Mariner East 2 went through what the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection deemed, the “most strenuous” permit approval process, yet politicians across the Commonwealth do what they do best: make baseless political assertions in order to try to win reelection.
Senator Andy Dinniman has made a career being against almost everything so it is no coincidence that he has been barking into the wind about Mariner East. The latest to fall victim to running scared because their reelections are coming up include Delaware County District Attorney, Katayoun Copeland and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
Copeland and Chester County District Attorneys are both up for reelection this coming November. Following recent anti-incumbent political trends in this area, they are both looking for issues to cling to that might help save their reelection hopes this November.
The question remains to be answered, what if any laws did Mariner East break?
Chester County DA, Tom Hogan, has spent weeks talking about an investigation of the pipeline, but has yet to produce evidence of laws that were broken. The fact stands: this pipeline has been legally permitted and regulators continue to provide proper oversight of the construction of the project to this date.
The pipeline’s operator, Energy Transfer has been working with local elected officials at the township and county levels, meeting with school districts, and working to train emergency responders to ensure that everyone is fully briefed about the project and prepared for the pipeline operation. The company has properly filed their Pipeline Facility Response Plans with the delegated authority, the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which each county and township can request.
To argue that meeting every regulatory requirement is still not good enough is nothing more than sour apples or in the case of the announcements in the last 24 hours, politicians running for reelection.