Mother Earth is getting no respect in WV or at the Supreme Court

And, we have news about air quality in Allegheny County, and a Pittsburgh visit by the U.S. Energy Secretary, who said the fight against climate change is the “war of our lifetimes.”

Now we are closer to the ‘climate cliff’ if not in a climate emergency! In a 6-3 majority decision, the Supreme Court struck down a now-defunct rule by the Obama EPA that would have shifted electricity generation away from coal to cleaner natural gas, wind and solar. “A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts for the majority.

Environmental groups, state officials, the coal industry and lawyers weigh in:

David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment: “The Supreme Court just made the monumental task of cleaning up our air and reducing climate-warming pollution much, much harder. We have limited time to reign in our climate pollution, before we fall off a climate cliff from which the planet cannot come back.”

Rachel Gleason, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance: “Coal’s a global commodity. So it really has ebbs and flows depending on what is happening globally. Because of Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, there’s a global energy crisis…and right now, [Europe is] turning their coal plants back on, so I think these kinds of overreaching policy decisions are not meant for bureaucratic agencies that change every four or eight years.”

Alex Bomstein, director of litigation for Clean Air Council: He said these types of “major questions” arguments could now be pushed more often. “Whether the Pennsylvania courts decide to take those parties up on that and try to adopt federal law as Pennsylvania law is a question I don’t know the answer to and I think we’ll be watching.”

Rob Altenburg, director for energy and climate for PennFuture: “We don’t know what the next step is going to be, but we do know that we need to get to net-zero by 2050. We have an Environmental Rights Amendment…and the Air Pollution Control Act…so this decision isn’t applicable to the state.”

John Dernbach, director of the Environmental Law and Sustainability Center at Widener University Commonwealth Law School: He said it’s “distressing” that the court took up the case when it didn’t have to, as a vehicle for limiting executive power. He doesn’t see the ruling affecting the Wolf Administration’s attempt to regulate CO2 because Pennsylvania has its own law governing air pollution that gives the state DEP authority, as well as an Environmental Rights Amendment.

Ramez Ziadeh, Acting Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection: “The ruling undercuts good-faith efforts to fight climate change, but that does not mean we will stop fighting.”

A major effort of the Wolf administration has been joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a cap-and-trade program with 11 other states to reduce carbon emissions from power plants. But Pennsylvania’s participation in RGGI hinges on the state’s next governor. Republican nominee Doug Mastriano has promised to remove the state from RGGI on his first day, if elected, while Democratic nominee Josh Shapiro has expressed doubts about RGGI.

THE ALLEGHENY FRONT, 67 BEDFORD SQUARE, PITTSBURGH, PA 15203

Contact Email Address ~ info@alleghenyfront.org

Some work is underway at the Shell Cracker in spite of COVID -19

From an Article by Chrissy Suttles, Ellwood City Ledger, April 15, 2020

Some work is underway at Shell Chemicals’ $6 billion ethane cracker plant in Potter Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania in the Ohio River valley.

Shell has no plans to fully restart production during the COVID-19 crisis, but an additional 200 employees will return gradually over the next week to join the roughly 300 workers already tasked with repairing and maintaining the facility. More could be called back in the coming weeks.

At least 500 Shell Chemicals workers will be back at Beaver County’s ethane cracker plant by next week, company representatives said Wednesday.

Shell has no plans to fully restart production during the COVID-19 crisis, but spokesman Michael Marr said an additional 200 employees will return gradually over the next week to join the roughly 300 workers already tasked with repairing and maintaining the petrochemical complex. More could return in the coming weeks.

“We anticipate reintroducing more workers to the site at a measured pace so we can integrate limited personnel onsite while maintaining social distancing guidelines,” Marr said. “Next week, we anticipate having approximately 500 workers onsite, which, for now, is the number we believe we need to do the critical repair, preserve and maintain work. We will be reviewing our staffing numbers week by week.”

On March 18, Shell temporarily suspended construction activities at Potter Township’s ethane cracker plant to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 amid public pressure. Union officials said on Wednesday that two employees have since tested positive for COVID-19 and were told to self-isolate.

The plant’s closure came two days ahead of Gov. Tom Wolf’s order to stop all non-life-sustaining businesses, including most construction activities. Shell’s construction company later applied for a waiver to resume some work during the shutdown, asking the state to allow up to 800 workers back for limited construction activities.

