The Ammonia Industry Expansion Begins To Falter
Less than three months after its July passage, the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) is already reducing the planned expansion of ammonia and hydrogen production. ORVI’s March 2025 report on the ammonia industry found that if all the proposed facilities as of October 2024 were built, annual US ammonia production would increase by more than […]
Beaver County’s Economy Flounders while Neighboring Counties Prosper
Beaver County, home to Shell’s $14B plastics plant, lags behind neighboring counties in job and business growth.
A Month from Hell
Key Points Northern Appalachia has, for a decade and a half, premised its economic development strategies on a strategic triad of natural gas, petrochemicals, and most recently hydrogen. Natural gas expansion has proven itself incapable of delivering on promises of jobs and economic prosperity. Meanwhile petrochemicals and hydrogen don’t seem capable of getting off the […]
The Carbon Implications of Ammonia Production
The US is on the verge of an ammonia ‘boom,’ which could expand fracking and incentivize risky carbon storage infrastructure. But as with any boom, industrial expansion will eventually bring a bust. At least 37 new projects have been proposed around the country which could increase ammonia production by over 350% within a decade. Part […]
Beaver County Data Analysis: 2025 Update
Beaver County has seen double-digit declines in GDP & employment since Shell’s petrochemical complex was announced in 2012.
Chemical Recycling: A False Promise for the Ohio River Valley
Chemical recycling is a false solution that ignores health impacts and sidesteps technical and economic headwinds.
Revisiting Pennsylvania’s Bad Bet
The Shell Polymers Monaca petrochemicals complex shadowing the banks of the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, has become something of a symbol in Appalachia. To the many families nearby, it represents a constant, draconic threat, belching episodic flames, discharging headache-inducing smells, and triggering air quality warnings for dangerous particulate matter and volatile organic compounds. […]
Giving Away the Future
Billions in ITEP tax incentives have failed to grow jobs and personal incomes in Louisiana.
Pennsylvania’s Bad Bet
Faulty economic impact studies misled Pennsylvania on Shell’s economic benefits.
2023 in Review
Together, a more prosperous, sustainable, and equitable Appalachia is possible. That’s the vision that has geared our data-driven research, guided our outreach and campaigns, and grounded our work in the region’s community and culture ever since the Ohio River Valley Institute’s very beginning. It’s now been more than three years since we laid out our […]