On May 6, Energy Transfer withdrew its application for an air permit to build a new ethane cracker in Nederland, Texas, an area of increasing industrial development between Beaumont and Port Arthur.

The facility would have turned components of natural gas into ethylene and propylene, used as raw ingredients of plastics. It would have been located next to Energy Transfer’s Nederland Terminal, a crude oil and natural gas liquids storage facility with 84 tanks beside the Neches River that also exports natural gas liquids.

A consultant for the company did not explain its reason for withdrawing the permit application for the new ethane cracker in a May 6 email to state regulators.

The proposed Nederland facility is one of a growing number of ethane “cracker” plants across the U.S., which separate or “crack” the component parts of natural gas to create ethylene, a building block for the plastics industry. In part because hydraulic fracturing has lowered the price of natural gas, the number of “cracker” plants has risen to more than 30 today.

According to Energy Transfer’s air permit application, the facility could have emitted more than 8,500 tons per year of harmful air pollutants, including smog-forming nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds; fine particulates, which can cause heart and asthma attacks; sulfur dioxide, which can cause lung issues and acid rain; and toxic carbon monoxide.

The “cracker” could also have emitted more than 5.1 million tons per year of greenhouse gases – mostly carbon dioxide – roughly equivalent to the emissions from 1.24 coal-fired power plants per year or more than 1 million gasoline-powered cars and trucks driven for a year.