Staff at Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development, which reviews waiver requests, said Shell applied for an exemption to continue as a cogeneration power plant. Utility operations are considered essential under Wolf’s order, and the site’s pending gas-powered electricity plant makes it an eligible utility.

Shell will operate in compliance with social distancing and other mitigation measures established by federal and state officials, Marr said, noting the majority of the company’s 8,500 workers will remain furloughed for the duration of the shutdown.

Employees will park within the site itself to avoid the use of busing, eliminating a key challenge to social distancing guidelines. Other protocols in place include temperature screenings and lunchroom spacing, Marr said.

A number of Shell Chemicals workers, local residents and elected officials demanded the company temporarily cease cracker plant construction in mid-March, with employees reporting a variety of health hazards.

Beaver County Commissioners called for the plant’s closure early on. At last week’s commissioners meeting, Chairman Dan Camp said he and his colleagues received multiple calls from concerned Shell workers who didn’t understand why they were being called back following the shutdown.

“A lot of the employees don’t know what to do,” he said. “They don’t know if they should be going back to work or not, or if the governor gave (Shell) a waiver.”

Marr said Shell management plans to update local and state leaders at “appropriate intervals” moving forward.

Commissioners on Wednesday varied in their response to the news. Camp called it a “loophole,” and said protecting Beaver County’s health care system should be a top priority.

“We are starting to see the COVID-19 peak here in Beaver County, and we have to make sure our health care system can accommodate what will happen,” he said. “Even if they’re able to follow CDC guidelines on site, what they take back to their families and communities may not be what’s best for their health.”

Commissioner Jack Manning disagreed with Camp, arguing a few hundred additional workers are unlikely to overwhelm the region’s hospitals. He feels comfortable with the protocols Shell has put in place to protect Beaver County from further COVID-19 exposure, and said those jobs are precious at a time when Pennsylvania is seeing unprecedented levels of unemployment.

“Five hundred people coming back to the area could be what keeps a few small businesses afloat,” he said. “Most of our small businesses could barely go two weeks, let alone two or three months, with a fraction of what they need as income.”

Doctors say major construction projects like the cracker plant make nearby communities more susceptible to the virus due to a large number of transient workers, but Manning said he’s been assured many of the workers returning are permanent residents.

“They’ve told us in the past that these folks returning are local, and they are not bringing a ton of people across state lines,” Manning said. “There might be some Ohio or West Virginia people, but for the most part it’s regional people from the union halls who have relocated here permanently.”

Commissioner Tony Amadio said he’s concerned about how the move could affect public health and safety, but it’s ultimately up to the state — not commissioners — to make those decisions. “Workers who don’t want to return are not penalized for it,” he said. “It’s voluntary.”

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See also: Car protest rally puts focus on Sunoco pipeline work during pandemic, Daily Local News, Chester County, Penna., April 23, 2020

After Gov. Wolf ordered that all non-life sustaining work across the state was to be halted, the pipeline builder was given permission to continue digging at several locations through waivers granted by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

Royal Dutch Shell yields to government actions

From an Article by Tom Fontaine, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, March 18, 2020

Shell Chemicals said Wednesday it will temporarily halt its multibillion-dollar project to build an ethane cracker plant in Beaver County because of coronavirus concerns. The company then plans to gradually ramp work back up at the sprawling site where about 8,000 people have been working.

“The decision to pause was not made lightly,” Shell Pennsylvania Chemicals Vice President Hilary Mercer said in a statement. “But we feel strongly the temporary suspension of construction activities is in the best long-term interest of our workforce, nearby townships and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Mercer added.

The decision came hours after Beaver County government leaders called on Shell to suspend work on the project.

“It’s time to shut down. Do what you have to do, but get to that point where we won’t have anyone on that site,” Beaver County Commissioner Dan Camp said at a news conference late Wednesday morning in front of the county courthouse in Beaver.

Camp, who was joined by fellow Commissioners Tony Amadio and Jack Manning and state Reps. Jim Marshall, Rob Matzie and Josh Kail, said his office had received more than 500 calls in recent days from concerned residents and Shell employees and contractors.

Callers reported crowded conditions on buses that take the project’s thousands of workers to and from the work site, limited hand sanitizer and other problems.

“With 8,000 workers, if something happens there, our health care facilities will not be able to undertake what they will have to do,” Camp said, noting that the Heritage Valley Beaver hospital is equipped with only 40 ventilators.

“There’s potential for a very catastrophic outbreak,” Manning added.

