Not Worth it: Fracked Gas and Petrochemical

NOT WORTH IT: The Failing Economics of Fracked Gas and Petrochemicals Ethane cracker plants—and the polluting plastics they create—are the fossil fuel industry’s latest attempt Ethane crackers are plants to lock us into a dirty extractive economy, bringing that perform the first step in extensive and expensive infrastructure that fills our air the process of transforming and water with toxic chemicals while contributing to ethane—a component of natural climate change. Ethane cracker plants do not produce gas—into ethylene, the building energy , yet their construction expands our dependence block of plastics and other on fossil fuels and slows the transition to renewables like industrial products. Much of wind and solar at a time when that sector is exploding this gas is procured through the with growth and creating good jobs along the way. process of hydraulic fracturing— aka “fracking”—of Marcellus The industry wants you to think it is a job-creating and Utica shale, and travels via moneymaker, and a boon to struggling, often rural pipeline infrastructure to communities hoping to create good jobs and improve the cracker plant. the lives of residents. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER AT THE SAME TIME: FROM THE TRUTH: • Plastics prices have fallen 40 percent • For the last two decades, energy in the last 10 years. companies have been among the largest • In the US, existing plastics buildout has issuers of junk bonds on Wall Street. already oversupplied demand—which • US oil and gas producers owe roughly $86 is likely to drive prices (and revenues billion in debt, all of which will come due for petrochemical facilities) down even between 2020 and 2024. Another $123 further in the years to come. billion in debt due over that same period • Unstable and frequently changing belongs to pipeline companies. federal and state policies, regulation, • Several oil and gas giants have already and enforcement—in areas as varied as begun to sell off assets in the Marcellus permitting and construction to pollution shale region and lay off portions of management—make investment in their workforce. petrochemical infrastructure • With fossil fuel prices in the gutter, especially risky no matter the oil and gas companies are finding current financial climate. themselves locked out of the credit market and unable to refinance, opening the door to a wave of bankruptcies. Sound like a secure industry with great long-term jobs prospects to you?

It’s not just that the industry is financially unstable, “Already heavily indebted, either—it’s dirty and dangerous, especially for those many companies are now employed in these facilities and living in the surrounding struggling to make interest communities, and drives up health care costs. payments on the debt they carry and are 昀椀nding it challenging Ethane cracker plants release numerous hazardous to raise new 昀椀nancing, which air pollutants such as: benzene (linked to cancer and has gotten more expensive childhood leukemia); toluene (linked to brain, liver, and as traditional buyers of debt kidney problems in addition to infant mortality and have vanished and risks to the birth defects); and formaldehyde (a known carcinogen). industry have grown.” New York Times, In fact, one recent analysis found that the addition of three March 2020 cracker plants in the Ohio River Valley is likely to increase health care costs by $3.6-$8.1 billion over 30 years. And remember, we’re not even talking about creating energy here, people! Much of the fracked gas extracted from across the Ohio River Valley is being used to produce plastics —not keep the lights or heat on . But economic growth and good-paying jobs are possible in communities like yours with renewable energy and the green economy. THE TRANSITION TO A CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY IS ON, AND THAT MEANS JOBS. LOTS OF THEM. GOOD AND EQUITABLE ONES, TOO. • Did you know: There are already more clean energy jobs than fossil fuel jobs, outnumbering them by about three-to-one in 2018. • The two fastest-growing jobs in the country right now are clean energy jobs. • It’s not just happening in cities, either. Rural communities have recently seen incredible growth in jobs in clean energy and (particularly!) energy efficiency. • And the pay is better too! Workers in clean energy and energy efficiency fields earn higher and more equitable wages compared to all workers nationally, with mean hourly wages often exceeding national pay averages by 8 to 19 percent. Jobs are a key feature in the shift toward a cleaner economy and a greener tomorrow. Maybe if we started to look a little differently at the choices in front of us, we’d see the best possible future doesn’t need to include pipelines or benzene pollution or methane emissions. That instead, turning away from natural gas and petrochemicals will keep our communities healthy and lead to a sustainable economic future—for the Ohio River Valley and beyond.