By Kevin DiGregorio
Surely you know all about Polly and how that bird wanted a cracker—a saltine cracker, in fact. Perhaps you also know that everybody else—well, it certainly seems like everybody else—also wants a cracker.
Instead of a saltine, everybody else is after an ethane cracker—or two or three—and the $1 to $3 billion investment each will bring, along with several thousand construction jobs, several hundred permanent jobs and other chemical-related, add-on investments and jobs. It’s a big deal for economic development in West Virginia. That’s why the Chemical Alliance Zone (CAZ), along with the Charleston Area Alliance, the Regional Economic Development Partnership, West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, West Virginia Manufacturers Association, West Virginia Development Office, Bayer Corporation and others are working diligently to attract a cracker or two to the state. Of course, as the Polly comparison suggests, we are not alone. Other states, especially Ohio and Pennsylvania, want a cracker as well.
The Face of Business in West Virginia
