This page was last updated on October 27, 2017.
Gov. Wolf committed to creating jobs; Steven J. Kochanowski; Beaver County Times; October 26, 2017.
At the time of his first letter, Mr. Kochanowski (SJK) was a Beaver County rep on the PA Democratic State Committee, but allegedly has since registered as a Republican. According to a Tribune-Review story in 2012,
“‘The Democratic Party was no longer the party I grew up in. It was not the party of Bill Clinton; it was not the party of John F. Kennedy,’ said Steven Kochanowski, 28, of Potter in Beaver County.
“Kochanowski switched his registration from Democrat to Republican in March, contributing to the county’s 2.4 percent increase in GOP voters. He said the Democratic Party ‘pulls too far to the left’ for him, on issues including health care, gay marriage, abortion and gun control.”
Previous SJK letters I reviewed were “We need to put country before party” and “Altmire is best for the region.”
Below is a review of the subject letter.
“Throughout his time in office, Gov. Tom Wolf has consistently looked for new and innovative ways to spur economic growth and job creation in Pennsylvania. A perfect example of this is the creation of the Shell cracker plant right here in Beaver County. The plant makes plastics out of gas extracted in Pennsylvania and will help get Pennsylvania’s natural gas to market.”
[RWC] The cracker project was well underway when Gov. Wolf (TW) took office in January 2015. According to NPR, “On March 15, 2012, Shell announced Pennsylvania had won the ‘cracker sweepstakes,’” nearly three years before TW took office. TW himself said, “The commonwealth began its efforts on this project in 2012, and I would like to thank former Governor Tom Corbett and his Secretary of Community and Economic Development C. Alan Walker for all of their efforts to bring the plant to Western Pennsylvania.”
SJK got his tense wrong when he wrote, “The plant makes plastics … .” While the site preparation work appears to be near completion, construction of the actual processing plant hasn’t begun yet.
“The positive economic effects of breaking into this industry will be felt by Pennsylvanians for decades to come. Additionally, the plant has created thousands of jobs. The plant truly was a game-changer for Beaver County and for the entire state.”
[RWC] Another tense problem. To the best of my knowledge, the plant has not yet “created thousands of jobs.” While quite a number of employees were hired for site prep, the big numbers won’t happen until construction of the actual processing plant begins.
“Gov. Wolf has moved forward on several similar projects, too, such as the Port of Philadelphia and a steel plant in Johnstown. I’ve been repeatedly impressed by the governor’s commitment to growing Pennsylvania’s economy while also emphasizing environmental protection, infrastructure development and site improvement. I’ve excited to see what new projects he takes on in the years to come.”
[RWC] I’m not familiar with the projects SJK mentioned in this paragraph.
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