By John Beauge, PennLive, November 7, 2017

The Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline owner has asked for clarification of a court order that has stopped work on the nearly $3 billion project.

Williams Partners of Tulsa, Okla., Tuesday sought clarification of the administrative stay issued Monday by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia.

It says it needs to know whether the stay applies just to construction activity and whether it affects work outside Pennsylvania.

If the stay is applied beyond the commonwealth it could impede service to existing customers, the filing states.

The appeals court said it issued the stay at the request of environmental groups to give it the opportunity to consider their emergency motion seeking to have the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission extend its permitting process.

The Atlantic Sunrise pipeline would run through 10 Pennsylvania counties, including Lancaster and Lebanon counties.

FERC last February issued a certificate of public convenience for the project that will increase the capacity to transport Marcellus Shale gas into the South.

“Atlantic Sunrise has undergone a nearly four-year, extensive review process and is operating and being constructed in compliance with all state and federal permits,” said Michael Dunn, Williams’ chief operating officer.

He expressed hope the court will complete its review expeditiously. He noted the stay is not related to the project’s compliance with federal and state regulations.

The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry is among the organizations urging the court to lift the stay so the “critical infrastructure project” can continue.

“The growth of the energy sector across Pennsylvania has spurred a number of related industries and companies to grow and thrive,” chamber president and CEO Gene Barr said in a written statement.

“This project remains critically important for Pennsylvania and especially so for the skilled laborers and highly trained workers who now find themselves wondering what comes next,” said Kurt Knaus, spokesman for the PA Energy Infrastructure Alliance.

A number of environmental groups, including the Appalachian Mountain Advocates and the Sierra Club, claimed in their appeals court motion that the FERC review of the project did not meet the standard for evaluating greenhouse gas emissions.

In granting the stay, the court said its decision should not be construed as a ruling on the merits of the motion.

Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of Williams, began construction of 186 miles of pipeline in Pennsylvania Sept. 17 after required easements were obtained either through negotiations or court orders.

Approximately 2,300 people are expected to be employed during peak construction periods as the pipeline is built in 10 counties, including Lebanon and Lancaster.

An order of nuns and others opposing the project have staged protests recently in West Hempfield Twp. where the pipeline crosses land owned by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ.

The order has appealed a federal court ruling that dismissed its suit, which claimed the pipeline interferes with their religious rights.

Besides work in Pennsylvania, the project includes revised piping in six compressor stations in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina to permit natural gas to flow in both directions.

A portion of the capacity created by these modifications has been placed into service, Williams says.

Source: http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/11/clarification_sought_of_court.html

By Jim Ebaugh (Glen Rock, PA), York Daily Record, October 23, 2017

About two dozen people who were protesting the construction of a planned natural gas pipeline in Lancaster County were arrested on Monday. Sean Heisey, York Daily Record

Leaving Lancaster City Jail, where 23 of us spent a very long night, I felt such gratitude with all those who recognized that climate change and its entanglement with so many other social issues is the defining moral issue of the day.

Already, we leave our children and grandchildren heavily saddled with national and student debt, while once again legislating tax breaks for the wealthiest on the national credit card.

Species extinction is well underway, and both globally and at home droughts, floods, massive hurricanes from an overheated gulf, wildfires which have grown exponentially larger and fish swimming in Miami streets, ocean acidification, depletion of fish stocks, all as too many are choking on a flat earth denial of the suffering to come.

It is already here.

Six trillion dollars almost criminally wasted on unending wars, a $600 billion defense budget and concentration of wealth beyond historic norms. Resources that could have gone to our elderly, rebuilding infrastructure, making college education tuition free as they once were in many states, building a renewable energy infrastructure, health insurance as a right, all of this we would not be arguing about $6 trillion and growing later.

Instead, we have retreated to a divisive nationalism and distraction, when really we are just afraid. In a Citizens United World, it is delusional to think we are a free people anymore as global corporations not only buy the government they want, they are the government now.

As Engaged Buddhists, we see this entanglement very clearly. The way we treat each other is how we treat the biosphere that we depend on for the very continuation of our species.

The Lancaster Chapel 23 faced their despair by facing the bulldozer and engaging in civil disobedience.

How can we not take action in the face of what climate scientists have predicted, the very outcomes we are experiencing for decades are accelerating. The devil has come with the bill, and it’s just the first course.

Source: http://www.ydr.com/story/opinion/readers/2017/10/23/why-got-myself-arrested-protesting-pipeline-lancaster-co-letter/790950001/

By Jennifer Todd, Lancaster Online, October 22, 2017

PHOTO: Mark Clatterbuck, of Lancaster Against Pipelines, speaks to the crowd gathered Saturday in West Hempfield Township.

Photo: Workers unload and position sections of pipe Saturday at a site in West Hempfield Township.

Signs were displayed at the protest site Saturday.

Several protesters were arrested Saturday afternoon while attempting to block construction of the Atlantic Sunrise gas pipeline in West Hempfield Township.

Six people, including a Catholic priest, were taken into custody by state police shortly after 3 p.m. in the 1200 block of Prospect Road and transported to the Lancaster barracks on Lincoln Highway East for processing. All had been released by 6:30 p.m.

Police arrested 23 protesters at the site Monday when work began.

The protesters, four men and two women, were arrested Saturday after they stretched a quilt to block the entrance to the construction site as employees of Williams Partners continued work there.

Their names were not released Saturday but each will be sent a summons to appear on a misdemeanor charge of defiant trespass, according to the Lancaster County district attorney’s office.

Police had given the protesters a warning to vacate an easement area. After a few minutes, the six remained and were arrested, officials said. The interaction with police was peaceful and the individuals were cooperative, according to the district attorney’s office.

Other protesters remained at the site until 4 p.m., singing songs and carrying signs that read, “You will not endanger our people,” and “Their greed runs deep, our roots run deeper.” Lancaster Against Pipelines reported about 60 people had turned out for Saturday’s protest.

The land on which the pipeline is set to be built is owned by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, a Catholic order of nuns.

In a statement released Friday, Williams Partners said, “We respect the rights of people to protest, but our focus remains on constructing this important, federally-approved infrastructure in a safe, efficient manner. We will continue to coordinate with federal, state and local authorities to ensure protesters and our employees are protected during the construction process.”