[horseman]

By Mike Wereschagin and Bill Vidonic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, March 16, 2012

Excerpt:

Lured by natural and man-made assets and promised tens of millions of dollars in tax benefits, Houston-based oil giant Shell Oil Co. took a tentative step toward building a highly anticipated, multibillion-dollar chemical plant near Monaca.

But it'll be a while before it gets cracking.

The announcement on Thursday ended a heated, three-state competition for the ethane cracking plant and drew cheers from the region's leaders. Building the plant could require 10,000 construction jobs and a $4 billion investment to a 300-acre site in Potter and Center townships in Beaver County, plus thousands more jobs in spinoff businesses throughout the region.

"It's the first pitch in a nine-inning game," Gov. Tom Corbett said Downtown. Still, it's a big game. The plant would be "the single largest industrial development in the state's Southwest in more than a generation."

Governors of Ohio and West Virginia, who aggressively had courted Shell with tax breaks and other offers, expressed disappointment but not surprise. Ohio Gov. John Kasich said nothing he offered could overcome Shell's vast natural gas holdings in Western Pennsylvania.

Snip

Location certainly helped. Shell Chemical LP, a subsidiary of Shell Oil, signed an option agreement with Horsehead Corp. to acquire land that now is home to Horsehead's zinc smelting plant, both companies said. Horsehead, based in Crafton, announced last year that it would build a metals plant in North Carolina and close its smelter in Potter.

Interstate 376 runs from Pittsburgh International Airport, less than 20 miles away, north past the site. The property on the Ohio River is within the territory of the Port of Pittsburgh, the second-busiest inland port in the country. Rail lines surround and snake through the property, and the Conway Yard, a 4-mile-long riverfront railroad yard, lies just to the east, making a perfect mix of transportation options.


Pittsburgh Tribune Review


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Good news for southwestern Pennsylvania

[Black Helicopter]

Congrats to SW PA! (My grandfather was born in McKeesport circa 1900).

[horseman]

east dallasite, on 16 March 2012 - 08:08 AM, said:

Congrats to SW PA! (My grandfather was born in McKeesport circa 1900).

Ah McKeesport. Part of my old (occasional) patrol area.

[xtremeright]

If Obama and his EPA have their way, the red tape and regulations will kill this off.

[horseman]

xtremeright, on 16 March 2012 - 08:40 AM, said:

If Obama and his EPA have their way, the red tape and regulations will kill this off.

Heck. There's plenty of Pennsylvanians who would like to do that.