Dela. Riverkeeper Changes Strategy, Targets Small Pipe Project
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…
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This one somehow slipped by us. Sometime last year EmberClear filed an application to build a new 488-megawatt natural gas-fired electric plant in Birdsboro (Berks County), PA–near Philadelphia. The new plant is called Birdsboro Power and requires various approvals before it can be built. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is involved. PJM Interconnection is involved. And the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection is involved. All three have issued various permits and edicts in connection with the project. What caught our attention is that DTE Midstream has just filed an application with FERC to build a 14-mile pipeline to feed the new plant. As part of that application, DTE says EmberClear plans to begin construction in 2018, with an in-service date of June 2019. Here’s what we’ve been able to scrounge up on the project…
An eleventh hour deal was snuck into the Pennsylvania budget signed into law by Gov. Tom Corbett late Saturday night. On Friday, an amendment was introduced to the budget that would establish a moratorium on drilling in southeastern Pennsylvania in the South Newark Basin, a small area which stretches from New Jersey through Bucks, Montgomery and Berks counties in PA.