Burns invites ExxonMobil to scout Cambria County for plant location
Welcomes petrochemical facility, unlike Pittsburgh mayor
Rep. Frank Burns December 2, 2019 | 9:42 AM
EBENSBURG, Dec. 2 – Offering firm assurance that Pittsburgh’s mayor doesn’t speak for the entire region, state Rep. Frank Burns has invited ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Darren Woods to scout Cambria County as a possible location for a petrochemical plant.
Burns, D-Cambria, believes no elected official in western Pennsylvania should scoff at a potential billion-dollar investment that could create thousands of good-paying, family sustaining jobs in an area still reeling from heavy losses in the steel, coal and manufacturing industries.
“You may have heard Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto announce his opposition to the construction of additional petrochemical cracker plants in Western Pennsylvania,” Burns said in a letter to Woods. “Let me assure you – Mayor Peduto doesn’t speak for all of Western Pennsylvania. While he may not want the area to become ‘the petrochemical/plastics center’ of the United States,’ I am committed to fighting for jobs and economic growth in my county.”
Burns also notified the ExxonMobil top executive that Cambria County now offers up to 375 acres of Keystone Opportunity Zone, a powerful economic development tool that offers substantial state and local tax incentives to induce job creation.
Burns, a driving force behind the Cambria KOZ’s inclusion as part of this year’s budget package, has used his pulpit as an elected official to tout its merits, previously informing Amazon and Sherwin-Williams of its availability.
For those firms, as well as ExxonMobil and any others who show interest, Burns has offered his services as host, tour guide and honest broker capable of rising above partisanship to accomplish the greater good of putting people back to work.
“I stand ready to work with you and elected officials from both parties to make a deal that benefits both ExxonMobil and the hardworking residents of our region,” Burns wrote to Woods.