New data released by DataUSA shows an increase in property values along the Mariner East pipeline in both Delaware and Chester County. For years, Anti-pipeline activists have complained that the existence of pipelines drives down property values, which studies have consistently shown not to be true.
Last Friday, Friedman appeared before Delaware County Board of Assessment Appeals to complain that his property values are too high. The Delaware Valley Journal quotes him saying “Unless you take into account the stigma and the price impairment caused by the pipeline then you’re not reflecting fair market value.” Friedman will continue to flip his story to fit his own agenda but the truth remains: Mariner East has not proven to lower property values in Pennsylvania. Instead, Eric Friedman’s increased.
The property value argument has been occurring since the inception of the Mariner East 2 pipeline and PEIA has been at the forefront stating there was no evidence to support the concept that energy infrastructure would lower property value. In 2015, PEIA pointed to studies from Washington County and the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) Foundation that both demonstrated that property values are not impacted by pipeline construction. PEIA highlighted another study published by INGAA in 2016, that also came to the same conclusion.
‘INGAA Foundation President and CEO Don Santa stated that “this report backs the findings of the INGAA Foundation’s previous, 2001 study of property values along pipeline routes – that underground natural gas transmission pipelines do not affect home values.” ‘
The conversation continued into 2017, when PEIA spoke with Kevin Gillen, a local economist, about the truth of property value impact. “Gillen elaborated that one of the most common misconceptions he had heard from people when it came to pipelines were that ‘building a pipeline anywhere can result in environmental damage and that it could result in a decrease in nearby property values as a consequence of increased energy infrastructure going through a residential area…In both cases, the answer is that it is generally not true.’”
While this new data confirms everything PEIA has said over the course of Mariner East 2 construction, people like Eric Friedman will not be happy until they have successfully sabotaged Pennsylvania’s energy industry. Their theories have time and again proven to not be true and their advocacy is clearly more out of personal ideology than real world reality. This is just the latest instance they have been proven wrong and certainly won’t be the last.