The new boom: Shale gas fueling an American industrial revival

[xchrom]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-new-boom-shale-gas-fueling-an-american-industrial-revival/2012/11/14/73e5bb8e-fcf9-11e1-b153-218509a954e1_story.html?hpid=z1


MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES - Workers change pipes at a drilling rig exploring the Marcellus Shale outside Waynesburg, Pa. in April 2012.

The shale gas revolution is firing up an old-fashioned American industrial revival, breathing life into businesses such as petrochemicals and glass, steel and toys.

Consider the rising fortunes of Ascension Parish, La.

Methanex Corp., which closed its last U.S. chemical plant in 1999, is spending more than half a billion dollars to dismantle a methanol plant in Chile and move it to the parish.

Nearby, a petrochemical company, Williams, is spending $400 million to expand an ethylene plant. And on Nov. 1, CF Industries unveiled a $2.1 billion expansion of its nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing complex, aiming to displace imports that now make up half of U.S. nitrogen fertilizer sales.

[newfie11]

1. God help this country

I am horrified at what the future is looking like.

[Nihil]

2. This is saying something but the message that comes across to me isn't something to celebrate ...

> Methanex Corp., which closed its last U.S. chemical plant in 1999, is spending more than
> half a billion dollars to dismantle a methanol plant in Chile and move it to the parish.

If a corporation that moved away from the US is prepared to spend over half a billion dollars
to move a chemical plant from Chile back to the US, it is expecting to make a lot of profit to
cover that expense.

This doesn't imply to me that there is going to be an increase in spending with regards
to pollution control, workforce wages or good community practices.

I'm honestly not sure that the fortunes of Ascension Parish are actually "rising" with this move.