Pipelines battles in the U.S. and around the world are having serious ramifications. Pipelines opposition in the disguise of environmentalism is no help.

The on again, off again saga of Mariner East 2 is off-again.  On Thursday, a Pennsylvania State Public Utility Commission judge again suspended construction of Mariner East 2 and 2X and the use of Mariner East 1 following a petition by State Senator Andy Dinniman.  Despite the pipeline being 98% complete, PUC Judge Elizabeth Barnes wrote that the pipeline constitutes an “emergency situation which presents a clear and present danger to life or property.”  She added “(t)he rupture of a hazardous liquid pipeline at the welds of an 8-inch pipe in a (high consequence area) such as West Whiteland (Township) and the ignition of such a potential vapor cloud could have catastrophic results.”

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In the end, it is doubtful that Mariner East 2 and 2X will be stopped.  However, the long term effects of this process are truly harmful to the industry and all concerned.  Serious questions have been raised both about the pipeline route and the construction, and Sunoco Logistics, the owner of the pipeline, often has simply ignored the rules for construction.   This has raised community suspicion about the project and the PUC process.  It also has made a hero of Senator Dinniman, who is not a friend of the industry.  Critics who seek to fight other pipeline projects point to Mariner East 2 of an example where the industry cannot be trusted, and they have lots of ammunition.

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