Over a decade ago, Shell announced it would build a major petrochemical complex on the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, lured to the state by historic public incentives amid what was hailed as the coming of a new petrochemical corridor outside the Gulf Coast. At the time, local and state leaders hoped the massive facility, drawing on cheap shale gas drilled nearby to produce the feedstock for plastics, would bring economic growth and thousands of jobs to the Ohio River region in western Pennsylvania.
The corridor never materialized. Instead, Beaver County’s economy continues to fall behind, according to a new report from the Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) published Wednesday and a June report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
The failed economic legacy of the Shell Polymers Monaca plant is now influencing debate over Beaver County’s next wave of industrial development. Residents considering data center proposals are questioning whether new promises of jobs and investment are worth the potential health and environmental costs after seeing years of pollution and limited economic gains from the pledged flagship petrochemical project.
Beaver County is important because it “provides us with a clear before-and-after picture” of what happens to a place when a large petrochemical facility is built, said Eric de Place, an ORVI report co-author and Institute research fellow.
