Utopia has Arrived! Construction in OH Begins on Ethane Pipeline

Kinder Morgan has proposed the UTOPIA (Utica To Ontario Pipeline Access) pipeline, a 12-inch ethane pipeline that will run ~240 miles across the state of Ohio where it will connect with another pipeline and (eventually) flow ethane all the way to a cracker plant in Canada. That is, if they can get some holdout landowners to allow them onto their land (see UTOPIA Pipeline Sues Holdout OH Landowners Using Eminent Domain; UTOPIA Pipeline Still Battling OH Landowners with Eminent Domain; and Wood County, OH Judge Blocks Eminent Domain for UTOPIA Pipeline). Apparently enough land has now been secured that Kinder Morgan is moving forward. Yesterday crews started their chainsaws and began to clear trees to make way for the bulldozers that will show up this summer…