West Chester, Pa. (Aug. 28, 2018) — The pipeline opposition group Del-Chesco United for Public Safety, in conjunction with state Sen. Andrew Dinniman, who is using taxpayer money to fund a lawsuit against Mariner East 2, released its so-called “citizens risk assessment” Tuesday night at Fugett Middle School in West Chester, Chester County. Pipeline opponents keep saying more information is needed while ignoring important facts, such as:
- Quest, which is conducting the “citizens risk assessment,” has already exposed itself as biased, having earlier produced a faulty qualitative risk analysis for the anti-pipeline Middletown Coalition. In fact, because of its previous work for that group, Delaware County Council raised concerns about Quest and deadlocked on votes when considering contractors to develop its own report.
- This project has nothing to do with assessing risk and everything to do with efforts aimed at shutting down the Mariner East pipeline projects. This is not the first and only pipeline to run through local communities. A number of pipelines currently run through southeastern Pennsylvania and carry the very same energy resources that the Mariner East pipelines will deliver. None of them required these studies and all of them are operated safely.
- The “citizens risk assessment” relies only on information available in the public domain. In other words, it is already flawed, as quantitative risk assessments (QRA) require much more information, some of which is not available publicly for security reasons. The makes any “citizens risk assessment” inherently flawed.
- Study after study shows that pipelines are the safest, most efficient way to transport energy resources and that these permits are among the most stringent the state has ever issued for this type of construction activity. Keep in mind that this project received unprecedented review over the past five years at hundreds of meetings and hearings with local residents, officials and regulators.
If you are covering the release of the assessment, please feel free to use any of this material as well as the following statement attributed to me, Kurt Knaus, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance:
“This is an assessment put together without all the information needed to do it right by a group that has already demonstrated its bias in producing reports with predetermined conclusions. This has nothing to do with assessing risk or ensuring safety. It’s an orchestrated attempt by pipeline opponents to stoke fear and halt construction on one of Pennsylvania’s most significant infrastructure projects in generations.”