The government leaders said they had been in communication with Shell and Gov. Tom Wolf’s office about their concerns. “I believe Shell understands the problem and our concerns. I have confidence they will do the right thing,” Camp said.

The company did not say how long it would suspend work or how long it might take to ramp work back up to full capacity. “As of now, there is no definitive timeline to return to construction activities,” spokesman Curtis Smith said. “It’s too early to know that. For now, our focus is on the 8,000 workers who have dedicated their time and talent to this project.”

The company said it would spend the coming days installing what it called “additional mitigation measures” at the site. Smith said those measures haven’t been finalized, but could include using additional buses to transport workers to and from the site and installing more sanitizing stations and work tents on the site.

No workers at the site have shown symptoms of covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, according to Smith.

Work on the project is expected to be completed sometime in the early 2020s, Smith said. When the plant begins operating, it will process ethane from the Marcellus and Utica shale reservoirs into ethylene and polyethylene, the building blocks of plastic. Officials have said it will employ about 600 full-time workers, and hundreds of others jobs could be created by spinoff companies related to the plastics industry.

“Our goal is to build a positive, decades long legacy in the region,” Mercer said in her statement. “That means earning our right to live and work here every day. It also means caring for people. While (suspending work is) understandably disappointing to many, we believe this decision honors that approach.”

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Shell ‘s construction crew at risk of COVID-19 sickness

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (WPVI) — Gov. Tom Wolf is tightening his directives to businesses to shut down, issuing a dire warning and saying Thursday that all “non-life-sustaining” businesses in Pennsylvania must close their physical locations by 8 p.m. to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Enforcement actions against businesses that do not close their physical locations will begin Saturday, March 21st, Wolf said in a statement.

You can also find the list at this link.

Penna. legislators and Gov. Wolf should listen to the concerned citizens

From an Article by Chrissy Suttles, Ellwood City Ledger, March 9, 2020

Environmental groups and legislators from throughout the state gathered in Harrisburg on Monday (3/9/20) to rally against hefty tax breaks for some natural gas manufacturers.

Representatives from PennFuture, the Breathe Project and nearly three dozen other organizations spoke out against House Bill 1100 in the Capitol rotunda, urging Gov. Tom Wolf to veto the bill passed with bipartisan support last month.

HB 1100 would establish multi-million-dollar tax breaks for companies investing at least $450 million to build a manufacturing plant that creates a minimum of 800 combined temporary and permanent jobs. The incentive is similar to what Shell Chemicals received years ago to build its petrochemical complex in Potter Township.

The new program would cost $22 million annually per plant in missed taxes until the strategy ends in 2050. It encourages the use of natural gas across the board, roping in fertilizer manufacturers.

Speakers argued the subsidy’s return on investment would include health complications and environmental degradation related to natural gas extraction. Others said clean energy companies should be included in the tax breaks.

“No industry is entitled to an open-ended tax credit,” said PennFuture president Jacquelyn Bonomo. “The entitlement mindset of this industry is unacceptable to communities who refuse to be soaked in toxins in exchange for jobs. The days where Pennsylvanians must accept pollution in exchange for progress must come to an end.”

As part of a package of Republican-sponsored bills called Energize PA, the effort is just one of many established to help subsidize the natural gas and petrochemical industries. Although the bill passed through the state House and Senate with sweeping support, including from Beaver County’s state legislators, Gov. Tom Wolf plans to veto it.

Wolf believes the tax breaks should be considered on a case-by-case basis, but the General Assembly could override that veto if it so chooses. Because the bill includes language requiring companies to pay construction workers the prevailing wage rate and make “good-faith efforts” to employ local laborers, it has earned the support of state building trade unions.

Veronica Coptis, executive director of the Center for Coalfield Justice, said the billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies offered in HB 1100 could be invested in schools, childcare, public safety and community development instead. Democratic representatives from Pittsburgh and elsewhere noted the investment’s uncertainty in an unpredictable market.

“This bill asks us to prop up corporate profit margins in an uncertain and volatile global market,” said state Rep. Sara Innamorato, a Democrat from Pittsburgh. “Courting petrochemical development with no plan to recoup that investment pits our public health, public dollars and public goods against private profits. We need coordination, clarity and transparency on the true costs of subsidizing these industries and operations.”

