and a June report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).