Pennsylvania leaders debate ethane cracker pros and cons in their area

Eventually, the relative tranquility gives way to the panorama of a massive construction project: the Shell Chemical Appalachia Petrochemical Complex, taking shape on a 340-tract along the Ohio River and representing a $6 billion investment by one of the giants of the oil and gas industry, Royal Dutch Shell.

The purpose of the plant is to break up molecules of ethane — a byproduct of the tri-state region’s natural gas stream being tapped by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — into smaller molecules as a step in the creation of plastics. By industry parlance, the process involves molecules being “cracked,” hence the common reference to cracker plants.