By financial journalist LEWIS BRAHAM
At the more than 10-hour “public hearing” on the construction of the Shell petrochemical plant in Potter Township last December, I waited eight hours to speak for five minutes about the plant’s environmental risks. The meeting was so long and grueling that one of my colleagues at Allegheny County Clean Air Now collapsed and had to be helped by emergency medical technicians. She didn’t get to testify, nor did many local Beaver County residents who left in frustration before they had the chance.