Energy Spotlight: Adam Pope

People sometimes ask why Adam Pope hasn't moved away from home to pursue his interests in politics and energy.

“It wasn't a goal to stay here, but the best opportunities for me always happened to reside in Pittsburgh,” said Pope, 36, an Upper St. Clair native and senior director at the Strip District office of Bravo Group, a public relations and lobbying firm.

Those opportunities included working on Mike Fisher's gubernatorial campaign and in the Pittsburgh office of then-Sen. Arlen Specter after Pope graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, and later handling communications for shale gas operator Exco Resources, before joining Bravo Group last year.

This year Pope, who lives in the South Side, is adding to his role at the firm by serving as policy director for the Pennsylvania Chemical Industry Council, a trade and advocacy group that Bravo Group manages.

“Combined between the Utica and Marcellus (shales), this is the largest natural gas-producing field in the country,” he said, discussing the opportunity that industry provides to chemical companies through feedstock and cheap energy. “We firmly believe that Pennsylvania's chemical industry could be the third-largest in the country.”

Royal Dutch Shell's proposal to build a petrochemical “cracker” plant in Beaver County and Sunoco Logistics' work to ship chemical feedstocks such as ethane on its pipelines have generated hope that related companies will set up shop on both sides of the state.

“If it's going to be what everyone hopes, it will be a shared thing, with energy hubs in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh,” Pope said.

Along with Bravo Group's government relations energy practice lead Sarah Battisti, who leads the chemical council, Pope is helping 40 member companies push for the pipelines and infrastructure needed to connect the shale gas fields to industries.

“We've got to figure out a way to make that happen,” he said.

As the chemical industry rebuilds through its connections to the energy sector, Bravo Group hopes to make the industry council an autonomous organization again.

“The goal is to build it up and get it back to that point, when the industry has rebounded,” he said.