Shell's ethane cracker may prove to just be an opening act. A new state-commissioned report says that by 2030, Pennsylvania could be a major hub for the nation's petrochemical industry.
A film airing this month at the Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival explores whether humans' impact on the planet goes far deeper than global warming.
Fracking-induced earthquakes have been detected in neighboring Ohio before, but the five tremors recorded in western Pennsylvania in 2016 are the state's first.
The new Congress didn't waste any time rolling back an Obama administration regulation making it harder for mining companies to dump mining waste into streams.
Shell is building a brand new ethane cracker in Beaver County, but it wants to use the less-stringent water pollution permit that was issued to the site's previous owner. Will the state play along?
Reid R. Frazier covers energy for The Allegheny Front. His work has taken him as far away as Texas and Louisiana to report on the petrochemical industry and as close to home as Greene County, Pennsylvania to cover the shale gas boom. His award-winning work has also aired on NPR, Marketplace and other outlets. Reid is recently received a fellowship from MIT's Environmental Solutions Initiative.
