Pennsylvanians are already seeing the benefits of energy infrastructure projects like the Mariner East 2 pipeline.
At a recent telephone town hall held as a forum for questions on the pipeline, a member of Steamfitters Local 420 detailed that, “it has created two million man hours of work paying $160 million in wages and benefits…It has given us an economic boost that was needed and well deserved.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) pipeline safety community liaison, Ian Woods, also attended the town hall, and he stressed to listeners that “educating the public is key and often their fear goes away.”
Correspondingly, a recent piece in The Observer-Reporter by Jeff Kotula, president of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce, underscored that “pipelines are known to be the safest mode to transport these materials, and are the most efficient. Our economic growth as a county and Commonwealth depends upon increasing our pipeline infrastructure not increasing uncertainty around further pipeline development.”
The energy industry has made a real impact on the county and Commonwealth level – and the Mariner East projects are prime examples of energy infrastructure developments driving benefits across the state.