Four “fenceline” air monitors that continuously (24/7/365) sample the air looking for volatile organic compounds from the mighty Shell ethane cracker facility in Beaver County, PA, went live in February. The Continuous Air Monitoring System (CAMS) data is available on the Shell website, showing data in 15-minute increments for the entire day.
Read More “Final Piece of Shell Cracker Air Monitoring System Now Online”
New shale permits issued for Feb. 20-26 in the Marcellus/Utica slide lower last week. There were 29 new permits issued in total last week (down from 35 the week before), including 24 new permits for Pennsylvania, no new permits for Ohio, and five new permits issued in West Virginia. Last week the top receiver of new permits by far was the largest natural gas driller in the country, EQT Corporation, with 20 new permits split between Greene and Washington counties in southwestern PA.
Read More “29 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Feb 20-26”
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a Notice of Violation (NOV) early last week to the Shell ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County), PA, now called the Shell Polymers Monaca facility, for the third time since it officially began operation last November. In a letter dated Feb. 13 (copy below), the DEP stated the facility violated rolling 12-month emission standards in both November and December. Shell faces fines of $25,000 per day for each day the facility exceeds emissions limits. In light of this most recent NOV, two anti-fossil energy groups have asked the DEP to immediately shut down the facility to stop extra air pollution in the region.
Read More “PA DEP Hits Shell Cracker with Emissions NOV, Antis Seek Shutdown”
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). There’s a good chance the sky was orange again last night.
Read More “Shell Cracker Plant Forced to Flare Again Following “Malfunction””
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.
Read More “Big Green Radicals Suing Shell for “Air Pollution” from PA Cracker”
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.
Read More “Shell Cracker Still Working Through Problems During Break-In Period”
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a notice of violation (NOV) to Shell Chemicals Appalachia, LLC (Shell) for exceeding its rolling 12-month total emission limits of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which happened during the commissioning of its cracker plant facility in Beaver County. Shell is limited by state permits to 516.2 tons of total emissions of VOCs over a rolling 12-month period. It had 521.6 tons by the end of September and 662.9 tons of VOCs by the end of October. The emissions are associated with the initial startup of the facility and (hopefully) won’t happen again.
Read More “PA DEP Issues Violation to Shell Cracker for Exceeding Air Emissions”
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?
Read More “Shell Cracker Plant has Flaring Episode – Skyline Turns Orange”
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.
Read More “Leftist Groups Present List of Demands to Shell re PA Cracker Plant”
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.
Read More “Shell Officials Optimistic Cracker Plant Will Attract New Business”
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.
Read More “Shell Officially Launches Pa. Cracker Plant Using M-U Ethane”
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.
Read More “PA DEP Pledges to Keep a Close Eye on Shell Cracker Air Quality”
Another weak and pathetic number of new shale drilling permits were issued for the week of Oct. 17-23 in the Marcellus/Utica. Pennsylvania had only 10 new permits, with six of them going to Range Resources in Beaver County. Ohio had just one new permit, for Southwestern Energy in Monroe County. And West Virginia had a big, fat, goose egg. No new permits. Bummer.
Read More “11 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Oct 17-23”
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has assessed a $670,000 fine plus extra “cost recovery” charges of nearly $30,000 against the Shell Pipeline Company for work done between 2019 and 2021 on Shell’s Falcon ethane pipeline project. The DEP says that a series of inspections showed “failure to comply” with this paperwork requirement and that paperwork requirement. There were a few instances of erosion into “waters of the commonwealth.” But in the end, the DEP acknowledges, “no visual aquatic impacts were observed.” No muddy water. No dead fishies. No dead salamanders. No dead nothing. In other words, the DEP fined Shell for nothing–no lasting impacts on the environment from the work done to construct the Falcon pipeline.
Read More “PA DEP Slaps Shell with $700K Fine re Building Falcon Ethane Pipe”
Last week the three states with active Marcellus/Utica drilling, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, issued a collective 30 new drilling permits, up from the 21 permits issued the week before. It was a reversal of what we typically see. Last week PA only issued four new permits, while WV issued 17 permits and OH issued nine permits. Usually, PA issues the most permits.
Read More “30 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Sep 19-25”
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.”
Read More “Shell Cracker Compressor Problem Causes Shut Down, Billowing Smoke”