Exclusive: Why a Mon River steel plant keeps getting looked at for ethane cracker

Had things gone differently, southwestern Pennsylvania might have held the potential for not one, but two, ethane cracker plants.

According to Washington County Commissioner Larry Maggi, Marubeni Corp. and PTT Global Chemical, which last week announced they had chosen Belmont County, Ohio, as the home for its proposed plant, had been eying a brownfield site along the Monongahela River.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” said Maggi, who added that local officials, along those at the state level,…