Pipeline regulation needed

A quote from the Op Ed “Two Roads Diverged in Penn’s Woods” that appeared in the Daily Local on 5/12/19 and extolling the proposed Energize PA initiative clearly chooses money:

“House Speaker Michael Turzai announced the Energize PA initiative which is a “progrowth, pro-jobs legislative package.”

The package of bills is designed to capitalize on the fact that energy production is one of the fastest growing segments of our state’s economy.

It will encourage manufacturing expansion while reducing the regulatory burden and shorten the permitting process.

The Mariner 2 pipeline fight in Chester County is literally a fight for our lives, and it is a harbinger of things to come. Many more pipelines will be coming if PA does not close the regulatory loopholes that have allowed this project to invade our County despite the pending disaster threats it carries – to our water, air, infrastructure, and lives.

Think I’m being hysterical? Exaggerating? A brand new pipeline built by the same entity, Energy Partners (Sunoco), and only a few weeks in operation, carrying similar highly explosive non-fuel material, exploded in Beaver County last September.

And we now know that construction practices contributed to the explosion.

We need stronger regulatory oversight, not less. Money buys a lot, but not when you’re dead.

Susan D Miner Uwchlan Township