To crack or not to crack: Peduto fires salvo in regional climate change battle
After Mayor Bill Peduto declared his strong opposition to additional petrochemical facilities like the Royal Dutch Shell ethane cracking plant in Potter, Beaver County, the reaction was swift. He was lauded for displaying climate change courage, lambasted for perceived insults to workers and criticized by political ally Rich Fitzgerald, among others.
At the Climate Action Summit in Pittsburgh Oct. 30, Mr. Peduto decried tying the region’s economic future to shale gas development, and he also was critical of the area’s industrial culture for failing to aggressively combat climate change.
While Mr. Peduto’s comments were greeted by cheers at the summit and from environmental organizations, the anguished reaction from some of the region’s political and business leaders made it clear that the old jobs-versus-environment debate has ramped up in the face of scientific predictions of climate catastrophes and the potent but fragile economics of the region’s shale gas operations.
Industry, labor, county economic development organizations, the state Chamber of Commerce and elected officials lamented that such negative talk could cost jobs in the petrochemical, shale gas, engineering, legal, geology, hotel-motel and restaurant industries.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, a longtime proponent of natural gas development, was critical of his fellow Democrat and frequent political cohort for his opposition to additional petrochemical development.
In an Oct. 31 interview on KDKA radio, Mr. Fitzgerald said
the Shell cracker facility, which will turn the region’s shale ethane gas into plastic pellets used to make a variety of plastic products, has created $7 billion of wealth to the region, along with full employment in the building trades. He added that an abundance of shale gas has resulted in a 70% reduction in home heating costs at an average annual savings of $1,200 per household.
“We’re at the beginning of how to capitalize on this,” Mr. Fitzgerald said, while also voicing support for additional cracker plants.
He said the city shouldn’t be telling people in Greene, Washington, Beaver and Butler counties “how to live,” but allowed that he wouldn’t support a cracker plant in Lawrenceville.
And in a phone interview Monday, he couldn’t say whether he’d support construction of a cracker plant in Allegheny County and took a more moderate view of such developments.
“I don’t think that would happen. I’d have to look at that on a case-by-case basis, but it’s not in the cards,” Mr. Fitzgerald said, noting that the proposals he’s heard for new cracker plants are down the Ohio River in West Virginia and Ohio.
He said he’s had productive talks with Mr. Peduto in the days since the Climate Summit about sustainability, economic growth and climate change and looks forward to further discussions.
Stefani Pashman, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development’s chief executive officer, said the organization was disturbed by the mayor’s remarks concerning development of additional petrochemical facilities and his questioning of business’ commitment to sustainability.
Ms. Pashman said Mr. Peduto creates a “false choice” by rejecting continued petrochemical industry development that contributes to a strong economy that improves the region’s quality of life.
“The mayor’s comments will discourage not only investment by the petrochemical industry but by all industries, with implications for communities, workers and opportunity across our 10county region,” she said.
The Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce said Mr. Peduto’s comments were misinformed and misguided, and the AlleghenyFayette Central Labor Council said they were an “insult” to union workers and their way of life.
But environmental groups were quick to praise Mr. Peduto for taking the strong stand they’d been urging for some time.
Mr. Peduto, in a phone interview Friday, said he was surprised by the response from both the environmentalists, who should have known he opposed the petrochemical buildout because of his long history of pro-environmental positions, and business, which launched strong attacks rather than engaging in a discussion.
“We are entering a critical phase of what Pittsburgh will be and the industry is talking about construction of as many as seven cracker plants in the Ohio Valley without taking into account the public health impacts or the impacts on the new economy we’ve been building for the last 30 years,” Mr. Peduto said. “That’s not good business, that’s a city for sale.”
He said he differs with Mr. Fitzgerald on many issues, but sat down with him Monday to chart a path forward.
Because they hold strong and opposite positions on the issue, they’ve asked for help from Leo Gerard, retired international president of the United Steelworkers Union and co-chair of the BlueGreen Alliance, an organization of labor unions and environmental organizations that rejects the jobsversus-environment choice.
“We need an independent monitor to have the discussion on the petrochemical buildout we should have had five years ago, and look at the critical need to define what the Pittsburgh economy will be based on for the next 10 years.” Mr. Peduto said. “Fifty percent of the people living in 10 southwestern Pennsylvania counties live in Allegheny County and Pittsburgh is the economic heart of the county. Both need to have critical voices in the buildout of the industry.”
He said clean air is critical to the city’s “ed, med and tech” community, and building more petrochemical facilities will “come at a cost.”
Mr. Peduto’s opposition to more petrochemical plants was also echoed by other speakers at the October climate summit who warned of dire environmental, health, societal and economic consequences if human-caused climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions are not eliminated within the next 50 years.
Mathew Mehalik, executive director of the Breathe Project, a coalition of more than three dozen nonprofit organizations, said in a release that the Shell cracker facility moves the region into a collision course with the “ever accelerating climate crisis.”
He said the Shell facility will emit more than 2.2 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, according to state Department of Environmental Protection documents, the equivalent of emissions from 424,000 vehicles driven for a year.
“This is a stunning amount of additional CO2 exactly at the time when carbon emissions need to be going down to meet goals set by the United Nations and the Paris Climate Accord,” Mr. Mehalik said.
He said the economic benefits from construction jobs at the Shell cracker and two other facilities under consideration in Ohio and West Virginia will be more than offset by health care costs of from $3.6 billion to $8.1 billion over 30 years for residents of the region.
“Mayor Peduto’s statement makes it clear that our future needs to be staked on businesses and technologies that will continue to succeed farther into the future, provide jobs and meet society’s needs for the long-term,” Mr. Mehalik said, adding that the Shell plant will only employee 400 to 600 full-time.
“This industry will drive away investment from the types of jobs we want, jobs that do not require sacrificing the lives of the workers and the community,” he said. “Our region has a long history of learning this lesson. We do not want to go back down that path.”
As the fallout continued into its second week, economic development organizations from nine Western Pennsylvania counties issued a statement Thursday supporting continued development of the shale gas and petrochemical industries in the region, but also noting that new and innovative renewable energy sources must be developed.
“[We] see no reason why we cannot support both,” the development organizations said, “with one eye on our present and the other on our future.”
Grant Oliphant, president of The Heinz Endowments, which hosted the summit along with p4Pittsburgh and Sustainable Pittsburgh, said in a speech opening the summit that there were real and hard choices to be made to effectively respond to climate change. He said many in the region are concerned about climate change but still believe there’s time to benefit economically from the shale gas boom.
“They want to have it both ways,” he said. “But we should not accept the notion that we can have our petroplastic cake and eat it too.”