PITTSBURGH — A pair of economic impact studies that were used to justify billions of dollars in tax breaks to bring a massive petrochemical complex to Pennsylvania used flawed methods and misled lawmakers, according to a new report. “Academic malpractice” Ohio River Valley Institute researchers say Shell's Pennsylvania petrochemical plant hasn't delivered its promise on jobs in the Beaver County region. Credit: Reproduced from “Updated: A Cautionary Tale of Petrochemicals fromPennsylvania”, Ohio River Valley Institute, 2023. The Ohio River Valley Institute’s report says the 2021 RMU study doesn’t adequately explain its methods and instead cites its own 2014 report, which is no longer publicly available. “At best,” the Ohio River Valley Institute authors write, “citing one’s own private and publicly inaccessible work is academic malpractice, asking serious readers to blindly trust the authors.

Source: The Guardian January 26, 2024 23:25 UTC