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Pennsylvania’s Bad Bet – Why the Shell Plant Didn’t Save Appalachia With Plastics

Date
Jan 25, 2024
Time
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Venue
Zoom
Organizer
Ohio River Valley Institute
A pair of faulty economic impact studies misled Pennsylvania policymakers and residents about the economic benefits offered by the Shell Polymers Monaca petrochemicals complex in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, according to a forthcoming report from the Ohio River Valley Institute. The studies, funded by Shell and published by Robert Morris University (RMU), were used to justify billions of dollars worth of tax incentives for the Shell project.
“For a variety of reasons, this report finds that the industry-funded RMU studies present residents of the region with an inadequate evaluation of the true economic prospects of Shell’s plant,” explained report co-author Kathy Hipple, a research fellow with the Ohio River Valley Institute. “That these studies were then used to justify billions of dollars of public subsidy already granted to the project by the Pennsylvania General Assembly Legislature over two years earlier raises serious academic and ethical concerns.”