The Clean Air Council is once again making the trek from Philadelphia to the Marcellus; this time to try to stop the distribution of natural gas to homes and businesses in Luzerne County.

The Clean Air Council (CAC) has been behind most, if not all, of the compressor station hearings in the Marcellus region. They travel here from Philadelphia, use big numbers taken out of context and faulty modeling studies like the one discussed earlier this week on this blog to cause undue alarm in residents. It’s fear mongering at its worst. They have an agenda (and a grant) to stop all natural gas development, and they’re doing so by targeting infrastructure.

Now they’ve taken their road show to another level. This group, hailing from a large natural gas usage market, is also trying to stop distribution to homes and businesses in Luzerne County, another area with a  heavy reliance on natural gas, targeting a long time business in the state: UGI Utilities.

Let’s take a moment first to look at the proposed project the CAC is opposing in Luzerne County.

UGI and Luzerne County

UGI has a long history in Pennsylvania–dating back to 1882, when it became the nation’s first public-utility holding company. It was incorporated officially in Pennsylvania in 1991, and just three years later was serving over 60,000 customers in Wyoming and Luzerne counties alone. Today it has over 600,000 residential customers in Pennsylvania. From 2011 to 2012, UGI more than doubled its number of customers who converted to natural gas, according to their 2012 annual report. In other words, adding a needed compressor or gate station to meet the demands of its growing customer base is something UGI employees are experienced at — and have a successful history building.

Read more at http://eidmarcellus.org/marcellus-shale/protesting-natural-gas-usag...