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Big Green Radicals Suing Shell for “Air Pollution” from PA Cracker

Yesterday two radicalized Big Green groups–the Environmental Integrity Project (based in D.C.) and the Clean Air Council (based in Philadelphia)–filed a notice of intent to sue the Shell Polymers Monaca ethane cracker plant near Pittsburgh. The notice, as well as the coming lawsuit, has all the hallmarks of being planned long ago, perhaps years ago, before the cracker plant even came online. The false claim in the notice and coming lawsuit is that the cracker plant is “repeatedly” violating air pollution limits.
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Shell Cracker Still Working Through Problems During Break-In Period

It hasn’t been a problem-free startup for the mighty Shell ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County), PA, now called the Shell Polymers Monaca facility. We’ve noted some of the more prominent issues as we’ve spotted them in the news. Things like the plant exceeding allowed air emissions (see PA DEP Issues Violation to Shell Cracker for Exceeding Air Emissions) and flaring at the plant causing the sky to turn orange at night (see Shell Cracker Plant has Flaring Episode – Skyline Turns Orange). Little did we know, but there were over 40 “malfunctions” last year that Shell was required to report to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). What we also didn’t know is that 40 such episodes during startup are typical for a big plant like the Shell Polymers Monaca.
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Revolution Cryogenic Plant Partially Restarts Following Explosion

Residents living in the vicinity of Energy Transfer’s Revolution Pipeline cryogenic plant in Bulger (Washington County), PA, got a nasty “present” on Christmas morning. Around 7:30 am, residents report hearing an explosion, followed by a fire, at the plant used to separate NGLs (natural gas liquids, including ethane, propane, and butane) from the raw gas stream that flows through the Revolution gathering pipeline (see ET Revolution Cryogenic Processing Plant Explodes in PA on Xmas). The good news is that the plant has resumed “partial operations.”
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Shell Cracker Plant has Flaring Episode – Skyline Turns Orange

Credit: Bob Schmetzer/Eyes on Shell

The Shell ethane cracker plant near Pittsburgh (now called Shell Polymers Monaca) had an orange glow over it Monday night. The neighbors were not impressed. According to Shell, there was an issue with the steam generator that caused the operators to initiate ground flaring–the burning of hydrocarbons. The flares relieve pressure by burning off hydrocarbons flowing through a malfunctioning piece of equipment. Shell insisted the flare itself is not a malfunction but instead “a safety device.” Kind of distinction without a difference, no?
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Leftist Groups Present List of Demands to Shell re PA Cracker Plant

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Wacko leftists, who are driven nearly to insanity because the mighty Shell ethane cracker actually began full operations last week, are still agitating to close it down. They are self-deluded. More than a dozen local and national radicalized environmental groups launched a “to-do list” campaign to “force” Shell to address what the activists say are critical issues surrounding the opening of the cracker plant in Beaver County, PA. The effort is being led by one of the worst of the worst lefty groups: Earthworks.
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Shell Officials Optimistic Cracker Plant Will Attract New Business

Earlier this week, Shell announced its mighty ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA (near Pittsburgh) is finally, ten years after first announcing, fully operational and producing plastic pellets (see Shell Officially Launches Pa. Cracker Plant Using M-U Ethane). Part of the raison d’etre for granting the plant a $1.7 billion break on taxes for 25 years is to lure manufacturers (and investments, and jobs) to locate nearby, in PA (see Gov. Corbett’s PR Campaign for $1.7B Cracker Plant Tax Break). So far, frankly, that hasn’t happened. At least not in a big way. But don’t worry, says Shell execs. They are “optimistic” the region will attract new manufacturing plants that want to use Shell’s plastic pellets.
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Shell Officially Launches Pa. Cracker Plant Using M-U Ethane

polyethylene pellets

It’s been a looooong time coming. We’ve waited for this day for more than ten years. In March 2012, MDN told you that Shell had announced selecting a site in Pennsylvania as the future location for an ethane cracker plant (see Shell Announces Location of Ethane Cracker Plant). Ethane crackers use ethane (doh!) as their feedstock to “crack” the ethane and create plastic pellets that are then used by manufacturers to make pretty much everything you touch and use every day. Ethane is one of the NGLs (natural gas liquids) that comes out of the ground along with natural gas (methane) and other NGLs like propane and butane. We have huge amounts of ethane in the Marcellus/Utica. New markets, like the Shell cracker, equal bigger profits for M-U drillers.
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PA DEP Pledges to Keep a Close Eye on Shell Cracker Air Quality

