Yesterday MDN brought you the news that Sunoco Logistics Partners had cut a deal with the devil, meaning three radical Big Green groups, to slow down but eventually complete work on the Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline project in Pennsylvania (see Sunoco Strikes Deal with Devil, “Settles” with Anti Groups re ME2). The deal means Sunoco has to re-submit plans for underground horizontal direction drilling (HDD) in 47 locations to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for review. The DEP will then get 21 days to review those re-worked plans. But the plan needed to be blessed by Environmental Hearing Board Judge Bernard Labuskes Jr. first. Yesterday Judge Labuskes gave the plan his stamp of approval. Now the three Big Green groups–Clean Air Council, Mountain Watershed Association, and Delaware Riverkeeper Network–are bragging about their victory. High-fiving each other and taking pot shots at the DEP and one of their own–Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf. Wolf is not “pure” enough for Big Green nutters. Only a complete shut-down of the project would be acceptable, which Wolf does not support. However, the Big Greeners are pragmatic. They’ll take half a loaf–in this case slowing the project down…