While supporters say petrochemical production will further strengthen the state’s economy, critics caution the industry’s risk to climate and public health. Environmentalists point to a region along the Mississippi River in Louisiana known as “cancer alley” due to a cluster of cancer patients living near petrochemical facilities. (See the graphic below.)

Additionally, Shell’s cracker alone is legally permitted to emit 2.2 million tons of carbon dioxide each year and more natural gas development could lead to increased methane leaks and pipeline spills.

Matt Mehalik, executive director of the Pittsburgh-based Breathe Project, said those concerned about the Ohio River Valley’s future have seen how heavy industrial development can wreak havoc on a region.

Larry Schweiger, chair of the Climate Reality Action Fund, said lawmakers should be instead promoting clean and renewable energy.

“If Pennsylvania lawmakers were serious about creating good paying jobs they would do what New York did by investing in clean energy,” he said. “For about $1.5 billion, New York spawned 40,000 renewable energy jobs where $1.6 billion in the cracker plant will create 300 to 600 jobs post construction.”

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Who in their right mind would give tax incentives for heavy polluting chemical plants?

Climate change due to fossil fuels now dominates overall impacts

Opinion Editorial by Rev. Mitch Hescox, Evangelical Environmental Network, Harrisburg Patriot-News, PennLive.com, November 21, 2019

It’s no secret that many in our Pennsylvania General Assembly are wildly supportive of the natural gas industry, which remains a powerful economic force in our Commonwealth. However, the industry’s promises of good paying jobs, royalties, impact fees, and campaign donations does not absolve its responsibility to be a good steward of our state’s common resources.

Nationally, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and BP have supported strong federal standards to reduce the leakage of natural gas and other toxins such as benzene, a carcinogen, from natural gas infrastructure. We expect Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry to do the same, and for the General Assembly to ensure that when it doesn’t, the industry will be held accountable for cleaning up its mess.

Yet our Pennsylvania House has passed or is considering bills collectively known as “Energize PA” that simply subsidize the natural gas industry without considering the threats to the health and lives of our children. HB 1100 has been passed and the rest — HB 1102, HB 1106, and HB 1107 — could be brought up as early as this week.

The Senate has been just as disappointing, passing SB 790, which allows Pennsylvania’s conventional natural gas drilling industry to pour radioactive waste water onto roads, pollute our streams without reporting spills, and preempt local governments’ ability to protect their own schools and playgrounds from toxic emissions.

Over 90 percent of the peer-reviewed medical research states that natural gas emissions threaten Pennsylvania’s children (both born and unborn), pregnant women and other vulnerable populations. Those living within a half-mile radius of production and transmission sites are at significant risk for health issues, including: a 25 percent increase in low birth weight infants and significant reductions in infant health, which predisposes individuals to lifelong health concerns; increased brain, spine, or spinal cord birth defects; congenital heart defects; up to 25 percent increase in children’s asthma; up to 86 times greater exposure to known cancer-causing chemicals such as benzene and toluene, and; increased anxiety and depression in pregnant women living near natural gas production sites.

According to the American Lung Association, the cities of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Lancaster, Harrisburg, and York are already among the 25 dirtiest in the country. Today, more than 236,000 children and 945,000 adults in Pennsylvania have asthma. The fugitive emissions from natural gas operations increase smog (ground-level ozone), resulting in tens of thousands of additional asthma attacks each year. A new paper just released by researchers at Carnegie-Mellon adds to the mounting evidence that natural gas pollution is also one of the leading sources for increased soot (PM2.5) in our air. Soot already results in over 16,000 preterm births in the United States, causing over 5,000 infant deaths and is a leading cause of cardiac and respiratory diseases.

But you don’t have to live near a well to feel the health impacts of the natural gas industry. Leaking toxins threaten all of Pennsylvania’s residents. Methane (the primary component of natural gas) is a powerful greenhouse gas that is more than 86 times better at trapping heat than CO2 over its first 20 years in the atmosphere. Methane represents approximately 20 percent of the greenhouse gases that are currently warming the earth, resulting in more extreme weather, hotter temperatures, and increased smog.

Legislators in Harrisburg may want to think twice before rubber stamping Energize PA. Across the commonwealth, over 100,000 pro-life Christians have acted in support of responsible methane standards. We are conservative Christians who value human life and are strong believers in the tradition known as the “Protestant Work Ethic.” As such, we are quite tired of the long-standing special favors given to this now mature industry and believe it is well past time for both conventional and non-conventional natural gas firms to exist on market principles, be responsible for cleaning up their messes, and control their leaking poisons.

