Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Energy exec wants pols to support more gas pipelines
PHILADELPHIA >> Phil Rinaldi has called on elected officials to support a bigger pipeline system for Pennsylvania’s burgeoning energy sector to make room for growth and economic success — or see that opportunity go to Texas or Singapore.
“The only thing that stands in theway of progress is a big enough pipeline,” the chairman and CEO of Philadelphia Energy Solutions said. He intends to launch the political, social and economic pressure to get it.
Rinaldi served as one of 80 members of the Greater Philadelphia Energy Action Team, a consortium of industry, public, labor and academic leaders who crafted a 64-page report, entitled “A Pipe line for Growth: Fueling Economic Revitalization with Marcellus and Utica Shale Gas.”
The report outlines what is needed to maximize the shale potential and the economic benefits of doing so.
Initially, Rinaldi said, the focus was on getting people familiar with the shale and its potential of centuries of capacity. Then, it moved to introducing that to international markets, evident by the Norwegian tanker JS Ineos Intrepid’s ethane transport originating in Marcus Hook twoweeks ago.
However, the report— and Rinaldi — contend more is needed.
Recommendations in the findings included attracting more energy manufacturing, gas-fired electric generation and liquids processing facilities to the region.
It also suggests state officials consider incentivizing improvements to natural gas transportation and conversion to natural gas vehicle fleets as well as making the permitting process faster for pipeline construction projects.
Doing so would bode well for economic development in the Philadelphia region, Rinaldi said.
“Here you have all the things that you need,” he said. “We are already an energy hub.”
He said the proximity of East Coast oil refining aswell as access to highway transportation systems, deep water connections to the North Atlantic Ocean, the airport and rail infrastructure make the area attractive as a place to invest.
Rinaldi gave the metaphor of when electric utilities were building their infrastructure.
“The mantra there was, ‘When you’re going to build power lines, build them with additional capacity,’” he said. “What we’re trying to do is replicate that model.”
That way, he explained, when an investor comes to Pennsylvania to build a large energy-transformation facility, which generally cost $1 billion to construct, the basic infrastructure is in place
tomove thematerial to that facility once it’s built.
Otherwise, these investors will take their money elsewhere, he said.
“Ahhh, it’s easier to go to Houston,” Rinaldi said they might surmise. “If they don’t want to go to Houston, they’ll go to Singapore.”
The report also outlines what the area has to potentially lose or gain.
In a near-$1 billion large energy transformation facility, the report anticipates a one-time $890 million economic impact, including 5,320 jobs with $393 million in earnings over the period of construction. When completed, this facility would employ about 250 full-time workers and 230 correlated jobs.
An ancillary development is also expected to occur with access to shale materials through the creation of specialty petrochemical facilities.
The report estimated such facilities would cost $350 million to build, creating a one-time $247 million economic impact supporting 1,600 jobs making $118 million in earnings throughout the project build. Then, 150 full-time jobs would be sustained, as well as 140 related jobs.
One example of this is Sunoco Logistics and the Mariner East projects.
The report cited Sunoco Logistics’ $3 billion investment in constructing and repurposing existing pipelines with total statewide economic benefits of $4.2 billion during construction. The report said these projects could support between 300 and 400 permanent direct and indirect jobs while generating between $800,000 and $1.2 million in state taxes annually.
So, now, Rinaldi wants to take these findings, and the report, across the state to theMarcellus region and eventually Harrisburg, finishing with a road show throughout the state in selected areas.
“This is the absolutely only thing you have on the radar in Pennsylvania that could have an immediate major impact on the economy of the state,” Rinaldi said. “We want to make sure that message is heard by the political classes. (Through this,) you’re boosting the economy and you’re also doing it in a way that is environmentally friendly. This is really a good thing to do.”