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Western PA Residents Comment After A Year Of Shell Petrochemical Plant Operations

The following letters first appeared in the Beaver County Times in December and earlier in February. They provide some useful insights on what some people in Western Pennsylvania are thinking about how the first year of operations went for the Shell Petrochemical Plant.

Harm From Shell’s Operations Is Incalculable

By Lisa DePaoli, Heather Hulton Van-Tassel, Matthew Mehalik, Tom Torres, Veronica Coptis, outgoing members of DEP steering committee for the Shell Environmental Mitigation Community Fund, December 31, 2023--

It’s now been 13 months since Shell started churning out plastics at its sprawling, riverside petrochemicals complex.

In that time, the facility has racked up quite a track record: malodors, chemical spills and flaring episodes that lit the night sky orange; droning hums and unexplained stoppages; reports of 26 malfunctions; and, last May, a $10 million fine from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for violating state air quality regulations after exceeding 12-month emissions limits for a whole host of hazardous chemicals.

These injustices are incalculable. You can’t put a value on the distress endured at the hands of Shell - the rumbling, sleepless nights, the headaches, dizziness, and nauseating smells, the chemicals now cycling through the lungs of our friends, neighbors and children.

But if you had to, that number would catapult beyond the $10 million payment extracted from Shell as part of their consent order agreement with the state.

Half of this $10 million is intended to support projects that would benefit “the environment, health and quality of life of the community near the facility.”

A new steering committee selected by DEP, consisting of community members, environmental justice stakeholders and other local leaders, would collaborate and engage the public to decide how to allocate the funding.

This $5 million represents just 0.01% of the record $39.9 billion profit Shell reported last year.

We’re left to wonder if this is the new cost of doing business. If these settlements are to become a fact of life for communities living in the shadow of polluting infrastructure all across the Commonwealth.

For their part, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s work and support throughout the implementation of the Environmental Mitgation Fund has been above and beyond what we’ve seen from any state official in recent memory.

We are grateful for their diligence and hope that the integrity, seriousness and care they’ve drought to this process reflects a recommitment to the pursuit of environmental justice.

If so, we welcome it.

However, let us not forget that it was the department’s own failures to reign in the worst of Shell’s mistakes, to apply scrutiny commensurate with the largest financial subsidy in Pennsylvania’s history, that necessitated the creation of this Fund in the first place.

In that regard, we hope that this is not the first but the last.

Shell Polymers Monaca Is Full Of Dangerous Contradictions

By Andie Grey, Center Township, February 11, 2024--

Last week, Shell Polymers Monaca hosted a “virtual community meeting” for the first time in nearly a year.

The meeting was announced only days before with a mailer to some local residents and a post on Shell’s social media less than 48 hours before the event, providing the public with little notice and time to prepare.

Worse, this hastily scheduled virtual meeting conflicted with one of only two in-person opportunities for Beaver County residents to discuss how to spend the money extracted from Shell following their 13 air quality violations in 2022 and 2023.

This public outreach was a long time coming. Shell was forced to pay a historic $10 million fine to the state in April of 2023 but has since ignored numerous requests from the public for an in-person town ha..

Despite the company’s impact on the health and safety of the community, residents have not had the opportunity to publicly ask questions directly to Shell representatives or to voice their concerns.

Shell Polymers Monaca started operating just over a year ago but has since stumbled through continued production delays, blown past air pollution limits, and racked up more than two dozen technical malfunctions.

Despite assurances from state leaders “that Shell can operate a state-of-the-art facility,” representatives for Shell admitted that the facility won’t be fully operational until 2025 or 2026.

Shell also disclosed that the facility’s total capital cost topped $14 billion, more than twice the $6 billion estimate initially provided by the company.

Shell has even declined to answer whether they would make this investment again, simply stating that they intended to do “less of what [they] would call the mega projects.”

However, none of this was disclosed at Shell’s “virtual community meeting.”

Instead, this information was shared by Shell CEO Wael Sawan on a quarterly earnings call with investors.

Our hopes have been built up for years. Industry executives and government officials swore that petrochemical development would spur local economic growth, generate renewed business investment, and grow tens of thousands of jobs.

And economic impact studies-- funded by Shell and produced by Robert Morris University-- helped sell these claims, paving the way for billions in state tax incentives to the Shell facility.

Today, it’s clear that Pennsylvania’s investment in the Shell plant hasn’t paid off.

Far from the economic boom we were promised, federal data show that Beaver County has actually fallen behind the state and nation in nearly every measure of economic activity.

Since 2012, when the facility was first announced, Beaver has lost GDP, businesses, population, and up to 10% of its jobs.

And the studies used to justify Shell’s financial handouts? Fundamentally flawed, using cherry-picked data and skewed methodology to inflate Shell’s economic impact.

The dangerous contradictions circling Shell’s facility are crystal clear.

Shell has failed to meaningfully engage the community.

For more information on reports and violations at the facility, visit DEP’s Shell Petrochemical Plant webpage.

Related Articles - Shell Petrochemical Plant:

-- DEP: Shell Petrochemical Plant Pays Additional $2,671,044.75 In Civil Penalties For 12-Month Air Quality Violations After May 2023 Consent Order [PaEN]

-- Beaver County Residents Comment After Living With The Shell Petrochemical Plant For A Year [PaEN]

-- DEP Signs Consent Order Including $10 Million In Penalties, Local Payments With Shell Petrochemical Plant In Beaver County To Resolve Air Quality Violations; Plant To Restart May 24 [PaEN]

-- PA Taxpayers To Give $130.9 Million In Tax Credits To Subsidize Shell Petrochemical Plant In Beaver County; Total Expected To Be $1.17 Billion Thru 2042; No Regard For Environmental Compliance Record [PaEN]

PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:

-- PA Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Feb. 17 to 23 -- 7 More Abandoned Conventional Wells; Defective Casing From 2018; Mariner Pipeline Drilling Mud Breakout; Additional Shell Air Penalties; Water Supply Investigation [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices, Opportunities To Comment - February 24 [PaEN

-- DEP Posted 56 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In February 24 PA Bulletin [PaEN]