As of today, the PennEast pipeline will no longer be moving forward. Just three months after securing a crucial win before the Supreme Court, the project was canceled by its developer. The regulatory hurdles to develop the pipeline were far more cumbersome and the developers had to make the unfortunate decision to cut their losses and end the proposed project..
In the same fashion as other projects being cancelled recently across the country, this massive setback in energy infrastructure development means the economic impact promised by the project through jobs, increased tax revenues, and the undoubted increased access to clean burning, affordable energy products is all lost because the growing regulatory red tape caused a diminished return on the investment.
As long as we’re in this day and age, resources like natural gas is and will continue to be one of the central sources of the energy that fuels everyday life. Without pipelines to deliver the energy necessary for basic life functions, transportation by truck or train is required. As the Fraser Institute recently reported, pipelines are 4.5 times safer than trassansportation by road or rail. Pipelines are more climate-friendly and cost effective for both the producer and consumer.
Pipeline infrastructure is critical to ensure the safe transport of energy products. The lack of necessary energy resources has been experienced by many Americans over the past 12 months through the deep freeze in the southwest, hurricanes in the southeast, and the Colonial pipeline hack; incidents that would have had a far less impact and disruption to life with more pipelines actively serving end-users. While the anti-pipeliners might be cheering today’s news, everyday Pennsylvanians and Americans are those that will pay the highest price.