Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is pushing a proposal that would give Shell Oil and other companies more than $1.65 billion in tax credits to build plants in the state to process natural gas by-products into plastics.
Shell Oil apparently will have one facility, a so-called ethane cracker plant, ready to go in the southwestern part of the state by 2017, according to the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Construction of the facility is expected to put about 10,000 people to work, and once built the petrochemical plant will employ a full-time workforce of several hundred to process natural gas liquids into plastics and other materials, the Post-Gazette reported.
The newspaper said Corbett, whose proposal is part of larger bill to be introduced in the state Senate next week, hopes to attract other companies to build ethane facilities as well by making the tax credits available over the next 25 years.
Steve Kratz, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, described the GOP governor’s tax incentive plan as “part of a push to develop natural gas uses in the commonwealth.”
“If we passively sit and hope the market develops, we could have our natural resources piped out of state,” he said.
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.