The Evangelical Environmental Network does not stand against Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry. We simply wish for the industry to operate safely, stop threatening our children’s health, clean up its messes, and stop seeking and receiving government handouts. For decades, natural gas, coal and other fossil fuels have received subsidies from our commonwealth, but the cost has been too steep. Our kids have paid the lion’s share of these costs with their lungs, hearts, minds, and even their lives. It’s time to defend our children and stop giving away Pennsylvania’s future.

It is simply immoral to keep offering handouts to an industry while our children suffer. We hope our General Assembly puts our kids first and rejects the Energize PA package.

Rev. Mitch Hescox is President/CEO, Evangelical Environmental Network.

Pipeline installations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia involve many bends and slopes, some abrupt or steep or rocky

From the Editorial Board, Philadelphia Inquirer, November 18, 2019

The news that the FBI has been investigating how Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration issued a construction permit for a $5.1 billion project to construct a cross-state pipeline carrying highly volatile gas liquids is a grim reminder that when it comes to energy policy, Pennsylvania is moving in the wrong direction.

Last week, the Associated Press reported that for at least six months, the FBI has been investigating whether Wolf administration officials have pressured the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to approve the Sunoco Pipeline LP’s Mariner East 2 project — which traverses 17 counties — despite potential shortcomings in the permitting process. The Wolf administration has made natural gas a staple of its economic development plans and the project has garnered the support of labor unions and the energy industry.

The federal investigation is the latest in the mounting challenges that include a joint investigation by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and Delaware County District Attorney’s Office, as well as an investigation by the Chester County District Attorney’s Office. The Clean Air Council has challenged in court several water and air quality permits that the state issued to Sunoco. Environmental activists and residents near pipeline construction sites have long been protesting the project — an opposition that intensified following gas leaks, spills, and odors.

Last week, the governor said he had nothing to hide and welcomed investigations. Frankly, though, these questions are not the most troubling aspect of the project. As we face a moment of reckoning to address climate change, instead of moving toward renewable energy, Pennsylvania is battling to grow the commonwealth’s dependence on fossil fuel.

The Mariner East Pipelines are not the only examples

A June fire at Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery put the entire region at risk of exposure to deadly gases. As a part of its court bankruptcy proceeding, it is accepting bids for the property; two of the 15 potential bidders propose using the site to produce fuel. Others would repurpose the site as a fuel terminal.

In the western part of the state, the Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex is soon to be completed in part due to billions in tax credits. Instead of rolling back the footprint of the gas industry in an area of the state that is already seeing a cluster of rare childhood cancer — similar to Louisiana’s “cancer alley” next to refineries and petrochemical plants — the state is expanding it.

According to a USA-Today report, Pennsylvania could expect to see 24 new natural gas plants over the next decade, only two fewer than Texas, which leads the nation.

The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is clear: The only way to avoid irreversible damage to our planet is through “rapid and far-reaching” transition that would reduce emissions by 45 percent before 2030.

With every new pipeline, refinery, or plant, Pennsylvania is making that transition more difficult. Instead of having the vision to start transforming the Penna. economy away from its dependence on fossil fuels, lawmakers and leaders are myopically chasing economic development in the short term at the expense of the future of our commonwealth — and of the planet.

Mariner East pipeline to transport ethane from OH, WV, & PA across PA to the Delaware River for export to Europe

From an Article by Marc Levy, Associated Press Exclusive News, November 12, 2019

PHOTO — In this Oct. 22 photo, pipes lay along a construction site on the Mariner East pipeline in a residential neighborhood in Exton, Pa. The 350-mile (560-kilometer) pipeline route traverses those suburbs, close to schools, ballfields and senior care facilities. The spread of drilling, compressor stations and pipelines has changed neighborhoods — and opinions. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

HARRISBURG — The FBI has begun a corruption investigation into how Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration came to issue permits for construction on a multibillion-dollar pipeline project to carry highly volatile natural gas liquids across Pennsylvania, The Associated Press has learned.

FBI agents have interviewed current or former state employees in recent weeks about the Mariner East project and the construction permits, according to three people who have direct knowledge of the agents’ line of questioning.

The focus of the agents’ questions involves the permitting of the pipeline, whether Wolf and his administration forced environmental protection staff to approve construction permits and whether Wolf or his administration received anything in return, those people say.

