Feds Provide Money to Retrain Laid Off Refinery Workers

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

March 23, 2012 | 5:41 PM

Todd Vachon / Newsworks.org

ConocoPhillips officials say their Trainer, Pa. refinery will be demolished if no buyer is found by the end of March.org

About 1200 refinery workers in Delaware County will be looking for new jobs once the clock runs out on finding a buyer for the Philadelphia area plants. Sunoco and ConocoPhillips have idled their refineries and say that unless they find a buyer by the end of March, they’re shutting down. Buyers don’t seem to be lining up though, and Delaware County recently began a study on what to do with the site.
On Friday, the Department of Labor announced a $5 million emergency loan to help retrain and provide services to laid off workers. Delaware County officials say the money will help them establish a transition center to provide career services to refinery employees and subcontractors. The loss of the Delaware County refineries could mean more than 15,000 jobs lost in the area, in addition to the actual refinery jobs. ConocoPhillips also has plans to shut down its plant in south Philadelphia. Together, the three plants make up about half of the refinery capacity on the east coast.