Shell agrees to pay $10M for air pollution at petrochemical plant

MICHAEL RUBINKAM

Associated Press

Shell has agreed to pay $10 million to resolve allegations that it polluted the air around its massive new petrochemical refinery in western Pennsylvania, the administration of Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Wednesday.

Shell acknowledged that the plant, located along the Ohio River about 30 miles (48 kilometers) outside of Pittsburgh, violated air emissions limits, officials said. The multibillion-dollar facility opened in November, only to be shut down months later after the company said it identified a problem with a system that’s designed to burn off unwanted gases.

Shell said it has made repairs and planned to restart the plant on Wednesday.

Under an agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of

Environmental Protection, Shell Chemicals Appalachia LLC — a subsidiary of British oil and gas giant Shell plc — will pay a civil penalty of about $5 million, a portion of which will go toward environmental projects in Beaver County. The company will funnel a total of $6.2 million to the community, according to state officials.

Pennsylvania is “taking steps to hold Shell accountable and protect Pennsylvanians’ constitutional right to clean air and water while encouraging innovation and economic development in the commonwealth,” Rich Negrín, the state’s acting environmental secretary, said in a written statement.

The plant uses ethane from a vast shale gas reservoir underneath Pennsylvania and surrounding states to make polyethylene, a plastic used in everything from consumer and food packaging to tires. At full capacity, the plant is expected to produce 3.5 billion pounds of polyethylene annually. Shell had projected to spend $6 billion on the refinery, which took years to build.

Environmental advocacy groups had fought the plant and predicted that it would generate more plastic pollution, as well as compounds that form smog and planet-warming greenhouse gases. The Clean Air Council filed suit against Shell earlier this month.

Environmentalists likened the penalty announced Wednesday to a parking ticket that would have little impact on Shell’s bottom line.

“The overwhelming and toxic pollution residents have been exposed to has already harmed this community — there is no price tag that will allow for this to be acceptable,” said Andie Grey, who lives 3 miles from the Shell plant and is part of the Eyes on Shell watchdog group.

At 25, European Central Bank preps for future of money

David Mchugh

Associated Press

FRANKFURT, Germany — As it marks its 25th anniversary Wednesday, the European Central Bank is readying a proposed design for a digital version of the euro, responding to pressure from developing technology that could change how money is used over the bank’s next decades.

ECB President Christine Lagarde says a digital euro could offer a way for people to buy things without depending on payment service providers controlled by non-European companies. Those could include Mastercard, Visa, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

The European Union’s executive Commission is expected to come up with proposed legislation on the idea in the next several weeks, ECB officials say, while the central bank will publish a detailed proposal for the design of a digital currency in October.

Central banks worldwide, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, are studying digital currencies as cash increasingly gives way to electronic payments. Some small economies such as Nigeria, the Bahamas and Jamaica already have introduced digital currencies, while China is holding trial runs.

Central banks also are responding to the emergence of cryptocurrencies, which have raised concerns that someday people could turn to rival forms of digital money .

Digital currency backed by a central bank would be a safe and stable means of payment — unlike voltatile crypto, whose price crashes over the past year and collapses of exchanges like FTX have spurred calls for regulation. The EU became a global leader by giving final approval last week to rules for the freewheeling crypto sector.

Briefcase

New Bedford wants to light the world again, with wind

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The vessel UHF Felicity pulled into the port of New Bedford shortly before 5:00 Wednesday afternoon carrying massive parts for offshore wind turbines. New Bedford was once known as the city that lit the world, exporting whale oil for lamps in the early 1800s. Workers packed the docks, unloading casks of oil that had been extracted at sea from whale carcasses and brought in by a fleet of hundreds of whaling ships. Now more than 170 years later New Bedford aspires to light the world again, in a different relationship with the sea, as the ship arrived with parts for the country’s first commercial offshore wind farm. Once assembled out on the water this summer, the turbines will stand more than 850 feet high.

June pause in rate hikes would be a close call for Fed officials

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve officials were divided earlier this month on whether to pause their interest rate hikes at their upcoming meeting in June, according to the minutes of their May 2-3 meeting. “Several [policymakers] noted if the economy evolved along the lines of their current outlooks, then further policy firming after this meeting may not be necessary” — Fed parlance for a pause — the minutes said. At the same time, “some” officials said that the persistence of high inflation meant that “additional [rate hikes] would likely be warranted at future meetings.” Yet in the language used in the minutes, “several” is considered to be more than “some,” suggesting that those favoring a pause may have the upper hand.

McCarthy says debt ceiling standoff ‘not my fault,’

WASHINGTON — A defiant House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says the debt ceiling standoff is “not my fault” after he sent Republican negotiators to the White House to finish out debt limit talks. But he’s warning that the two sides need more time as they try to reach a budget deal with President Joe Biden. McCarthy says he remains optimistic they can make progress in hopes of an agreement before a deadline as soon as next week. That’s when the Treasury Department could run out of cash to pay its bills. McCarthy vows, “We’re not going to default.”

Musk’s digital town square debut for DeSantis fails

Elon Musk wants to turn Twitter into a “digital town square,” but his much-publicized Twitter Spaces kickoff event, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announcing his run for president, struggled with technical glitches and a near half-hour delay Tuesday. The billionaire Twitter owner said the problems were due to “straining” servers because so many people were trying to listen to the audio-only event.