New PA Legislation SB 1499 Would Stop Many Pipeline Projects
In a cleverly disguised move to stop Marcellus drilling, two Philadelphia-area state senators–Andy Dinniman (Democrat, Chester) and John Rafferty (RINO, Montgomery)–have teamed up to introduce legislation, Senate Bill (SB) 1499 (full copy below) that would assess an “impact fee” on new pipelines and possibly existing pipelines re-purposed for a different use. The pipelines getting this new fee are pipelines that specifically carry natural gas, NGLs or oil (other pipelines don’t count). The fee would only be assessed on pipelines in what they define as “high-consequence areas” like, you know, the Philly area. Places with lots of residences and businesses. You live in the sticks? They don’t care. You don’t get nuthin. You live someplace “important” like Philly? Soak ’em. Similar to the current drilling impact fee part of Act 13 (this is what’s clever), the money raised stays local–50% of it to the county, 40% to the town/city where the pipeline runs, and 10% to the state Public Utility Commission. How much of this new “impact fee” does the landowner get–the people who are most inconvenienced by having the pipeline? 0%…
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A disturbing bit of news. Officials in Waynesburg, PA (county seat of Greene County, in the very southwestern tip of PA) say about 4,000 gallons of a “gray, milky substance” flowed through the local sewage treatment plant and that the plant’s flow meters spiked up when it happened. In other words, someone, somewhere dumped something down a manhole and that something got processed by the plant and ultimately discharged into Ten Mile Creek. The disturbing bit is that the plant’s operators, along with the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), think the substance dumped may have been frack wastewater…
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The Martians are getting an assist from THE Delaware Riverkeeper herself (Maya van Rossum). Get this: The Delaware Riverkeeper, along with another anti-drilling group called The Clean Air Council (both based near Philadelphia), have filed an appeal with Adams Township (Butler County), PA over the town’s decision to grant Rex Energy permits to drill gas wells 3/4 of a mile away from the Mars public school. In June, Adams Township supervisors voted 4-1 to allow drilling to commence, subject to getting permits from the Dept. of Environmental Protection (see