The Mariner East pipelines are owned by Texas-based Energy Transfer LP, a multibillion-dollar firm that owns sprawling interests in oil and gas pipelines and storage and processing facilities. At a price tag of nearly $3 billion, it is one of the largest construction projects, if not the largest, in Pennsylvania history.

However, the construction has spurred millions of dollars in fines, several temporary shutdown orders, lawsuits, protests and investigations. When construction permits were approved in 2017, environmental advocacy groups accused Wolf’s administration of pushing through incomplete permits that violated the law.

Wolf’s administration declined comment on the investigation Tuesday. In the past, Wolf and his administration have said the permits contained strong environmental protections and that the Department of Environmental Protection wasn’t forced to issue the permits.

The Mariner East project, along with the overhaul of the Marcus Hook refinery and export terminal near Philadelphia, have had the support of leading public officials and business trade groups.

Wolf himself has said that the pipeline’s economic benefits would outweigh the potential environmental harm, and that the Mariner East would be part of a distribution system that the industry needed.

The state’s building trades unions have seen a huge influx of work on the Mariner East pipelines and Marcus Hook. Exploration firms drilling in the booming Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale fields shipping natural gas liquids through Mariner East pipelines and Marcus Hook have helped the U.S. become the world’s leading ethane exporter.

The roughly 300-mile Mariner East 1 was originally built in the 1930s to transport gasoline westward from Marcus Hook. It was renovated and, in 2014, began carrying natural gas liquids eastward to the refinery from southwestern Pennsylvania’s drilling fields.

Construction permit applications were submitted in 2015 for two wider pipelines, the 350-mile-long Mariner East 2 and 2x, designed for the same purpose, but stretching farther, through West Virginia’s northern panhandle and into Ohio.

Both were projected to be open in 2017. But Mariner East 2 began operating in late December, and Mariner East 2X could be complete in 2020.

The pipelines run past houses, parks and schools in southeastern Pennsylvania, and have been met with protests by alarmed neighbors worried that one leak could ignite a deadly explosion. Sinkholes along the pipelines’ route have opened on lawns and construction has contaminated streams and private water wells.

Food & Water Action Pennsylvania Director Sam Bernhardt released the following statement after the story was published:

“Whether it is provided by the federal judicial system, county District Attorneys, or Governor Wolf himself, justice for communities harmed by Energy Transfer and their Mariner East pipeline means shutting this pipeline down for good.,” he wrote. “The Wolf administration fast-tracked this dangerous, disastrous project, putting communities across the Commonwealth at risk. We have seen sinkholes, spills and water contamination, and a grassroots opposition movement has pushed his administration to stop the project before further disasters strike. Governor Wolf has refused.”

Meanwhile, county and state prosecutors are investigating the pipeline. Chester County’s district attorney, Tom Hogan, opened an investigation last December. In March, Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Josh Shapiro, said his office had opened an investigation on a referral from Delaware County’s district attorney. His office already had an environmental crimes investigation under way into the natural gas industry.

Wolf’s administration also has had run-ins with Energy Transfer in which it accused the company of willfully violating state law.

Still, when the Department of Environmental Protection issued the permits, environmental advocacy groups warned that it would unleash massive and irreparable damage to Pennsylvania’s environment and residents. In general, the permits are required to protect waterways and wetlands from pollution, runoff and obstruction stemming from heavy construction.

Within hours, the Clean Air Council and other environmental advocacy organizations appealed the permits, saying the DEP had approved incomplete and inaccurate permit applications that violated the law “in response to heavy and sustained political pressure.”

At the time, Wolf denied applying pressure to approve the pipeline permits. Rather, he said he had simply insisted the department stick to its own timeline to consider them and that he believed the department had done its due diligence.

The environmental groups’ request to halt construction was denied, but they did win additional protective steps in a settlement.

In depositions and internal documents that became exhibits in the appeal, department employees said the schedule to consider the applications had been sped up, but none said they had been forced to approve permits over their objections.

Construction of Mariner East 2 in Penna.

From an Article by Katie Meyer, StateImpact Penna., October 17, 2019

(Harrisburg) — Democratic Governor Tom Wolf got some unexpected visitors Wednesday—or at least, the hallway outside his office did. When a crowd of about 60 protesters with the groups Halt Mariner Now and the Mama Bear Brigade gathered outside Wolf’s door to ask him to close down a major, nearly completed pipeline project, Wolf wasn’t there and Capitol police wouldn’t open the door. They rallied anyway.

