Letters to the Editor

Cracker Plant

Dear Editor

There are only three things standing in the way of the former R.E. Burger plant site becoming the location of PPT Global’s ethane cracker plant.

They are (in order of importance) government, government, and government.

Yes the same officials who stood worthlessly by while the EPA destroyed First Energy’s electrical generation plant, the valley’s steel mills, and most heavy industry; the same officials who permit the irrational attack on the coal industry and fantasize about climate change and carbon emissions; those very same officials are now trying to collectively crowd into the frame of the next cracker plant photo op.

Here’s a news flash, “Billions of Dollars”. Here’s a question.

Will these official looters wait for the economic benefits to play out, or will they attempt to front-load the windfall and choke it to death with taxes, regulatory fees, and fines even before it even gets off the ground?

I am convinced that the project would be of most benefit to the valley if the public officials and government bureaucrats would just get out of the way. That won’t happen. You can’t have a project of this magnitude go forward without the parasites lining up to assure that huge amounts of revenue are confiscated through regulation and taxation, and then shipped out to the federal government, to the state government, and to the county seat.

When these weasels start talking about how it is going to benefit the entire state and the whole region, they are really saying that they will serve as a vehicle that grabs money in the guise of the “public good” and squanders it on government run boondoggles and waste.

Why is it that government officials cannot let businesses evolve naturally?

Why can they not be content to simply collect property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes, and the other numerous taxes that already exist?

Why is it every new business venture ends up cluttered with petty officials trying to hog the spotlight in self-glorification to squeal about how hard they have worked to bring it to fruition?

Hopefully the shale play will be rich enough to support both industrial growth and government plunder, because suicidal government plunder will always take precedent over industrial growth.

Brett Merryman

Bellaire

Editorials

Cracker Plant

EASTERN OHIO — and possibly the entire Ohio Valley — is on the threshold of a possible economic renaissance.

Almost.

Thailand-based PTT Global Chemical and Tokyo’s Marubeni Corp. will make a decison sometime in 2016 whether they will turn the former FirstEnergy R.E. Burger site in Dilles Bottom and some surrounding property into an ethane cracker.

Should they opt to proceed with the project, it will prove an economic game-changer for the area.

The announcement was made Wednesday afternoon and met with obvious jubilation throughout the Ohio Valley and much of the Buckeye State, including Gov. John Kasich.

Should the cracker plant come to fruition, it would yield countless jobs. Hundreds of employment opportunities will come in the construction phase while hundreds more will be of permanent nature once the facility goes online.

The Shadyside School District and Mead Township will be two of the biggest beneficiaries. But those benefits would stretch through the entire tri-state region. The Buckeye State would also be positively impacted.

The cracker announcement was the result of many individuals working passionately and meticulously over the course of several years. As a result, just one more hurdle remains to be cleared — that being approval by the firms that the venue is suitable for housing the desired operations.

Two cracker plants have been previously planned for our region, one in Monaca, Pa. and the other in Wood County, W. Va. Both projects remain in limbo. Such news tempers — only slightly — the Belmont County project.

A Dilles Bottom cracker plant would spawn a resurgent Ohio Valley economy.

With two crackers mired in delays, we hope the third time proves the charm.