There were no mentions of Pennsylvania beating Texas to become the nation’s new “energy state,” but Governor Tom Corbett spent almost four minutes talking energy in Tuesday’s 2013 budget address. Corbett praised the job-creation of Pennsylvania’s burgeoning energy sector, saying it resulted in “hundreds of thousands of new jobs.” But what Corbett didn’t talk about, [...]
Should two refineries be considered one? That’s the question raised by a lawsuit filed last week by the Clean Air Council against the state Department of Environmental Protection. The case has to do with a couple of refineries in southeast Pennsylvania, one in Philadelphia and the other near the Delaware border in Marcus Hook. The [...]
Last week Gov. Tom Corbett demurred on answering questions about the fate of Sunoco’s Marcus Hook plant in Delaware County. “I wouldn’t want to scoop myself,” he told reporters. But now we know that plans are in the works to revive the shuttered facility with the flow of Marcellus Shale natural gas from the western [...]
Natural gas industry professionals and their critics will be crossing paths in downtown Philadelphia Thursday and Friday. But don’t expect the two groups to engage in a detente. Two thousand people are expected to attend the second annual Shale Gas Insight 2012 conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, generating more than $5 million in economic [...]
The Inquirer examines how Sunoco has tweaked plans for its new Pennsylvania pipeline project, to adjust to the new “wet gas”-focused natural gas market: The Mariner East project, which calls for repurposing an existing Sunoco pipeline that crosses Pennsylvania, was originally conceived in 2010 as a way to find markets for Marcellus ethane by sending [...]
Between the rebirth of Philadelphia’s Sunoco refinery, a moratorium on drilling in Bucks and Montgomery County and the passage of a multi-million dollar ethane production credit aimed at Royal Dutch Shell, it’s been an interesting month for Pennsylvania’s energy economy. WHYY’s Radio Times covered those issues and more on this morning’s show. Listen here.
The Sunoco refinery in southwest Philadelphia, scheduled to shut down in August, will now be used to refine domestic oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale. The plan also calls for the use of natural gas to power a hydrocracker, which is used to turn crude oil into usable products such as gasoline. The plan was [...]
The Sunoco refinery in Marcus Hook, near Pennsylvania’s border with Delaware, could be revived as a natural gas processing plant. That’s the conclusion of a 127-page report released Wednesday by the energy analysis firm IHS. Delaware County officials commissioned the study, which details seven reuse options for the 781-acre site on the banks of the [...]
Coming Up This Week: EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Heads to Congress – The House Committee on Science will hold a hearing this Thursday, June 28, to look at “strengthening the scientific backbone of the EPA.” Expect questions for Jackson about how her regulatory agency kills jobs. Tour de Frack, or “Freedom Ride for Awareness and Community [...]
Philadelphia’s refineries aren’t the only ones suffering from high crude prices and lower demand. Imperial Oil, a Canadian company, just put its 95-year-old refinery in Nova Scotia up for sale. The reasons for refinery closures can be complex, and range from lack of efficiencies to the price of raw crude. NPR’s Jeff Brady explained the Philadelphia [...]
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