Following the disaster at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery, there was a public movement to redevelop the site for a modern, renewable form of energy generation for the city.
The refinery site sits on about 1300 acres- approximately the size of center city itself (Spring garden to South st, river to river)
What can be done with the site? Some have suggested a solar energy farm. Given at face value that the electrical needs of an average household require approximately .032 acres, napkin math would indicate that the site could provide electricity for about 40,000 households. Sounds like a lot, but that’s only about 6.5 percent of city. (Diving the population by the average household size) Considering the refinery used to supply most of the gas for the northeastern US, that doesn’t seem very efficient.
A biofuels company has stepped into the fray in a bid to purchase the site. What benefit would this truly have to the city? How many jobs would be created/restored? What would the tax revenue look like? These questions are hard to answer, but Occam’s razor would suggest such a conversion would be guided by two basic aims: to minimize the initial conversion, and to minimize future operating costs. The later would suggest that automation would be employed to reduce the necessary workforce, and thus the number of jobs that would be restored. The former would suggest that as much existing equipment would be used as is practical, which would result in an environmental impact similar to that of the former operation.
The economic benefit of industry is partially realized by the jobs it supports, but also by tax revenue. It follows then that taxation should be maximized in order to spread the benefit, and offset the environmental penalty of industrial use. The location of the site and its proximity to navigable rivers and its central location within the northeastern region makes it uniquely well suited to the industry it has historically supported. At the same time, its relatively isolated position in the context of the Philadelphia urban area, leaves it not particularly well suited to redevelopment as commercial, residential, or park land development- the need for abatement of its polluted ground further discourages this possibility.
I would have to conclude that the most logical use of the site would be to restore its industrial use as a refinery for fuels- but to ensure that the city seizes the opportunity provided by the change in ownership to enact tighter environmental regulations, to minimize or prohibit entirely the discharge of industrial byproducts into the Schuylkill river.