PA DEP Squeezes Another $660,000 from ME2 Pipe for “Violations”
The problem with the pay-for-protection scam is that it never stops. A mobster comes calling on a business, and for a “small” and regular fee, the mobster will guarantee nothing “happens” to the business. “Just think of it as insurance.” It’s a shakedown–a scam. And over the years, the price keeps going up. What if the mobster is a government agency, like the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP)? The DEP keeps shaking down Energy Transfer and its Sunoco Pipeline subsidiary over the construction and operation of the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline. Over the years, the DEP has fined ET/Sunoco over $30 MILLION for so-called penalties related to building ME2. [And another $30.6M related to the Revolution Pipeline explosion.] Yesterday, the DEP announced ANOTHER $660,000 in “penalties” related to building ME2. When will it end?
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We’re coining a new phrase here on MDN today: Marcellus-to-Marijuana, or M2M. (We’re trying not to giggle as we write this.) A “medical marijuana” facility in Perry County, PA (pot growing plant in MDN vernacular) will receive liquefied natural gas (LNG) beginning next year. There are no in-the-ground pipelines in the area, so the production plant, located in the Perry Innovation Park (near Harrisburg), will begin receiving PA Marcellus gas in the form of LNG next year delivered by tractor-trailers–a “virtual pipeline.”
In January the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) lifted a moratorium (in place for more than a year) on new construction permits for the Mariner East 2 pipeline project (see 
Juniata County just became the fifth central Pennsylvania county to join the SEDA-COG Natural Gas Cooperative. SEDA-COG stands for Susquehanna Economic Development Association – Council of Governments. Collectively, SEDA-COG is a group of 11 central PA counties. The other four counties that belong to the Natural Gas Cooperative include Clinton, Centre, Mifflin, and Perry. So what’s the big deal about this group? In 2013 MDN reported that SEDA-COG was working on an initiative to bring natural gas to more residents and businesses in their collective 11-county region (see 
Last June MDN told you about Compass Natural Gas, a company that compresses natural gas and trucks it to locations not served by a pipeline, cool concept called a “virtual pipeline” (see