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Philly Suburb Appeals Judge’s Order to Turn Over ME2 Pipe Emails

In October the owner of the Glen Riddle Station Apartment complex in Delaware County, PA convinced a county judge to order the release of emails between officials in Middletown Township and Energy Transfer, owner of the Mariner East pipeline system (see Apt. Complex Owner Hopes to Find Dirt in “Secret” ME Pipe Letters). The Glen Riddle apartment complex owner is hoping he can find some minor, obscure statement in the email exchanges to reignite opposition to finishing the third and last Mariner East pipeline that runs across his property. Last Friday Middletown Township appealed the judge’s ruling to PA Commonwealth Court, days after a similar appeal filed by Energy Transfer.
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Apt. Complex Owner Hopes to Find Dirt in “Secret” ME Pipe Letters

Last Friday the owner of the Glen Riddle Station Apartment complex in Delaware County, PA convinced a weak county judge to order the release of emails between officials in Middletown Township and Energy Transfer, owner of the Mariner East pipeline system. The Glen Riddle apartment complex owner is hoping he can find some minor, obscure statement in the letters to reignite opposition to finishing the third and last Mariner East pipeline that runs across his property. How selfish.
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Adelphia Gateway Pipe Near Philly Gets FERC OK to Finish Constr.

New Jersey Resources’ Adelphia Gateway project is a plan to convert an old oil pipeline stretching from Northampton County, PA through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook, into a natural gas pipeline. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued final approval for the project in December 2019 (see FERC Issues Final OK for Southeast PA Adelphia Gateway Pipeline). Thank God FERC approved the project during the Trump administration or it never would have happened. Given FERC’s prior approval, FERC functionaries (not the commissioners themselves) have just given permission for the project to begin construction on the final pieces.
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Apartments Without Drinking Water After ME2 Breaks Water Line

More negative press that Energy Transfer (and subsidiary Sunoco Logistics) doesn’t need for their Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project. Last Wednesday construction workers were replacing backfill near the Glen Riddle Station apartment complex in Media (Delaware County, PA) when apparently they broke a water line to the apartment complex. The pipeline break left about 250 people in the complex without drinking water for more than a day.
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PA Antis to Flood Virtual Hearing re PECO NatGas Reliability Stn

Headquartered in Philadelphia, PECO (a subsidiary of Exelon Corp.) is Pennsylvania’s largest electric and natural gas utility, delivering power to more than 1.6 million electric customers and more than 532,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania. Last fall PECO floated a plan to build a natural gas reliability station in Marple Township (Delaware County, PA) to allow the company to distribute more natural gas into Delaware County through 11.5 miles of new natural gas main lines. As you might expect, the neighbors in the densely populated area of the reliability station are up in arms over the plan (see Protesters Want PECO to Abandon Plans for NatGas Reliability Stn). The state Public Utility Commission (PUC) is holding telephone hearings this week on PECO’s plans.
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How PA’s Marcellus Gas Benefits Philadelphia & Southeast PA

Jim Snell, Business Manager at Steamfitters Local 420 (Philadelphia area) has written a powerful editorial appearing in the Delaware Valley Journal. Snell begins his article by saying President Biden’s “build back better” proposal overlooks the backbone of America’s energy system: pipelines. Snell goes on to make an irrefutable case for how Marcellus Shale drilling in northeastern and southwestern PA benefits Philadelphia and southeastern PA.
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PA PUC Judge Fines ME Pipe $2K, Orders it to Talk More to Locals

In what can only be characterized as a complete and utter failure of a Big Green lawsuit, yesterday a Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) judge ordered Sunoco Logistics, builder of the Mariner East pipeline system, to pay a $2,000 fine (the equivalent of a few high-priced lunches) and talk more to local groups around Philadelphia that want to complain about the project. That’s the end result of a request by seven antis that began in November 2018 asking the PUC to shut down the entire three-pipeline project (see Desperation: 7 Philly Antis Ask PA PUC to Stop ME1, Block ME2).
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Protesters Want PECO to Abandon Plans for NatGas Reliability Stn

