Middletown PA Decides to Blow $45K (not $100K) on Mariner 2 Study
Rabidly anti-drilling organizations like the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council (CAC) have been using the deep pockets of their contributors to stir up dissent against Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline, particularly in towns in the Philly orbit (see Towns Near Philly Collude with CAC to Block Mariner East 2 Pipe?). CAC has towns like Middletown (Delaware County) so agitated, Middletown’s town council foolishly voted to allocate $100,000 out of $1.8 million the town received for leasing rights-of-way for the pipeline to assess risks and create an emergency response plan for the pipeline (see Mariner East 2 Tells PA Town: You’re Flushing $100K Down Toilet). Sunoco politely told Middletown they’re flushing 100 grand down the toilet. Federal guidelines already provide most if not all of the information (and planning) required to protect the good citizens of Middletown. So instead of blowing $100K, the town council voted this week to blow $44,500 instead…
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One of the antis’ favorite tactics in opposing the Mariner East 2 pipeline is to claim it’s unsafe. It’s a bomb waiting to go off. Mariner East 2, as a reminder, is a $2.5 billion, 350-mile natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will run from eastern Ohio through the state of Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. It will flow mostly ethane, but also propane and butane. One town near Philadelphia where the pipeline is slated to run is West Goshen Township (Chester County). The leaders of the town wanted an honest, independent assessment of the pipeline and its potential danger to residents–so they hired the independent consulting firm Accufacts to study the safety of the project. The report is in (full copy below) and shows not only does Mariner East 2 meet, but in fact exceeds federal minimum safety requirements. There goes another anti argument, disappearing into the atmosphere like burned carbon dioxide…
Several townships in the Philadelphia orbit appear to be colluding with each other and with the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council in passing nearly identical resolutions opposing the Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipeline. Eight townships or boroughs along or “close to” (meaning not along) the route in Delaware and Chester counties have published resolutions or proclamations badmouthing the project. The municipalities include: Edgmont, West Goshen, Thornbury, Middletown, Westtown, Rose Valley, Swarthmore and Media. Some of the self-incriminating evidence for collusion comes from an admission by one of them: “The community statements are similar to each other because of consultation between their leaders.” And this, from the odious Clean Air Council: “Alex Bomstein, a lawyer with the environmental group Clean Air Council, said that while there are other local campaign such as those in Lebanon and Huntingdon Counties, the efforts in Delaware and Chester Counties are more ‘developed’ in the Philadelphia suburbs. ‘There are more people organizing than elsewhere,’ he said, probably because of a greater population density closer to Philadelphia.” Why would the StateImpact Pennsylvania propagandist quote the CAC in the same article as the colluding towns, unless they were somehow tied together?…
In December MDN told you that anti-fossil fuelers who oppose Sunoco Logistics Partners’ Mariner East 2 Pipeline were making a last, desperate attempt to stop the project by appealing an eminent domain case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (see 
You may recall our story about the daughter of a Huntingdon County, PA landowner, radicalized by Big Green groups (as evidenced by her association with well known protesters previously arrested), who took to a tree on her mom’s property in order to illegally stop crews working on tree clearing for the Mariner East 2 pipeline (see 
In one final, breathtaking rejection of the rule of law and poke in the eye of those who support fossil fuels, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, doing Lord Obama’s bidding, has rejected granting Energy Transfer (ET) an easement to complete the final leg of the Dakota Access Pipeline that crosses federal land. The out-of-state/paid protesters who have assembled at Standing Rock, ND were orgasmic with delight. Their euphoria, however, will be short-lived as ET expects the incoming Trump Administration to quickly reverse the policy and grant permission to complete the pipeline along its original route. Although this conflict is happening far outside the Marcellus/Utica, it is important for us nonetheless as this group of paid, out-of-state protesters, backed by Big Green money (using money from California billionaire and nut Tom Steyer, among others), has promised to leverage a win against the Keystone XL Pipeline and now the Dakota Access Pipeline by coming to the Marcellus/Utica in an attempt to defeat important pipeline projects in our region. Here’s the latest in the dust-up over the Dakota Access Pipeline…
Sunoco Logistics Partners, the builder of the Mariner pipeline projects, has fought a long and hard legal battle to be recognized as a public utility in Pennsylvania–especially with regard to the next big project in the lineup, the Mariner East 2 pipeline. ME2, as it’s called, is a $2.5 billion, 350-mile natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will run from eastern Ohio through the state of Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. From the beginning anti-pipeline fanatics have tried to derail the project by claiming it is not a public utility (with the right of eminent domain) as defined by PA’s statutes. In July 2014 two administrative law judges working for the PA Public Utility Commission (PUC) said ME2 is not a public utility (see 
Yesterday MDN told you that a war of words has broken out between the Obama U.S. Army Corps of Politicized Engineers and Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) over the Dakota Access Pipeline (see 
It was tough deciding on a headline for this post about Sunoco Logistics Partners third quarter 2016 update. In the end we opted to highlight the news that Mariner East 2–a $2.5 billion, 350-mile natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will run from eastern Ohio through the state of Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia, carting ethane, butane and propane to the facility from both the Utica and Marcellus region–will be delayed nine months from the original plan due to permit delays. Which is frustrating and disappointing. However, other important news was shared during yesterday’s update. On the earnings call Sunoco LP’s top brass said even though the prices Marcellus and Utica drillers get for their NGLs (natural gas liquids) is lower in the northeast than if they can cart it to the Gulf Coast, when you factor in transportation costs to get product to the Gulf, drillers end up making MORE money by selling their NGLs in the northeast via Sunoco’s Marcus Hook facility–$0.10 to $0.20 per barrel more. At least, that’s the claim made by Sunoco LP’s CEO Michael Hennigan…