Shell Got $1.65 Billion Tax Break For PA Plastics Plant; 3 Years And Dozens Of Violations Later, Shell Wants To Sell It [View all]

In 2020, the Department of Energy predicted that Appalachia was “on the cusp of an energy and petrochemical renaissance” fueled by abundant shale gas. The agency saw the ethane cracker plant Shell was building outside Pittsburgh as “the first of what could be multiple facilities” in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Five years later, Shell stands alone, the only one of a fleet of proposed projects that was actually built. Now, the company would like to sell it. “The issue is it’s our only one, our only major facility” that makes this kind of plastic, Shell CEO Wael Sawan told analysts in a recent earnings call. “And that’s why we’ve said we’re not the natural owner of that asset.” He acknowledged that a deal may not happen quickly but said the company is having “discussions” about a sale or partnership.

For people in Beaver County who have watched the planning, construction and opening of the plant drag out over the past 13 years, that possibility—first suggested in a Wall Street Journal story in March about Shell “exploring a potential sale” of its American chemical facilities—was surprising. Marcellus Drilling News, a fracking industry trade publication, called the news a “shocker.” Residents wondered if this meant the facility, which began operating in Monaca just three years ago, could be shut down or its workforce laid off.

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As of July 2025, Shell had submitted 80 malfunction reports to the state Department of Environmental Protection, according to the nonprofit FracTracker Alliance. It paid $10 million in civil penalties for air quality violations in 2023. Residents living nearby have complained about light, noise and air pollution and say the plant is disruptive to their daily lives, with some people choosing to move away to escape it. The Shell plant has an anticipated lifespan of least 25 years.

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Shell’s tax breaks from the state are behind its decision to push forward with the project even as other companies walked away from the “renaissance” for economic reasons, said Anne Keller, managing director at Midstream Energy Group, an energy consultancy. Keller has worked in the energy and petrochemical industry for more than 30 years. Compared to Ohio and West Virginia, Pennsylvania “far and away shelled out more money,” she said. In 2016, then-vice president of Shell’s Appalachia Petrochemicals Division, Ate Visser, acknowledged the role the subsidies played in its decision-making. “I can tell you, hand to my heart, that without the fiscal incentives, we would not have taken this investment decision,” he said. Those incentives help to explain how Shell ended up stranded in a region that turned out not to make sense for petrochemical buildout in the current market. Keller said Pennsylvania’s gift to Shell is unprecedented in the industry. “I’ve literally never heard of anything like that. It was just stunning,” she said. “The state got dealt.”

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22082025/shell-wants-to-sell-pennsylvania-ethane-cracker-plant/