May 03, 2012:

“We’ve not only saved 400 jobs, but, I believe, we have saved a way of life.” - Gov. Tom Corbett, on Tuesday at press conference announcing sale of ConocoPhillips refinery in Trainer to Delta Air Lines. It is hard to put into words just how important what happened in Trainer on Tuesday is.

That’s what we’re glad Gov. Tom Corbett borrowed some we’ve used in this space before. We actually first heard them uttered by a union worker, concerned about the shutdown of local refineries. It has been a long, torturous trek since the morning after Labor Day. That’s when Sunoco announced their intent to get out of the refining business and seek buyers for their two plants in South Philadelphia and Marcus Hook. If no buyer came forward, the company indicated they would shutter the facilities.

Two weeks later it was ConocoPhillips’ turn. They also had been fighting a losing battle in the refining business. They announced they would mimic Sunoco’s action and seek a buyer for their Trainer facility. But they also upped the ante, stunning workers with word that they would idle the facility immediately. In January, the other shoe fell, with pink slips going out to 700 employees. It was an economic death knell for the lower end of Delaware County. It meant a cataclysmic economic loss of revenue for the municipalities involved, as well as the Chichester School District. But more importantly, it signaled the loss of that way of life – the refinery way. Men and women had walked through those gates for a century, finding inside good-paying jobs and a ticket to a solid, middle-class life.

This week that ticket, which seemed to be canceled, was redeemed. Call it the Miracle in Trainer. After weeks of negotiations and a full-court press by local officials, the work paid off. Delta Air Lines announced it was buying the ConocoPhillips refinery for $180 million. Gov. Corbett had another fairly important reason for attending. He was handing over a $30 million check to seal the deal. In exchange, Delta is promising to operate the refinery and sink millions in capital into it over the next five years. More importantly, they are vowing to keep 400 people employed. Most of those likely will come from the ranks of those union members who lost their jobs – and dreams – when ConocoPhillips closed the gates.

There are many people who can take credit for the deal to save the Trainer refinery. Elected officials, both here in Delaware County, Harrisburg, and Washington, D.C., all did yeomen work in bringing this accord to fruition. Union officials made trip after trip to Harrisburg and the nation’s Capitol to push their case. But there is one man who, more than anyone else, was willing to go out on a limb, literally think outside the box. Ed Bastian had a problem. The president of Delta Air Lines was dealing with skyrocketing fuel costs and an inconsistent supply that too often left him at the mercy of the markets.

Delta Air Lines spent $12 billion on jet fuel last year. It was Bastian who decided to set up a subsidiary, Monroe Energy LLC, and attack the problem head-on. Bastian believes his initial investment will pay off when the airline saves billions annually as it refines its own jet fuel at the Trainer plant, maybe as early as Labor Day. It’s never been done before, an airline operating a refinery. Clearly it was an idea whose time had come. Of course, there is still another chapter to this saga. Actually, two of them. Still up in the air is the fate of those two Sunoco refineries, in South Philadelphia, as well as the Pew family’s iconic plant in Marcus Hook, just a stone’s throw from the ConocoPhillips plant next door.

Sunoco made some news of its own this week, announcing it was being acquired by a Texas pipeline outfit for a cool $5.3 billion. The move is not expected to change the company’s stance in getting out of the money-losing refining business. They have an agreement in hand for a joint operation of their South Philly plant with the Carlyle Group, as efforts to find a buyer continue. The Marcus Hook situation is a little bleaker. The company insists it has not received a single viable offer for the plant. That did not stop local officials at the press conference in Trainer to vow they will now do in the Hook what they did next door. Another miracle anyone? One down, two to go.

All that’s at stake is a way of life.              

By Daily Times