PHILADELPHIA — As Texas and Louisiana build out major hubs for liquefied natural gas exports, historical skepticism gives policymakers in Pennsylvania pause.

Demand for natural gas is projected to rise, but how tapping into that growth could benefit the state’s southeastern communities is open to interpretation. As the Philadelphia LNG Taskforce discussed the viability of opening an export facility in Chester County, familiar concerns rose to the surface.

“Since the close of Philadelphia Energy Solutions, opportunities have been limited,” said Mark Freeman, president of Laborers Local 413. “This plant brings opportunities for our members to make affordable living wages and to continue to send their children to college.”

The promise rings hollow, said Rep. Carol Kazeem, D-Chester, and further degrades public health in the region.

“What we are witnessing right now is history attempting to repeat itself,” she said. “My community … has been promised economic salvation each time an industrial plant is proposed. It happened with the paper mill, and it happened with the trash incinerator. It has happened a dozen subsequent times.”

The benefits, she added, have been scant.

“A 27% childhood asthma rate, an increase in health risk and illness amongst our seniors rapidly, a decrease in jobs and companies … and also a 19.3% infant mortality rate,” Kazeem said. “What we didn’t get was the promise of permanent jobs and also financial emancipation.”

For economic growth, she pointed to encouraging smaller projects like supermarkets, art projects, retail stores, new housing construction, restaurants, medical insurance, and car dealerships, rather than a massive corporate project.

Representatives of the natural gas industry argued an LNG facility would boost the economy, improve the environment by replacing coal with natural gas, and advance national security by making the country energy-independent.

Any growth, Marcellus Shale Coalition President David Callahan said, starts with pipeline infrastructure — in Pennsylvania and states beyond.

“First and foremost, we need pipelines,” he said. “These not-so-new areas of production here in Pennsylvania need additional pipelines to reach markets … Efforts to build pipelines into New England and New Jersey have been stopped by activist organizations and their state-government enablers. Countless projects that are critical pieces to our infrastructure puzzle have been canceled, delayed — or, in many cases — have never gotten off the drawing board.”

Pipeline capacity has been an issue in the commonwealth, The Center Square previously reported, as natural gas production slightly declined last year and pipeline expansion was at its lowest point on record since at least 1995, Callahan noted. Those problems contrast Texas and Louisiana, which increased production and have many more pipeline projects in the works.

On the federal level, Callahan wants to see the permitting process streamlined and federal regulators “reining in states that abuse the federal level permitting processes.”

“What is needed is a culture that prioritizes permit predictability, consistency across regional offices at (the Department of Environmental Protection), internal accountability, and a recognition that job creators are partners — not adversaries,” he said.

Annoyances over delays and difficulties aren’t reserved to one political party, either. But legislators aren’t the only roadblock.

“The regulatory issue, I think, is a bipartisan frustration long suffered by many of us who recognized that corporations have actually walked away from opportunities in Pennsylvania in part because of this,” Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, said.

However, Williams noted that he has not had a visit from MCS officials in years, even though he supported shale-related legislation years ago.

“If we’re going to move ahead on this or anything in that space, the design of how we approach this has to be much more bipartisan and balanced,” Williams said. “I’m pretty frustrated by the fact that we have not really developed the partnership I think was promised to me literally when I first voted for it.”