Current:Home > ScamsA New Shell Plant in Pennsylvania Will ‘Just Run and Run’ Producing the Raw Materials for Single-Use Plastics-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
A New Shell Plant in Pennsylvania Will ‘Just Run and Run’ Producing the Raw Materials for Single-Use Plastics
View Date:2025-01-11 06:48:16
Internal documents unearthed by congressional Democrats reveal an apparent moment of candor two years ago from Shell public relations executives discussing their company’s environmental responsibilities related to the massive plastics manufacturing plant they were building 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.
The multi-billion dollar Shell plant became fully operational in November after years of construction and has already been cited by state environmental regulators for exceeding its yearly limit of volatile organic compounds, which create lung-damaging smog. The plant along the Ohio River in Beaver County has the capacity to produce as much as 3.5 billion pounds of plastic pellets a year, the building blocks for such products as bags, bottles, food packaging and toys.
Among the documents made public Dec. 9 was email correspondence within the Shell communications team, where a corporate vice president acknowledged that the company had no answer to questions about its long-term responsibility for making “the raw material with which to produce 30 years of single-use plastics.”
The Shell executive’s comment came in the context of criticizing a New York Times article with a provocative headline—“Big Oil Is in Trouble. It’s Plan: Flood Africa With Plastic.” The Times report noted that oil companies were shifting to plastics production as climate change threatened fossil fuels, and revealed an effort by the American Chemistry Council, a major petrochemical lobby, to promote pro-plastics U.S. trade policies in Africa.
“Frankly, we do have questions to answer about whether we’re going to take any responsibility for where PennChem’s output ends up,” a corporate communications vice president, Rob Sherwin, wrote to another top Shell communications official, Curtis Smith, on Sept. 1, 2020. “This is one that’s gonna run and run … because we haven’t even finished building a facility that will potentially churn out the raw material with which to produce single use plastic for 30 years.”
Another Shell official in the company’s communications shop, Sally Donaldson, chimed in that this was “definitely a topic we need to be on top of.”
The development was previously referred to as the Pennsylvania Chemicals project, according to Shell’s website.
The Shell emails were among a trove of documents from oil companies including ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP made public by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, as part of an investigation into the fossil fuel industry and its role in driving climate change.
Shell officials did not respond to requests for comment.
In recent years, companies have increasingly been pressured into taking responsibility for the plastic waste they produce, or the environmental damage they cause. In 2020, for example, Shell announced it would strive to achieve net-zero carbon emissions and that it had joined a global alliance of companies working to end plastic waste.
But the global plastics problem has turned into a crisis, with oceans choked with plastic and microplastics ubiquitous, and the United Nations looking for a solution.
In western Pennsylvania, the company’s plant—fed by the ethane byproduct of fracked natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale regions—has been seen by business advocates as a potential center for a new Appalachian petrochemical hub, and by critics as a source of health-damaging pollution and a driver of climate change.
Environmental advocates in Pennsylvania described the email comments from the Shell officials as both alarming and revelatory.
“The Shell internal email appears to confirm our suspicions that we have raised about the Shell plant in Beaver County,” said Matt Mehalik, executive director of the Breathe Collaborative, a coalition of citizens, environmental advocates, health professionals and academics working to improve air quality in the Pittsburgh region.
“The Beaver plastic resins plant will produce a lot of single-use plastics over the course of 30 years,” Mehalik said. “The tone of the email suggests that even Shell employees know that this is a problem.”
The Pittsburgh region’s public image is at stake, he said. “Damaging the world for 30 years is not the story that people in our region will be proud of, but that seems to be where things are headed,” Mehalik said. Shell, he said, “should be held accountable for this responsibility.”
Terrie Baumgardner, Beaver County outreach coordinator for the Pennsylvania-based Clean Air Council, said the emails made her feel “like a time-traveling fly on the wall.
“Setting aside the plant’s health impacts, when it comes to plastics pollution, I’d like to think I hear a tiny note of against-the-grain courage and even concern in Rob Sherwin’s two sentences of candor,” Baumgardner said. “But I’m also appalled to hear him acknowledge, in this casual context, the likelihood that 30 years of single-use plastics production at the Beaver County plant is gonna ‘run and run’ with zero corporate accountability for the global scourge of waste the plant’s output will create.”
veryGood! (44)
Related
- The state that cleared the way for sports gambling now may ban ‘prop’ bets on college athletes
- Kanye West and Wife Bianca Censori Step Out Together Amid Breakup Rumors
- 106 Prime Day 2024 Beauty Products That Rarely Go on Sale: Your Ultimate Guide to Unmissable Deals
- LeBron James, Lakers look highly amused as fan is forcibly removed from arena
- Oprah Winfrey Addresses Claim She Was Paid $1 Million by Kamala Harris' Campaign
- I'm a Shopping Editor, Here's What I'm Buying From October Prime Day 2024: The 51 Best Amazon Deals
- Biden cancels trip to Germany and Angola because of hurricane
- Soccer Star Jack Grealish Welcomes First Baby With Partner Sasha Attwood
- Jared Goff stats: Lions QB throws career-high 5 INTs in SNF win over Texans
- Education Pioneer Wealth Society: Transforming Wealth Growth through AI-Enhanced Financial Education and Global Insights
Ranking
- Suspect in deadly 2023 Atlanta shooting is deemed not competent to stand trial
- Unleash Your Magic With These Gifts for Wicked Fans: Shop Exclusive Collabs at Loungefly, Walmart & More
- Florida Panthers Stanley Cup championship rings feature diamonds, rubies and a rat
- California’s largest estuary is in crisis. Is the state discriminating against those who fish there?
- AI could help scale humanitarian responses. But it could also have big downsides
- Scarlett Johansson Shares Skincare Secrets, Beauty Regrets & What She's Buying for Prime Day 2024
- Taylor Swift in Arrowhead: Singer arrives at third home game to root for Travis Kelce
- Travis Kelce's New '90s Hair at Kansas City Chiefs Game Has the Internet Divided
Recommendation
-
Chris Wallace will leave CNN 3 years after defecting from 'Fox News Sunday'
-
Saints vs. Chiefs highlights: Chiefs dominate Saints in 'Monday Night Football' matchup
-
Could Milton become a Category 6 hurricane? Is that even possible?
-
Sean “Diddy” Combs Hotline Gets 12,000 Calls in 24 Hours, Accusers' Lawyer Says
-
When is 'The Golden Bachelorette' finale? Date, time, where to watch Joan Vassos' big decision
-
Could Milton become a Category 6 hurricane? Is that even possible?
-
The Daily Money: America is hiring
-
These ages will get the biggest Social Security 2025 COLA payments next year