Tag Archives: climate-change

Environment, Fracking, Marcellus Shale
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Photo: Shell Polymers Monaca sprawls along the Ohio River in Monaca on April 7, 2026. (Photo by Quinn Glabicki/Pittsburgh’s Public Source)

PA. Fines Shell $15 Million For Air Pollution From Its Beaver County Plastics Plant

The plant has routinely exceeded allowable limits on nitrogen oxide, benzene and other pollutants, according to a consent decree signed Friday.

By Reid Frazier
PublicSource.org

September 8, 2026 – The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has fined Shell $15 million for air quality violations at its Monaca, Pa. plastics plant.

The agency says between 2023 and August 2026, Shell’s plant, called an ethane cracker, exceeded limits on visible emissions set by its state-issued air permit on more than two dozen occasions.

According to a consent agreement signed by the company Friday, the plant also went over the allowable limit for benzene, a carcinogen, and it failed to perform testing required by the state.

The DEP found that the plant is currently exceeding the amount of nitrogen oxides, a precursor to smog, a lung irritant, allowed in its permit. The company said the plant is exceeding its limits because it needs to add more fuel to its flares to meet new federal air pollution standards. The company is applying for a new permit that would increase the amount of nitrogen oxides it can emit.

Half of the $15 million in penalties will go toward a Beaver County Environment and Community Fund, which will support “projects that benefit the environment, health, natural resources, public safety and small businesses in Beaver County,” the DEP said in a statement.

“DEP is continuing to hold Shell accountable for air quality violations and continuing to secure resources to improve the neighboring communities,” said DEP Secretary Jessica Shirley, in the statement.

The Shell plant makes plastics out of the region’s natural gas, and was built with help from a $1.65 billion state tax credit, the largest in Pennsylvania’s history.

In 2023, the state fined the company $10 million for air quality violations related to its startup.

In addition to the latest fine, the company also agreed to make improvements to reduce pollution in the future.

“We have finalized an agreement that addresses environmental compliance matters and includes funding that will benefit Beaver County residents,” said a Shell spokesperson, in a statement. “We remain committed to operating responsibly and being a good neighbor in the community.”

Environmental groups said the latest fine was insignificant for a company of Shell’s size, which recorded a $9.8 billion quarterly profit in June, its second highest ever, thanks largely to high gasoline prices caused by the Iran War.

“No amount of money can undo harm to someone’s health, and for a company of this size, accountability has to mean more than writing a check,” said Hilary Flint, of the Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community.

“This agreement exists because Beaver County residents spent years paying attention, documenting problems, reporting what they were experiencing, and refusing to let violations become business as usual.”

Reid R. Frazier covers energy for The Allegheny Front.

elections, Environment, Fracking, Marcellus Shale, West Virginia

In Appalachia, Fracking Is Not The Job Creator The Industry Claims

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Oil and gas production isn’t translating to more jobs for residents of heavily fracked communities, new research shows.

By Kathiann M. Kowalski

Canary Media

Aug 14, 2025 – As the Trump administration aims to bolster fossil fuels at the expense of clean energy expansion, new research shows the oil and gas sector has so far failed to become a major jobs creator for heavily fracked areas of northern Appalachia.

“To the degree that we allocate resources to help develop that industry, we’re diverting those resources from other industries that actually could deliver” more jobs and higher per-capita incomes, said Sean O’Leary, author of the recent report from the Ohio River Valley Institute.

The report uses the term ​“Frackalachia” to describe 30 top oil- and gas-producing counties in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. As a group, the counties have smaller populations and a net loss in the number of jobs compared to 2008, just before Appalachia’s shale-gas boom began.

The counties’ growth in per-capita income also has lagged behind the national average, even as their nominal gross domestic product nearly doubled, increasing their share of the country’s GDP by 6%. Basically, comparatively high economic output from the counties did not produce higher-than-average incomes for their residents.

“Despite immense economic growth as measured by GDP, Frackalachia is in a position of actually having lost jobs since the beginning of the natural-gas boom,” O’Leary said. In his view, the numbers contradict pro-industry pitches for more oil and gas development.

“Whatever else it is, the natural-gas boom is not an engine for economic prosperity,” O’Leary said. He thinks the gas industry is ​“structurally incapable” of delivering lasting growth in jobs and income for the people living in heavily fracked areas. The Frackalachia counties have also seen relatively few jobs from ​“downstream” industries, such as the production of plastics, he added.

Oil and gas development is ​“highly capital-intensive, but not very labor-intensive,” O’Leary explained. Most earnings go to shareholders, investors, and suppliers based far from where fossil fuels are extracted, so only a small share of project income stays in the community to stimulate more economic activity.

Completed wells don’t need many permanent employees, O’Leary said. And many people who work in drilling and fracking come from outside the local area.

Canary Media’s review of data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is consistent with that observation. From 2012 through 2022, the agency issued annual reports about the economic impact of the state’s oil and gas industry, including data for both ​“core” jobs and ​“ancillary” industries, which support oil and gas development.

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climate, Economy, elections, Environment, Green Energy, Green Jobs, Infrastructure

Pittsburgh Could Be A Green Energy Hub. But Does It Have The Workers?

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Photo: High voltage electrical equipment at the University of Pittsburgh’s GRID Institute at the Energy Innovation Center in Pittsburgh’s Hill District on Feb. 10. (Photo by Quinn Glabicki/PublicSource)

As research and investment flow to the region, Pittsburgh strives to develop a workforce to build the green energy future.

By Quinn Glabicki and Alice Crow
PublicSource

February 24, 2025 -Brandon Grainger stood beneath a towering, 13,800-volt webwork of power lines and transformers constructed inside a laboratory at the Energy Innovation Center in the Hill District, home to the University of Pittsburgh’s GRID Institute. Solar panels layer the sawtooth roof and a prototype wind turbine spins high above the parking lot. Both provide energy to the lab, and a research opportunity for those seeking to understand how to best integrate renewable energy.

As power demands increase from booming tech and AI development, the GRID Institute studies how to efficiently get electricity where it’s needed, and Grainger and other professors prepare students to eventually work in advanced industry.

But concerns persist, and a question remains: Do we have enough labor — from doctoral candidates to electricians — to meet the demands of the future?

“Well, the answer is no,” said Granger, an associate professor of electrical engineering. His graduate students, mostly electrical engineers, are being hired nearly eight months before they graduate, he said, and undergraduates, too, are being scooped up by industry well before they leave campus.

Industrial electrical equipment with interconnected metal structures and cylindrical components in a facility.

Southwestern Pennsylvania has the industrial capacity and hard-working heritage to be a bedrock of green energy manufacturing and development at a time when climate-friendly projects awaiting connection to the grid could go a long way toward addressing energy supply challenges.

Research and investment is already flowing to the region, but as green energy development accelerates, the local stock of legacy labor might not match the demand for workers, potentially posing a serious risk to the sector’s development amid quality control issues and delays. At the same time, local efforts are striving to train and graduate new workers to help meet the need. (Next page)

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