This week, on behalf of our members, the Pennsylvania Chemical Industry Council sent a letter to each Pennsylvania legislator to voice opposition to House Bill 11 and Senate Bill 510. This proposed legislation would increase all consumer electric bills, including those of the state’s chemical and petrochemical manufacturers.

According to an analysis by the Industrial Energy Consumers of Pennsylvania, if nuclear power generation were to be added to the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard, the state’s industrial consumers would face at least $192 million in additional electricity costs annually.

Small manufacturers could annually pay an extra $60,000 on average, while larger manufacturers could see a nearly $2 million annual increase in electric costs. Large manufacturers with multiple facilities could face a nearly $4 million annual hike.

Deregulation in Pennsylvania has allowed competitive markets to drive energy prices, which has resulted in consumers, including our members, benefiting from new and more efficient electric generation sources. It also has allowed consumers, rather than utility companies, to drive the market.

The economic advantage of new energy resources has spurred billions of dollars of private investment in Pennsylvania’s $24 billion chemical industry. These investments have energized communities all over Pennsylvania — the state’s chemical industry supports more than 80,000 jobs, generating more than $410 million in state and local taxes and $933 million in federal taxes yearly.

With the right policies in place, more investment and job growth will be realized.

An outpouring of stories and support have flooded social media in response to the 2019 Feeding Tube Awareness Week.

Caregivers of children, seniors and loved ones managing complex health challenges coalesced around a product that is making life possible. That product is feeding tubes.

Feeding tubes and enteral feeding offer nutritional support to adults, children and infants who are unable to perform the physical function of eating. This product is typically made of polyurethane, polyvinyl chloride or silicone. The pliable, yet durable characteristics of these chemicals make them a high performer for this application as feeding tubes must have the ability to be bent, while being strong enough to avoid kinks and resist the corrosive effects of stomach acid.

Second only to polyethylene, polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride are the most widely produced commodity plastics. The raw materials used to create these chemicals are petroleum and natural gas liquids, like ethane and propane. These materials are refined in the petrochemical manufacturing process to create the polypropylene or polyvinyl chloride. These chemicals are the building blocks to products we use daily, with key applications across the healthcare, construction, electronic, automotive and packaging industries.

Single use plastic products are key in healthcare and hospital settings as they can come individually packaged, are sterile and can be made transparent so that fluids can be monitored by their administrator. These qualities make feeding tubes a life-saving solution for the more than 400,000 individuals in the U.S. using enteral feeding.

We are proud to represent an industry that creates the critical products to improve the quality of life and health for so many deserving patients in a healthcare or home setting.

Feeding Tube Awareness Week® was created by the ​Feeding Tube Awareness Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, to increase awareness of feeding tubes and enteral feeding. Learn more: www.feedingtubeawareness.org.

 ’Twas the week before Christmas, when I looked all around
And realized it’s the chemical industry that makes cheer abound

The manufacturing of chemicals and the chemistry of their applications make up the vast majority of the products we rely on every day. And the holidays are no exception.

Whether you’re trimming the tree, wrapping presents or enjoying time with loved ones, consider how the chemical industry plays a role in that holiday magic.

1. Christmas trees: Increasingly, consumers are switching to synthetic or artificial trees as an environmentally conscious choice or for the ease of assembly and maintenance. Synthetic trees rely on chemical engineering and are typically made from polyvinyl chloride, steel and aluminum.

2. Candles and essential oils: If you go the synthetic tree route but miss the smell of pine, a scented candle or oil diffuser created by chemistry can remedy that. Most candles are made from a combination of hydrogen and carbon, and most essential oils consist of terpenoid molecules that are modified to control evaporation, dissolution rates and shelf life.