There are three pipelines at the heart of the advocacy effort, which dates back several years: the Mariner East 1, 2, and 2X. All carry, or are designed to one day carry, natural gas liquids from the Marcellus Shale region in Ohio (& WV) and Western Pennsylvania to a Delaware County processing terminal.

The project has been slowed and stopped many times by issues that include a rash of sinkholes caused by construction, and mud from drilling polluting wells and waterways.

People who live in the southeast, where construction has been heavy in residential areas, are also worried that the highly flammable liquids in the line could combust.

Luke Bauerlein, an organizer with the Halt Mariner Now group, said that’s one of his big concerns. “Our community residents aren’t lying when they say this has the potential to be a bomb,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think Sunoco has given them good enough evacuation advice. “I’m not going to be able to forgive myself if I don’t stand up and there’s an accident that happens. We’ve been living on luck for way too long.”

Wolf met with the protesters in Chester County several months ago, in August of this year.

He told them while he shares some of their safety and environmental concerns, the gas liquids need to be moved and the administration is trying to keep the process safe.

“We are trying to make transmission of this stuff, and the alternatives to this, I think, are even worse,” he told them at the time. “So, we’ve got to figure out how to do a better job, I fully agree. What we disagree on [is] in terms of whether we should keep doing this or not.”

Throughout the Mariner project, Sunoco and pro-gas groups have maintained that the pipeline is safe, and that sinkholes and contamination are just a result of construction.

“Oversight of this project is ongoing and strict, as actions by regulators demonstrate,” the pro-pipeline Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance said in a statement. “The project is legally permitted and operated, as courts have ruled repeatedly.”

The alliance added, pipeline work has provided a number of temporary union jobs in the commonwealth.

Bauerlein said he and his fellow demonstrators aren’t necessarily discouraged by Wolf’s refusal to stop the Mariner project. He merely sees it as a cue to move their protests out of the Capitol.

“I’m not sure I can speak to that today,” he said. “But stay tuned, there will be more plans to come.”

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Mariner East: A pipeline project plagued by mishaps and delays

Explainer Article by Jon Hurdle / StateImpact Penna.

A Mariner East 2 construction site in rural Pennsylvania is shown in the photo above. The Public Utility Commission lifted a ban on construction of a valve, removing one obstacle to completion of the troubled project.

Sunoco Logistics Mariner East pipeline project includes three lines — the Mariner East 1, the Mariner East 2, and the Mariner East 2X, all of which carry or will soon carry natural gas liquids (NGLs) from the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays in eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia and western Pennsylvania across the state to a processing and export terminal in Marcus Hook, Delaware.

Farm shown near Marathon’s cryogenic separation plant at Chartiers, Washington, PA

From an Article by Don Hopey & David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 6/17/19

More than 100 organizations and 800 individuals have signed a public letter to Gov. Tom Wolf calling on him to direct the state Department of Health to investigate potential links between shale gas development and a proliferation of childhood cancers.

The letter, which environmental groups plan to deliver to the governor and state Health Department Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine via email Monday, and hand deliver during a demonstration in Harrisburg Wednesday, also requests that all new shale gas permitting be suspended until the health investigation can demonstrate the cancers are not linked to shale gas drilling and fracking operations.

“This is a public health crisis that requires immediate and significant action,” according to the text of the four-page letter.

Emily Wurth helped lead the letter-writing effort and said the broad-based support for examination of health impacts of shale gas development was prompted by the ongoing Pittsburgh Post-Gazette series “Human toll: Risk and exposure in the gas lands.”

Why are there high numbers of childhood cancers in southwestern Pennsylvania?

Stories in the Post-Gazette series document up to 67 cases of childhood and young adult cancers in Washington, Greene, Fayette and Westmoreland counties where shale gas operations are active. The total includes 27 cases of Ewing sarcoma, a rare bone cancer.

“The letter references the investigative reporting and scientific evidence that strongly suggests a link between childhood cancers and shale gas operations,” said Ms. Wurth, who is organizing co-director of Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Action. “We organized this strong response in just a couple of weeks from the about 125 organizations and even more individuals who are concerned about what they’ve read.”

A state health department review of 12 Ewing sarcoma cases in Westmoreland County and six in Canon-McMillan School District in Washington County failed to conclude that either met the criteria for designation as a “cancer cluster.” The study only included three of the six Canon-McMillan area cases in the cluster assessment.

