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?