Yet Another Reason Why The Plastics Industry Is in Trouble: Corporate Pledges
Sometime soon, Shell’s petrochemical plant in western Pennsylvania will finally begin operations, churning out millions of pounds of tiny resin pellets for plastic manufacturing. Despite a barrage of hype about a large-scale petrochemical buildout in Appalachia that was supposed to produce an economic “renaissance,” it was the only project ever to break ground in the […]
Why Worry About the Future of the Plastics Industry? Public Opinion.
The plastics industry is facing a triple threat. Product bans, public opinion, and corporate pledges all conspire to curtail future profits and undercut expansion plans. This trio helps explain why the ballyhooed petrochemical buildout in Appalachia has never materialized and why communities would be unwise to pin their hopes on future development plans that aim […]
Why Worry About the Future of the Plastics Industry? Bans.
Last week, Ohio lieutenant governor John Husted spoke the unvarnished truth about the Ohio Valley’s long planned petrochemicals buildout. Responding to news about the perennially delayed project in Belmont County, he said, “The industry itself is not growing. So, it’s hard to build new facilities when consumer demand and corporate policies are changing around plastics.” […]
Bitcoin Mining Breathes Life into Zombie Coal Plants
Bitcoin is on the verge of going mainstream, with some companies — and even countries — recognizing the cryptocurrency as legal tender. The market cap of Bitcoin now surpasses both Facebook and Tesla, and it also recently became the 13th largest currency in the world. At the same time, the dizzying highs (and occasional lows) […]
Hydrogen 101
In the last few months, hydrogen has garnered serious hype across the Ohio Valley as the zero-emissions fuel of the future. But should proponents’ claims be taken at face value? Is more skepticism warranted? What is hydrogen, really, and what are its uses and challenges in an economy transitioning toward clean energy? The Ohio River […]
New Poll Shows PA Voters Want a Crackdown on Fracking
Pennsylvania has officially soured on fracking. A groundbreaking new opinion poll released today by the Ohio River Valley Institute shows that, by wide margins, state voters support a serious crackdown on fracking operations. The poll shows that voters across all demographics are deeply concerned about the impacts of drilling—and a majority want to end fracking […]
Pennsylvania Voters Support a Serious Crackdown on Fracking Operations
Across demographics, Pennsylvania voters are deeply concerned about the health and environmental impacts of fracking and skeptical of its benefits.
Fact-Checking Fitzgerald on Fracking
In response to Pittsburgh protests over fracking and petrochemical development in the region, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald uttered a string of half-truths and factual distortions about the impacts of the industry. As a corrective to Fitzgerald and other industry boosters, the Ohio River Valley Institute is offering here a fact-based response. According to Don […]
The Future of the Ohio River Is in Sri Lanka
To see the future of the Ohio River you can look to a place that is almost its antipode: the tropical coastal waters of Sri Lanka. It’s there, some 9,000 miles away as the crow flies, that residents have recently discovered the scourge of pollution from the tiny resin pellets that are used to make plastic […]
Polling Shows A Republican Split in Pennsylvania
One quarter of the way through 2021 and Pennsylvania voters are grumpy. According to the March edition of Franklin & Marshall College Poll, barely more than one-third (36%) think the state is headed in the right direction, down 20 percentage points from a pre-pandemic high point. (They are hardly more sanguine about the country: only […]