State Sen. Bartolotta presses legislators to help site energy storage hub in Appalachian region

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State Sen. Camera Bartolotta (R-PA) wants the Keystone State to become known not just as one of the nation’s original 13 colonies where precious founding documents are stored in historic Philadelphia, but also for storing critical American energy resources.

“We have natural resources underfoot here that could change the lives of everyone in the country,” Sen. Bartolotta told Pennsylvania Business Report during an Aug. 13 interview. “We could become the energy capital of the whole country — we definitely already are the energy capital of the East Coast — and the potential is here to change energy drastically.”

Toward that goal, Bartolotta and Pennsylvania State Rep. Jim Christiana (R-PA) in June filed bipartisan, bicameral resolutions
(SR 375/HR 952) that urge members of the U.S. Congress to fast track the approval of three proposed federal bills.

Such federal-level action then would set the stage for an ethane storage hub to be constructed in the Appalachian region, said Bartolotta, who represents Pennsylvania’s southwestern 46th district. The hub would constitute a major infrastructure investment in underground storage caverns and pipelines, as well as a jobs program for residents throughout the region, which consists of her home state, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia.

The Appalachian region contains ample supplies of natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs), which are both major U.S. energy contributors. NGLs are also the primary feedstock of the chemical industry, according to the state senate resolution.

“Former mill towns that used to rely on fuel or coal are hanging on by their fingernails,” the senator said. “If we address this issue and encourage this hub, it could bring back communities, good paying jobs, keep younger people here, keep families together, and turn the state from being the nation’s booming steel industry location to its petrochemicals and energy powerhouse.”

The hub specifically would be used to store and distribute ethane feedstock to petrochemical facilities, which use supplies in numerous products that Americans touch every day, Bartolotta said, including automobiles, televisions, phones, clothing, and more. “Almost everything has its source in some way to chemicals brought from the earth,” she added.

Currently, a $6-billion facility is being built by Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC in Beaver County, Penn., where plans are to use ethane from the region’s available Marcellus Shale and process it into ethylene and then polyethylene pellets for the plastics industry, according to Abby Foster, president of the Pennsylvania Chemical Industry Council (PCIC).

Bartolotta agrees with the PCIC that the development of ethane storage facilities could ramp up additional investments by chemical and plastics companies, in turn spurring supply chain growth that would reinforce their growing markets in Pennsylvania.

Already the state’s chemical industry supports nearly 80,000 direct and indirect jobs, resulting in $24 billion in economic activity and more than $410 million in state and local taxes, Bartolotta said.

Developing an ethane storage and distribution hub in the Appalachian region could lead to more chemical and plastics industry investments and create up to 100,000 new jobs, $28 billion in new economic output, more than $6 billion in annual payroll, and almost $3 billion a year in new federal, state and local tax revenues, according to the state senate resolution.

“Pennsylvania has all the assets to be a strong player in the global plastics market,” Bartolotta said earlier this summer when she introduced the state senate resolution. “The Shell polymers plant investment … now being constructed in Beaver County is a signal to industry that Pennsylvania is open for business.”

The hub, Bartolotta added, would be a tremendous benefit to the environment, as well, because the resources are cleaner than coal. “The impact would be far and wide, and this is just the beginning,” the senator said.

Specifically, her resolution asks Congress to enact three proposed bills to advance development of the Appalachian storage hub for petrochemical feedstock:

  • The Appalachian Energy and Manufacturing Infrastructure Revitalization Act, S. 1340, which would improve the infrastructure permitting process by directing the U.S. Energy Secretary and the U.S. Commerce Secretary to approve the project as an Appalachian ethane storage hub, identify the lead Federal and State agency liaisons and coordinate with them on designating the project;
  • The Capitalizing on American Storage Potential Act, H.R. 3143 / S. 1337, which would make a regional NGL storage hub eligible for the U.S. Department of Energy’s successful Title XVII loan guarantee program; and
  • The Appalachian Ethane Storage Hub Study Act, S. 1075 / H.R. 2568, which would help assess the feasibility and potential benefits of establishing a subterranean ethane storage and distribution hub in central Appalachia.

“We need to be able to take advantage of the resources right under our feet, so we need a storage hub to do that,” Bartolotta said. “If we had a place to store the ethane, that would be a game changer. We would see petrochemical and other manufacturers lining up for this feedstock.”

Timing is everything, she said, and if the Commonwealth waits on getting a storage hub, stakeholders will end up paying to transport the feedstock from ethane plants to other locations, a costly endeavor.

Bartolotta pointed out that storage hubs like the one proposed for the Appalachian region have been around for decades, but this one would be first in the nation’s Northeast region.

“We would use the earth and let what nature provides give us a safe, stable place to store it,” she said, adding that underground storage is absolutely one of the safest means to store petrochemicals because it keeps hundreds of thousands of vehicles off the roads, bridges, highways, and rails by storing them in one place.

Bartolotta said she’s looking forward to the resolution garnering unanimous approval in the state house; her resolution was adopted by the state Senate on June 20, 49-0. Once approved by the Pennsylvania legislators, the resolution will be sent to Congress and President Donald Trump.

“We’ve gotten positive feedback because people truly understand this is the next wave,” Bartolotta told Pennsylvania Business Report. “We can’t continue to drive industries out of the Commonwealth; we’ve got to bring them in, and this would be the brass ring.”