The shale gas industry has vigorously denied there is any link between human health impacts and the air and water pollutants emitted by its widespread and expanding drilling, fracking, processing and transport operations.

Marcellus Shale Coalition President David Spigelmyer said in written responses to questions: “We are disappointed that some activists choose to sensationalize tragedy, make inflammatory suggestions that run counter to the views of respected medical experts, top environmental and health regulators and decades of scientific data and research.”

He said the industry is committed to protecting and enhancing the health and safety of the environment and communities where it operates.

Raina Ripple, director of the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, a Washington County nonprofit that does educational outreach about the health impacts of shale gas drilling, said the multiple childhood cancers focus public concern and present an opportunity to press public officials for answers.

“This is a moment in time to raise these concerns about our children’s health and the cancer rate, and we feel the governor would be remiss in not addressing these concerns,” Ms. Ripple said.

She said there are still significant questions about what is spiking the cancer rates and noted multiple factors may be contributing to that problem, including genetics, legacy pollution and radiation sites, lifestyle factors and environmental exposures.

“But what is new in the last five or 10 years that could have triggered this?” Ms. Ripple said. “Many in the community are quick to seize on legacy causes like radioactive waste but something has changed. The indices of childhood cancer are out of whack. And what’s changed, what’s new, is the shale gas industry.”

The letter notes that about 12,000 wells have been drilled and fracked in the four mostly rural southwestern Pennsylvania counties in the last 15 years, bringing in a host of toxic chemicals, many of them known carcinogens.

Many of those chemicals pose a high risk to children and at-risk populations, the letter states. It also notes there are numerous peer-reviewed public health studies that have found an association between shale gas drilling and fracking and low birth weights in babies, birth defects, asthma and other respiratory problems.

Scientific associations don’t prove that those health impacts are linked to shale gas development activities, but they could be, and should be the subject of more scientific study, said Sandra Steingraber, a biologist at Ithaca College and founder of Concerned Health Professionals of NY.

“We may be on the leading edge of what could be a real cancer crisis in the shale gas drilling and fracking industry,” said Ms. Steingraber, noting studies showing high levels of benzene, a known carcinogen, in the urine of gas well workers, and another that found children living within 500 feet of gas wells in Colorado have higher rates of leukemia.

The letter to the governor notes a Yale study that identified at least 55 fracking chemicals as known or possible carcinogens and recommends further research into the relationship between shale gas development and the “risk of cancer in general and childhood leukemia in particular.”

“As a biologist, what I see so far is little arrows pointing in a direction, arrows that say, ‘Dig here,’” Ms. Steingraber said.

“Based on its air and water emissions, we should look at the role of the drilling and fracking industry,” she said. “Those are reasonable questions to ask.”

Among the organizations signing the letter are Allegheny County Clean Air Now; Climate Reality Project: Pittsburgh & SWPA chapter; Thomas Merton Center EcoJustice Working Group; Green Party of Allegheny County; Allegheny County Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America; Marcellus Outreach Butler; PennEnvironment; Pennsylvania Council of Churches; Physicians for Social Responsibility-Pennsylvania; and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden, Beaver County.

In addition to Ms. Steingraber, other notable individuals signing the letter include actors Mark Ruffalo and Shailene Woodley, “Gasland” documentary filmmaker Josh Fox, and Bill McKibben, founder of the climate change focused 350.org. State legislators signed on include Reps Chris Rabb, D-Philadelphia; Rep. Danielle Friel Otten, D-Chester; Elizabeth Fiedler, D-Philadelphia; Sara Innamorato, D-Lawrenceville; and Summer Lee, D-Swissvale.

“We’ve been seeing different challenges to the investment this state has been making in shale gas development and fracking,” said Ms. Otten, whose district doesn’t have drilling but does have pipelines and pumping stations. “It’s beyond time to take a pause, a breath, to ensure that we’re moving Pennsylvania in the right direction and upholding our statutory responsibilities in ensuring public health and safety.”

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See Also: Industry criticizes ‘ridiculous’ request to halt shale gas drilling, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 18, 2019

1. The Marcellus Shale Coalition is asking Gov. Tom Wolf “to reject the ridiculous request” to shut down shale gas development in southwestern Pennsylvania until the state determines whether its pollutants are linked with childhood cancer.

2. The Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project will host a “Community Meeting on Childhood Cancers in SW PA,” including Canon-McMillan cancers, from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday 6/18/19 at Bella Sera, 414 Morganza Road, North Strabane, Washington County.