As 2023 comes to an end, the people in the Ohio River Valley are happily learning that the proposed plastic cracker plant for Dilles Bottom in Belmont County has been canceled!

After over five years of waiting, the primary investor, Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical America, has announced it has decided to build their plastics-making plant in Thailand instead of Ohio. The plant was put on hold back in April of 2020. Their partner, a U.S. subsidiary of South Korea’s Daelim Industrial Co., withdrew as PTTGCA’s partner in July 2020. Both companies had been planning major investments in the $5.7 billion plant, 60 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, for several years.

This means the Ohio Valley will not be subject to air and water emissions from the plastics plant. Emissions from plastics plants include: carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter and greenhouse gasses.

Another positive development is the hiring for over 750 full-time jobs by FORM Energy’s Iron/Air Battery Plant in Weirton, West Virginia. FORM Energy, a Massachusetts-based company, broke ground on its iron-air battery manufacturing plant this past May.

Workers will produce batteries capable of storing electricity for 100 hours. FORM’s batteries will run on iron, water and air instead of the more commonly used but less-abundant metal lithium. The $760 million project is being built at the site of the former Weirton Steel Mill.

These batteries will be used to power solar arrays during down times when solar energy is not available.