Why we don’t need another pipeline safety study
To the Times: Even though Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 pipeline underwent more than three years of intense regulatory review, with dozens of public meetings and hearings held across the state to give individuals a direct voice in the process, many Delaware County residents continue to express concerns about the project.
As a result, in February, Delaware County Council voted to move forward with a “pipeline hazardous analysis” of Mariner East 2 to “address the concerns and educate the general public along the pipeline routes in Delaware County.”
Even as the council prepares its request for a proposal to define the scope of the review, it’s important to note that study after study shows that pipelines are the safest, most efficient way to transport energy resources. Mariner East is no different.
This project has received unprecedented regulatory review in order to begin construction, and is still under rigorous oversight to this day, as recent actions by the state Department of Environmental Protection make clear. And especially at the local level, residents’ voices have been heard. In fact, more than 29,000 formal comments were made in response to Mariner East 2’s DEP permit application.
But it’s not just DEP. On Feb. 2, state Public Utility Commission Chairwoman Gladys Brown sent a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf <http://eastgoshen.org/ wp-content/uploads/2018/02/ PUC_Risk_Assessment_ ME2_020218-1.pdf> highlighting various reasons why additional studies are unnecessary. According to the PUC letter, the commission’s “Pipeline Safety Section has devoted a significant portion of its resources over the past several years to Sunoco and its Mariner East project.” In fact, the PUC spent more time inspecting Mariner East than any other in 2017 alone.
The PUC also found that Sunoco has met its federal obligations to maintain a thorough public awareness program, sending “mailings to 66,000 people,” which included “property owners within one-eighth of a mile of a Sunoco pipeline, public officials, emergency responders, schools and excavating companies.
In addition, Sunoco conducted training for over 2,000 emergency responders and public officials” in 2017. As a part of this program, “Sunoco is working with county emergency management agencies (EMAs) to share emergency preparedness information about its Mariner East pipelines with all schools within one-half mile Mariner.”
Every stakeholder involved in this process — the laborers building the pipeline and the businesses and residents who will benefit from it — has a shared priority: Safe pipeline construction. But we are building more than a pipeline. We are building up our entire commonwealth economy.
A new study shows this critical infrastructure is even greater has the potential to generate a one-time economic impact of nearly $9.1 billion in Pennsylvania and support 57,070 jobs during the entire construction period with earnings of $2.7 billion. The Mariner East projects could generate an estimated $122 million in total to the commonwealth over the length of the construction period.
For Pennsylvania’s local trades men and women, like those from Boilermakers Local 13, projects like this mean everything.
In addition to the direct economic benefits, Mariner East pipeline project of will provide increased access to Pennsylvania-produced natural gas liquids like propane, ethane, and butane. Some have questioned the need for these types of products, but that ignores a basic truth that a large number of Pennsylvanians depend on propane for home heat.
Yet, despite the potential benefits, a strict regulatory process and the years spent reviewing and collecting public comment from residents, some still oppose the pipeline in the interest of community safety.
Energy products are utilized by every Pennsylvanian every single day, sometimes in ways they don’t even realize. Our clothes, shoes, glasses, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals are all developed utilizing energy resources. These products must be transported, and pipelines are safer than moving these products through our communities by truck on our roadways, or even by rail. Pipelines are the safest means to transport energy products, according the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (visit www.phmsa.dot.gov/faqs/general-pipeline-faqs for information).
Efforts by local groups and individuals to conduct their own assessment of risk are unnecessary because of the existing oversight already in place. Since local government is considering paying for part of these assessments, such studies also will consume considerable hardearned tax dollars. Regulations already are in place to keep the community safe, and this project is proof that they are working.