Recently Mariner East 2 has come under fire after sinkholes appeared near the construction site. The mania surrounding the incident has caused intense scrutiny and immense media coverage. Protestors, however are showing just how disingenuous they are, calling for the complete shutdown of a legally permitted project Jim Willis highlights in his recent piece on Natural Gas Now.
Mariner East 2 went through a rigorous and unprecedented review process for years prior to the start of construction. Also, pipeline opponents lack of engineering and geological understanding becomes more obvious each day. Some claim that sinkholes are occurring because of karst geology even though karst is not a geological formation. They also fail to acknowledge that the DEP’s January shutdown of Mariner East construction could have any unintended consequences. Hating construction without providing an opportunity to stabilize it is never idea, but this is too technical for pipeline opponents to fathom.
As Willis writes:
“Their demand of [Gov. Tom] Wolf: Shut it down, now. And keep it shut down. Cancel the entire multi-billion dollar ME2 project that is 93% complete. In other words, their demand is unreasonable, not realistic, not the way adults behave when they have disagreements and concerns.”
We must not allow these radical opposition groups to misrepresent and contort the story into another misguided attempt at shutting down much needed infrastructure.