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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
| State Rep. Jaret Gibbons
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Gibbons votes for investment to create new industry and 20,000 jobs
HARRISBURG, June 30 – State Rep. Jaret Gibbons lauded House passage today of manufacturing tax credits that will encourage the construction of a large petrochemical complex in Beaver County and create 10,000 construction jobs and 20,000 permanent jobs in the new industry.
“This is the single largest investment to manufacturing in Pennsylvania in generations that will create thousands of good-paying, family sustaining jobs,” Gibbons said. “We must seize this rare opportunity to create a new industry and re-energize the construction, manufacturing, housing, transportation and retail industries like we have not seen since the mills closed decades ago.”
Gibbons said a coalition of business and labor organizations are supporting this investment in manufacturing, including the United Steelworkers, U.S. Steel, Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council and the Association of Builders and Contractors.
“Business and labor are working together with the same goal of creating thousands of jobs and bringing prosperity for our region.”
The petrochemical complex would include an ethane cracker to process natural gas in to ethylene, which is used in produces sold around the work, including food packaging, bottles, pipes, toys diapers, footwear, adhesives and other items.
“A cracker plant in Beaver County will create a new market for natural gas extracted from Marcellus and Utica Shale in Pennsylvania to keep the gas in our state and access to the ethylene will bring other manufacturers and more jobs to the region.”
Gibbons said construction of the $4 billion state-of-the-art facility will create 10,000 jobs over the next three to five years. Once operational, the cracker plant will employ about 400 people and approximately 17,000 more jobs will emerge from other manufacturers and industry-related operations.
“The economic benefits will ripple through the state, from the natural gas drilling sites, to other manufacturing plants and industry-related operations that will come here, to the Port of Philadelphia for overseas shipments. At each step the industry will make our economy stronger and benefit families throughout the region, which is why competition with neighboring states for the first petrochemical plant in the northeast was intense.”
Gibbons said the tax credits offered by Pennsylvania helped the state win the competition. The tax credits would be provided with a percentage of the new revenue generated by the industry starting in 2017, and not with existing taxpayer dollars. There is no impact on the current budget.
“This investment will help transform our economy by attracting a new industry that will make Pennsylvania a leader in energy production and manufacturing for generations to come,” Gibbons said.
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