A change-up in tactics for Maya van Rossum, THE Delaware Riverkeeper. Until now, Riverkeeper has mostly concentrated it’s efforts on big, federally regulated interstate pipeline projects, like the PennEast Pipeline (see THE Delaware Riverkeeper Plans to Pack DRBC Hearing to Oppose PennEast). However, new marching orders have been delivered from Riverkeeper’s overlords at the William Penn Foundation. Time to go after the small potatoes too. So Riverkeeper (which is funded by William Penn) obeys, and has filed a petition against building a small, 14-mile pipeline near Philadelphia that will feed a proposed Birdsboro Power project, slated for construction in 2018. Birdsboro Power is a proposed 488-megawatt natural gas-fired electric plant in Birdsboro (Berks County), to be built by EmberClear with major backing by two Japanese companies (see Japanese Now Own 2/3 of Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant in SEPA). DTE Midstream plans to build a 14-mile pipeline from the nearby Texas Eastern Transmission Company (Tetco) pipeline to feed the plant. Riverkeeper has filed a complaint about the DTE pipeline with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), trying to slow or cancel the pipeline project–which would prevent the Birdsboro plant from getting built. Riverkeeper’s aim is to stop the use of fossil fuels, and do so using the excuse of “pipelines harm the environment.” The change in strategy for Riverkeeper is in moving from big pipeline projects to smaller pipeline projects…
