A Final Word From the Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force

Today, the Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force’s final recommendations were released by DEP Secretary, John Quigley in an online webinar. The purpose of the task force was to produce a “set of recommendations to help Pennsylvania achieve responsible development of natural gas pipeline infrastructure in the commonwealth.”

Members of the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance were active participants, providing public testimony during the hearings, highlighting the positive benefits that pipeline infrastructure development will provide Pennsylvania. Responsible and safe development of new pipeline infrastructure is a common cause of the Alliance, as it has been actively engaged around the Taskforce to date.

As Secretary Quigley said, the release of these recommendations just marks the beginning. Following the release of the recommendations, Trish McFarland and Abe Amoros provided the following comments:

Trish McFarland, President of the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce, responded after the webinar, “The task force should be commended for the work it’s doing to ensure our commonwealth realizes its full energy potential. We recognize this is the first step in a long process. But even as this process continues, it shouldn’t slow or diminish the safe, responsible development of critical pipeline infrastructure already in the works. New pipeline projects are delivering both short-term employment benefits from construction, as well as long-term economic benefits from increased access to abundant, more affordable energy resources.”

“I want to commend DEP Secretary John Quigley for acknowledging in his opening remarks that there is broad support for these projects because of the tremendous economic and job-creation benefits they generate,” stated Abe Amoros. “I’ll say again what I said before in public testimony before this task force: For thousands of workers across our commonwealth, these projects are not just pipelines; they are also lifelines to family-supporting jobs.”

PEIA and its individual members look forward to continuing to work with all stakeholders to promote the development of pipeline infrastructure for safe transport of our energy resources.