By all accounts the Marcus Hook refinery (near Philadelphia) is a Marcellus Shale success story. Sunoco shut it down in April, but later sold a controlling interest in the facility to the Carlyle Group (see this MDN story), retaining a one-third interest. The deal saves 850 jobs at the plant. Plans from Carlyle (under the name Energy Transfer Partners) are to use the refinery to process and market propane and ethane from western PA’s Marcellus region (see this MDN story).

But not everyone is happy about the refinery reopening. The Clean Air Council has filed an appeal with the state Dept. of Environmental Protection claiming the DEP’s decision (as part of the sale) to consider the refinery part of an existing, currently open refinery for the purposes of air pollution emissions essentially allows it to emit more emissions than if it were treated as a separate facility. The United Steelworkers union says “not so fast.” They disagree with the Clean Air Council.

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