by Sean O'Leary | Mar 21, 2025 | Blog Posts, Hydrogen & Carbon Capture, Natural Gas, Petrochemicals & Plastics
Key Points Northern Appalachia has, for a decade and a half, premised its economic development strategies on a strategic triad of natural gas, petrochemicals, and most recently hydrogen. Natural gas expansion has proven itself incapable of delivering on promises of...
by Deirdre Lally | Mar 17, 2025 | Blog Posts, Hydrogen & Carbon Capture, Natural Gas, Petrochemicals & Plastics
The US is on the verge of an ammonia ‘boom,’ which could expand fracking and incentivize risky carbon storage infrastructure. But as with any boom, industrial expansion will eventually bring a bust. At least 37 new projects have been proposed around the country which...
by Eric de Place and Julia Stone | Feb 7, 2025 | Petrochemicals & Plastics, Reports
Download report Download summary & toolkit It’s been more than twelve years since Shell announced plans to construct a massive petrochemical facility in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, assuring everyone from local community members to the governor that the...
by Kathy Hipple, Irina Spector, and Jacqueline Ebner | Jul 17, 2024 | Petrochemicals & Plastics, Reports
Download report Plastics are a problem. The world is awash in plastic. It is a major contributor of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and poses risks to workers and communities, especially environmental justice communities. Micro- and nanoplastics are everywhere, and we...
by Ben Hunkler | Jun 6, 2024 | Blog Posts, Petrochemicals & Plastics
The Shell Polymers Monaca petrochemicals complex shadowing the banks of the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, has become something of a symbol in Appalachia. To the many families nearby, it represents a constant, draconic threat, belching episodic flames,...
by Nick Messenger | Feb 27, 2024 | Petrochemicals & Plastics, Reports, Shared Prosperity and Clean Energy
Download report Download summary & toolkit In 1936, Louisiana launched what is known as the Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP), aimed to compete with other states like Mississippi who had begun to massively subsidize corporate manufacturing with tax...
by Nick Messenger, Kathy Hipple, and Anne Keller | Jan 25, 2024 | Petrochemicals & Plastics, Reports
Download report Download summary & digital toolkit In November 2022, over ten years after Shell’s first public announcement of site selection for the project, and after five years of construction, Shell Chemical Appalachia Polymers opened its ethane cracker...
by Staff | Jan 11, 2024 | Blog Posts, Hydrogen & Carbon Capture, Natural Gas, Petrochemicals & Plastics, Repairing the Damage, Shared Prosperity and Clean Energy
Together, a more prosperous, sustainable, and equitable Appalachia is possible. That’s the vision that has geared our data-driven research, guided our outreach and campaigns, and grounded our work in the region’s community and culture ever since the Ohio River Valley...
by Eric de Place and Julia Stone | Jun 20, 2023 | Petrochemicals & Plastics, Reports
Download report Download summary Download toolkit Beaver County, Pennsylvania is a real-time case study in the local economic impacts of petrochemical development. That’s because the county is home to Shell’s massive, $6 billion ethane cracker, which officially...
by Nick Messenger | May 5, 2023 | Blog Posts, Petrochemicals & Plastics, Shared Prosperity and Clean Energy
A lot has happened since ORVI originally published our post on the disastrous toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Cleanup efforts are still underway by the railroad operator, Norfolk Southern, but they have raised new questions about the safe transport of...
