West Goshen’s Legal Shenanigans Try to Block Mariner East Pipeline
Even though Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner East pipeline is already buried in the ground and has been for decades, some communities along the path of the pipeline don’t want Sunoco to repurpose the pipeline for use to flow natural gas liquids (NGLs) like ethane and propane. In order to repurpose the pipeline, Sunoco needs to build 18 pump stations and 17 valve control stations in 31 municipalities along its 299-mile route. Communities like West Goshen (Chester County, near Philadelphia) are fighting it because they don’t want such a station built in their township. Sunoco recently won a very important decision by the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) that said Mariner East always has been and still remains a “public utility” under PA law, which exempts them from local zoning ordinances (see Major Milestone: PA PUC Rules Mariner East IS a Public Utility). West Goshen isn’t happy with that so they’re appealing the decision in PA Commonwealth Court, asking the court to stop Sunoco from beginning construction before the appeal process plays out. West Goshen is holding the gun of the courts to the head of Sunoco and will intentionally try to play this out as long as they can (death by a thousand cuts)…
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We’ve got some bad blood happening between EQT–a big Marcellus driller headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA–and the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). The DEP has just filed a lawsuit against EQT to force the company to cough up a new record–$4.53 million in fines–for a leaky wastewater impoundment in Tioga County, PA. The fine comes a week after the anti-drilling PA Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, once again abused her office’s powers by filing criminal charges against EQT (see today’s companion story). The DEP says EQT filed for and received permission to build a freshwater impoundment at that location in 2012, but after the impoudment was built, they decided to change and use it for frack wastewater. Problem is, with a wastewater impoundment you need monitoring wells drilled around the impoundment and extra protections that were lacking because it was supposed to be used for freshwater only. EQT then built a second impoundment next to it for wastewater and did install monitoring wells, figuring those monitoring wells would cover both impoundments. The first impoundment leaked and, according to the DEP, EQT just doesn’t get how serious the problems were/are that resulted, and so they’ve slapped them with their biggest single fine ever. EQT is already fighting back both legally and with their own press release…
We warned you about Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane when she was elected (see 
A group of PA Democrat Senators are, once again, denigrating the miracle of Marcellus Shale drilling in their state. Only this time it’s even sleazier and lower than usual. This time they’re hinting that results from a so-called “study” not released to the public supposedly show that in two Marcellus Shale counties the average number of hospitalizations among the population has gone up versus a single, cherry-picked county with no Marcellus drilling. What is outrageous is that the senators leaked that tiny little bit of information at a hearing, but have not provided any of the details–nor have they provided the study itself. So our hall of shame goes to state Sen. John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, state Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Bethlehem Township, and state Sen. John Wozniak, D-Johnstown who ran a Dem hearing yesterday to attack shale drilling. Also in the hall of shame is Trevor M. Penning, professor of pharmacology and director of University of Pennsylvania’s Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology for testifying (colluding) at that hearing providing only partial information. Penning was the Dem senators’ stooge in an attempt to bad mouth shale drilling. Also making a cameo appearance was PA’s anti-drilling Auditor General, Eugene DePasquale…