Behind The Scenes, Corbett Worked Hard On Ethane Cracker Bid

• Scott Detrow
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  Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.
  
  Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.
  
  Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

Shell’s decision to pick a Beaver County site as the location for a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker can be viewed as a validation of Governor Tom Corbett’s low-profile, behind-the-scenes, prosecutorial style of governing.
While Ohio and West Virginia’s cracker bids were constantly in the news over the past few months, the Corbett Administration stayed mum on its efforts. At a press conference earlier this week, Corbett refused to tell reporters whether or not he had even discussed the issue with Shell executives.
Listen to StateImpact Pennsylvania’s Morning Edition report on the cracker announcement here.

West Virginia’s legislature passed a major tax break aimed squarely at wooing Shell. Pennsylvania passed its own tax bill – expanding Keystone Opportunity Zone breaks from ten to fifteen years – but Corbett never publicly tied the legislation to Pennsylvania’s cracker bid.
As far as the public was concerned, Pennsylvania was standing pat while its neighbors did everything they could to win Shell’s favor.
Behind the scenes, though, the Corbett Administration was working hard to land the plant. Corbett met with Shell executives “four or five” times, including, the Post-Gazette reports, a secret behind-the-scenes tour of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ locker room.

“Everybody was able to keep their mouths shut and not spill the beans along the way,” said state Sen. Elder Vogel, a New Sewickley Republican whose district includes Shell’s chosen location. He said he didn’t learn of the final decision until mid-morning Thursday.
That public poker face masked an administration that privately was aggressive in its pursuit, perhaps no one more so than the governor himself. “Ever since it was first announced we have been on top of this,” he said Thursday.
…Those involved in crafting the shale fee bill say there was an urgency among administration officials as 2011 was coming to a close. Shell had announced that they planned to select a site by the end of the year, though that deadline later was revised, instead aiming for a first-quarter 2012 announcement.
…The governor also became increasingly focused on the [Keystone Opportunity Zone] bill in January, beginning his phone calls with top legislators by asking about its status, according to a staffer involved with that measure. The bill, originally introduced as a general economic development proposal rather than one aimed at luring an ethane cracker, offers up to 15 years of tax breaks for businesses that invest at least $1 billion.

The results, in this particular case, “certainly” validate Corbett’s mum’s-the-word style, said political scientist Terry Madonna of Franklin and Marshall College, even though the political class remains confused by the approach to governing. “We’ve been dealing with politicians who are giddy about what they do. [Former Democratic Governor Ed] Rendell couldn’t wait to tell you everything. Ridge was not as open, but he would certainly hold press availabilities and interviews.”
Corbett, on the other hand, forced the press to report the initial details of his biggest economic victory to-date though anonymous sources and blind quotes.
If Pennsylvania had lost, of course, Corbett would have been slammed for inaction, Though Madonna said, “He’s not going to change his style…just because there may be a perception that he didn’t do something.”

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