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Headquartered in Philadelphia, PECO (a subsidiary of Exelon Corp.) is Pennsylvania’s largest electric and natural gas utility, delivering power to more than 1.6 million electric customers and more than 532,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania. Last fall PECO floated a plan to build a natural gas reliability station in Marple Township (Delaware County, PA) to allow the company to distribute more natural gas into Delaware County through 11.5 miles of new natural gas main lines. As you might expect, the neighbors in the densely populated area of the reliability station are up in arms over the plan.
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Sunoco Fights DEP’s “Arbitrary and Capricious” Marcus Hook Plan

Marcus Hook site

Once again Energy Transfer (ET), via subsidiary Sunoco Partners Marketing & Terminals, is squabbling with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection. ET is also at odds with the special court set up to hear appeals of DEP rulings called the Environmental Hearing Board (EHB). ET says a series of proposed and signed-off modifications to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia has been reopened and numbers/assumptions changed by the DEP, and combined together in a way that makes meeting air quality regulations more difficult and expensive. The DEP combined sources after the individual projects were previously approved by the agency.
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Adelphia Pipeline to Feed Scott’s Toilet Paper Mill Near Philly

In 2018 Kimberly-Clark announced the company would build a Marcellus gas-fired electric plant in Delaware County (near Philadelphia) to power its plant that manufactures Scott 1000 toilet paper (see 2nd PA Toilet Paper Plant Converting from Coal to Gas-Fired Elec). Fast forward two years. The new $150 million gas-fired plant went online earlier this year, right about the time the coronavirus pandemic hit.
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Mariner East 2 Pipe Begins Construction Thru Apartment Complex

Sunoco Pipeline is beginning construction work this week on some of the final bits of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project in Delaware County. One of the projects is to install the pipeline through the Glen Riddle Station Apartment complex. The owner and tenants are not happy. They should have known this day would come.
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Adelphia Gateway Pipeline Gets OK to Begin Some Construction

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Adelphia Gateway is a plan to convert an old/existing 84-mile oil pipeline stretching from Northampton County, PA through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook, into a natural gas pipeline–flowing Marcellus gas to southeast PA. Earlier this month the project received permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to begin work on converting part of the existing pipeline.
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PA DEP Approves Mariner East 2 Pipe Changes in 3 SEPA Locations

Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued modified permits for the Mariner East 2 pipeline project in three southeast PA locations (Delaware and Chester counties). Each location has faced problems with underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD). The modifications allow a different type of installation method to be used–open trench.
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PA Fines Sunoco $355,636 for Old Mariner East 2 Pipe Violations

Credit: Scott Blanchard / StateImpact Pennsylvania (click for larger version)

In early 2018 Sunoco Logistics Partners (aka Energy Transfer) agreed to pay a massive (historically high) $12.6 million fine to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for “permit violations related to the construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project” (see Sunoco LP Pays PA DEP $12.6M to Resume ME2 Pipeline Construction). It wasn’t the only fine the ME projects have incurred. Last Thursday Sunoco agreed to pay *another* $355,636 for a series of “inadvertent returns” (i.e. drilling mud spills) that happened more than a year ago, between August 2018 and April 2019.
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Mariner East 2 Starts Up 13 Miles of Pipe in Southeast PA

The mighty Mariner East 2X (ME2X) pipeline project gets closer and closer to 100% completion, despite the efforts of anti-fossil fuelers to hassle and block the project. In a bit of news ignored by mainstream media, another 13-mile stretch of ME2X in southeastern PA between Chester and Delaware counties went online late last week.
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Antis Complain ME2 Pipe Issued Waivers to Keep Working

Officials from both Delaware County and Chester County (suburbs of Philadelphia) sent a letter to state officials earlier this week asking the state to once again shut down critical work being done on the Mariner East 2 pipeline project. The county officials, at the prompting (control?) of the uber-leftist and radical Clean Air Council, are using the COVID-19 crisis as their excuse to try and shut down work on the project. In their letter, county officials cite unnamed and anecdotal “sources” who claim (lie?) that workers on the pipeline are violating social-distancing rules–at work and off. Ninny nannies tattling. Do you think workers would jeopardize their own health and the health of their families? No, we don’t think so either.
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