Biggest East Coast Refinery to Close, Driving Up Fuel Prices
- Massive explosion this month crippled operations at PES
- Philadelphia refinery emerged from bankruptcy 10 months ago
The Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refining Complex on June 21, 2019.
Photographer: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The biggest refinery on the U.S. East Coast will shut down, after a massive explosion and fire crippled operations at a site that has helped fuel the region for 153 years.
The Philadelphia Energy Solutions Inc. complex on the banks of the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers in Pennsylvania has been in place since 1866, a year after the Civil War ended. It emerged from bankruptcy just 10 months prior to two fires in June that closed down key gasoline-making units just as the summer driving season gears up.