Anti-fossil fuelers continue to pressure the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (and Pennsylvania itself) over the grievous sin of approving the Shell ethane cracker plant project (see Shell Receives Air Quality Permit from PA DEP for Cracker Plant). With the cracker plant now in startup mode, antis want to know, “Who monitors Shell’s cracker plant — and how?” The partisan leftists of so-called PublicSource hit the DEP with that very question. The DEP said that while Shell itself must conduct constant (daily) monitoring of air quality using independent, third-party equipment (sending the data to the DEP), the DEP will also conduct its own regular on-site inspections and testing as well.
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Enviro Hypocrites Gather Online to Prepare for Shell Cracker Launch

Some 225 hypocritical nutters were whipped into a frenzy by Big Green and its so-called Beyond Plastics campaign during a Zoom call Tuesday night to “prepare” for the startup of Shell’s mighty ethane cracker plant in Monaca, PA. It was really quite hilarious. There was talk of nurdle patrols, “sacrifice zones,” and celebrations over defeating Joe Manchin’s permitting reform bill. Why hypocritical? Because every single person on the call was using a computer or phone made out of (wait for it)….plastics. The clothes on their bodies and shoes on their feet are made largely from plastics. The cars and boats and paraphernalia they use to hunt down evidence of environmental plastics pollution from the cracker plant–all made from plastics. We wonder, Do they know how stupid they look?
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Shocker: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Tells Mike Bloomberg to “Butt Out”

Butt Out, Mr. Bloomberg!

Every now and again, the editorial board at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a far-left-leaning newspaper, surprises us. Yesterday’s editorial is one such day. We brought you the news yesterday that the uber-arrogant billionaire Mike Bloomberg is spending $85 million to try and shut down or block petrochemical plants like the Shell ethane cracker in the Pittsburgh region (see Mike Bloomberg Spends $85M to Stop Petchem Plants in M-U, Gulf Coast). Bloomberg’s efforts don’t sit well with the Post-Gazette editors, who are telling Bloomberg to “butt out” of interfering with petrochemicals in the Ohio Valley.
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Mike Bloomberg Spends $85M to Stop Petchem Plants in M-U, Gulf Coast

Mike Bloomberg

It is a breathtaking abuse of power. Michael Bloomberg, the far-left billionaire who ran out of things to do and now looks for meaning in his life by hiring lawyers to attack the fossil energy industry, is spending $85 million to fund green groups in their efforts to block new petrochemical plants in both the Marcellus/Utica and along the Gulf Coast.
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Shell Cracker Compressor Problem Causes Shut Down, Billowing Smoke

Credit: Becky Beall

The mighty Shell ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA, is now complete and gradually coming up to full operation–although it isn’t officially producing plastic pellets yet. The Shell cracker plant experienced a problem with a process compressor last Sunday that forced a shutdown and billowing smoke for about 20 minutes. In a statement posted to (of all places) Facebook, Shell said, “Operations are stable and we’re working to determine the cause of the interruption.”
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Antero Buying Crestwood’s WV Marcellus Gathering Pipeline System

Yesterday both Antero Midstream (the pipeline subsidiary of Antero Resources), and Crestwood Equity Partners announced a deal to sell Crestwood’s remaining Marcellus assets to Antero for $205 million. The assets include 72 miles of dry gas gathering pipelines and nine compressor stations with approximately 700 MMcf/d of compression capacity located in Doddridge County and Harrison County in West Virginia.
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Shell PA Cracker Neighbors Ask About Orange Glow and White Foam

The mighty Shell ethane cracker complex in Monaca (Beaver County), PA, is due to come online any day now. In fact, with such a large and complex facility, it is already “coming online” gradually and has been since August (see Shell CEO Says PA Cracker Now Done, Gradually Coming Online). The truly momentous event will be when the first plastic pellets come out of the plant. Shell held a virtual meeting Wednesday evening to field questions from the community as the day draws near when the plant is fully operational. One of the questions came from neighbors observing an orange glow hovering over the plant. Another question was about “white foam” floating near the facility on the Ohio River.
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Shell CEO Says PA Cracker Now Done, Gradually Coming Online

In June, a Shell executive told the Appalachian Energy Innovation Collaborative conference that the company’s Pennsylvania ethane cracker project was 98% done and would be fully online within “a couple of months” (see Shell Exec Says Ethane Cracker 98% Done, Online “Couple of Months”). He was right. During a recent conference call with analysts about second quarter performance, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said, “we’re done building it” (referring to the ethane cracker), and that “we will indeed start bringing production on gradually” over the summer. Hot dang! We’re deep into summer right now.
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OGCI Invests in PA KeyState Natural Gas/CCUS Project

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Earlier this week the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) Climate Investments fund announced it is investing in the KeyState Natural Gas Synthesis project in Clinton County, PA. KeyState is developing the first carbon capture project in Pennsylvania, which will locally produce hydrogen, ammonia and urea. The $400-$500 million project will drill for the natural gas, transport and process it, and manufacture the end products–all within a self-contained, closed loop, nearly eliminating emissions by capturing and sequestering the carbon underground in the process.
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