Hollow

Gas-rich Ohio is in the running for a $2 billion chemical plant

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A giant chemical plant that processes natural gas is coming to the Midwest and Ohio leaders hope the state’s newly tapped gas deposits, coupled with growing industries that use gas products, make Ohio the favored location.

Shell Chemical is finalizing plans for a $2 billion complex that is expected to create hundreds of jobs and pull other industries and manufacturers into its orbit. Shell has said only that it plans to build in either West Virginia, Pennsylvania or Ohio, three states that overlay ancient shale beds rich in natural gas.

Major cities like Cleveland are not considered contenders but they could certainly be affected. Any location will likely be rural, but not remote.

The plant needs hundreds of acres of land, according to Dan Carlson, Shell Chemical’s general manager of new business development in the Americas. Shell would also like access to railroads, river barges, a skilled workforce and university researchers, Carlson said via email.

“What we’re looking for is cost-effectiveness and ease in moving this project forward quickly,” he added.

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The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing in East Charleston, W.Va. to discuss gas production in the state’s portion of the Marcellus Shale. Donald Garvin of the West Virginia Environmental Council said that though drilling has brought a lot of money to the state, it is also contributing to the “industrialization of rural West Virginia”—turning byways into highways clogged with a near-continuous stream of drilling rigs, chemicals shipments and water tankers. State legislator Tim Manchin, a Democrat, summarized the state’s attempt to write regulations for shale gas drilling, saying that using regulations developed for traditional drilling methods are not sufficient to protect communities, the environment and infrastructure.