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Corrupt PA AG Shapiro Charges Mariner East 2 Pipe with 48 Crimes
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is running for the Democrat nomination for governor in 2022, accepts big donations from Big Green groups. Ergo, his office is an open door for Big Green to use to falsely prosecute the shale industry in PA. The latest egregious abuse of the AG’s power happened yesterday when the bloviating Shapiro, an insufferable (expletive deleted) announced he is charging the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project with 48 so-called environmental crimes. It’s all an elaborate hoax to try and shut down ME2. We simply can’t let that happen…
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Yesterday as Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro falsely accused Energy Transfer (ET) of “crimes” while building the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline, another bit of news about ME2 played out in the state’s court system. The PA Supreme Court agreed to hear a case in which several Big Green groups and a long-time anti-fossil fueler are demanding ET pay them back for legal fees in a lawsuit initiated by them against ET, a lawsuit they ultimately lost. Talk about arrogant.
Yesterday a group of ~30 protesters rallied at the Historic Courthouse in Chester County, PA, and marched, while chanting, to the County Justice Center. Their protest is against almost completed Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline construction and against a long-completed and flowing Mariner East 1 (ME1) pipeline. The protesters, some who were left wing nuts, others who were honest folks who have been duped by Big Green and scaremongers in the media, asked county commissioners to file a Petition for Emergency Relief with the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) to stop any further construction of ME2 and shut down the already-operating ME1 pipeline that runs through the county.
Chester County, PA commissioners are, once again, attempting to instill irrational fear into county residents over the construction and operation of the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline. ME2 runs hundreds of miles across the state, from eastern Ohio all the way to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. The pipeline runs through Chester on its way to Marcus Hook. Chester commissioners are preparing to pay big bucks to hire a consultant to help the county draw up emergency plans for the pipeline in case it blows up or leaks. It’s a scare tactic. “The sky is falling!” MDN friend Garland Thompson has written a cogent and devastating response to an article highlighting news of the commissioners’ attempt to amplify people’s fears about ME2. His response offers the bigger (and truer) picture about ME2 safety.
After deliberating for an hour, a jury in Chester County, PA declared two off-duty constables guilty of not filling out a tax form–a third-degree misdemeanor. The Chester County District Attorney’s case against innocent men hired to protect the Mariner East (ME) Pipeline project from crazy anti-fossil fuel nutters crashed and burned when the judge in the case threw out all charges save one. How much money did the DA’s office spend to convict two low-level constables of not filing the right paperwork? Somebody in that office should LOSE HIS OR HER JOB. Most likely the DA herself–Deb Ryan.
Yesterday MDN reported that Chester County, PA officials sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) asking the agency to immediately shut down flows along the existing Mariner East 1 pipeline for fear that new sinkholes related to Mariner East 2 work will develop and break an existing, older ME1 pipeline, creating a public hazard (see C
Because of recent sinkholes developing near the construction of the Mariner East 2X pipeline, Chester County, PA officials have sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) asking the agency to immediately shut down flows along the existing Mariner East 1 pipeline. All of the ME pipelines flow NGLs, mainly ethane (sometimes propane and butane). Officials say seven sinkholes have developed near ME construction *just this year* and they are concerned more sinkholes will develop and potentially crack or break an existing pipeline. One recent sinkhole swallowed a small tree (caught on video, below).
This is so tiresome. The Chester County District Attorney’s office continues to persecute two lowly Pennsylvania Constables for doing their job in warning off crazy anti-fossil fuel fanatics who approached a construction site for the Mariner East 2 pipeline project. The DA’s office thought it could fool everyone with a catchy slogan, calling what the constables did a “buy a badge scheme.” What it was, was two guys working for near minimum wage who happen to have a badge, using that badge to keep people from hurting themselves. And for that, they’re being prosecuted by the Chester DA. Shameful. The case is being tried before a jury right now.
We’re always jazzed when we unearth information related to the Marcellus/Utica nobody else has yet discovered or highlighted. We think we’ve found something interesting related to a recently updated spreadsheet maintained by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). On Friday the EIA published a post to trumpet the news that 19 “liquids” pipeline projects are “moving toward completion in 2021.” In reviewing the list we discovered two projects related to the M-U in 2021, and a third M-U project coming in 2022. All three have an impact on the ability of M-U drillers to move NGL’s out of our region to higher-paying markets.
Last night the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) held a virtual hearing on a compromise plan between Energy Transfer/Sunoco Logistics and the DEP to allow ET/Sunoco to complete construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project in the Marsh Creek State Park area (Chester County) where there have been some “issues” that halted work in the area. Given the buildup by the anti-fossil fuel left to turn out and mouth off at the hearing, we’re struck that (so far) it is radio silence in mainstream media about the hearing. We can’t find a single story about the hearing. We do, however, have a report on more than two dozen pro-pipeline speakers who turned out for the virtual hearing. Perhaps that’s why the media is silent?
In June 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied hearing an appeal for a case from Sunoco Logistics Partners about a permit for a pump station in Lebanon County, PA used to help flow natural gas liquids through the Mariner East pipeline system (see 
It’s interesting to observe how antis twist and turn *any* situation, no matter how obscure and inconsequential, into propaganda that supports their aim to end the use of all fossil fuels. For example, there was a minor, we’d call it routine, incident at a Mariner East 2 pipeline pumping station in Chester County on Monday night. A small leak of methane (natural gas) was detected in the pumping station. The leak was tiny and the gas didn’t even escape the pumping station. Yet antis are attempting to turn this molehill into Mount Everest.
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.
Yesterday MDN reported comments by Energy Transfer (ET) that the company plans to finally (after years of delays) complete the final pieces of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project by the third quarter of this year (see 
There are still a few select pipeline projects under construction in the Marcellus/Utica, even during the anti-fossil fuel Joe Biden regime. One such project of keen interest for us is the Mariner East 2 (ME2) NGL pipeline that runs from eastern Ohio through Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. The builder and owner of ME2 project, Energy Transfer, issued its quarterly update last week. As part of that update we found a reference from top management that ME2 will be completely finished (“done done”) sometime in the third quarter of this year.