My FB friend Dawn Law lives in Salem, PA, Westmoreland County. This is a contender for "PA County with the most O+G infrastructure."
There is an amazing network of crisscrossing pipelines, of every type: Natural Gas, NGLs, refined products. And several major storage facilities. And active oil and gas wells.
This is on the edge of the Marcellus/Utica region which is hot right now, due to rich Natural Gas Liquids production. .
NGLs are hot economically now because they are used for Tar Sands diluent, refined LPG for home heating, and especially ethane, which is perhaps THE most important feedstock for the chemical industry.
Note: NGLs must be refined before end-use by any hypothetical "PA utility customer".
NGLs also burn much hotter than natural gas. NGLs contain much more dense calorie content. Natural gas/Methane is about 1,000 BTU cubic ft. Propane is about 2,500 BTU per cubic ft. And Pentane/"Natural Gasoline" is about 4,000 BTU per cubic ft.)
The largest storage facility in Westmoreland Co. is the Spectra Oakford, which is around the same staggering size as the Porter Ranch / Aliso Canyon (~86 BCF) which vented ~5 BCF over nearly 4 months in 2016 when a blowout preventer failed.
PS: Spectra was just purchased by Kelsey Warren's Energy Transfer Partners, who you might recall hired a private army, and ★co-opted public law enforcement★ to use chemical weapons, explosive grenades, military vehicles including anti-aircraft guns(!!), and heavy construction equipment to quash a Native-led resistance movement to the Dakota Access Pipeline, and to destroy their resistance camp. Many people were brutalized and terrorized.
There was no mandated federal EIS under NEPA for any part of this project I know of, certainly not for the cumulative impacts of the entire project. This is because liquids pipelines do not generally have federal siting requirements. Even though they can cross several states, and interstate watersheds, liquids pipelines are not considered federal actions which trigger a NEPA review. This is an aspect of the law which needs correction, IMO.
Just 1 year ago, a 30" Loop of the Spectra Texas Eastern (TETCO) "natural gas" pipeline spontaneously ruptured, severely burning James Baker as he recovered in his home from ankle surgery.
I have found evidence which suggests the product being transported may have been wet gas (Methane + NGLs). This could partially account for the very large impact radius (over 2,000 ft).
Lately, Dawn has been posting photos of the horrors of the Mariner East II construction, right next to homes!!!! which is to be a new 16" and a 20" pipeline loop, in addition to the existing legacy 8" (repurposed line from the 1940s). I believe the pressure of the Mariner East II will be 1,500 psig, ... which is really staggering. This is state-of-the-art pressures. No large transmission lines are higher.
I don't have any data about the impact radius of NGL pipelines, but I know that it's potentially far worse than equivalent sized/pressure natural gas pipelines. This is due to higher caloric density, and also that heavier than air liquids stay close to the ground, which is bad if there is not immediate ignition upon a leak. The high impact radius ("incineration zone") for a high pressure 20" NGL pipeline could easily be a mile or more under certain conditions.
This is the video I want you to see: Warning for sensitive people: this video terrifies me:
The sheer arrogance of these INEOS people! working for transnational corporations, which like pirates, obey the laws of no nation. The BILLIONS of investment needed to build those Dragon ships! I'd say the total investment was easily $10B.
The way they subverted the civil law of the Commonwealth and the Constitutional rights of Citizens, disgusts me.
Do we really think the people with $10B laying around are going to let the pissant civil law of Pennsylvania get in they way of their gravy train?
How the hell did this pipeline get public utility status from the PA PUC? It doesn't make sense, apart from public corruption.
Number of people in PA who burn NGLs to stay warm in the winter: Zero
Number of complaints received by PA DEP from impacted residents since 2003? Nearly 10,000.
When do we call this a Public Health Emergency?
We know a $Few Hundred Mil of that $10B is typically budgeted for Public Relations. Hit men, like Phelim McAleer, Jim Willis, Tom Shepstone, or Ezra Levant, to malign and frighten anyone who speaks out. Attorneys with SLAPP suits. Lobbiests with suitcases full of money headed to Harrisburg.
IMHO, The Mariner East II pipeline could be built without a successful coup d'etat, a complete subversion of Civil Law of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Fracking could not have developed at this rate since 2003 without neutralizing the General Police Powers (home rule/zoning, environmental laws, and state+ county+ township police).
It is not hyperbole to say there is a criminal conspiracy at work, a racket made up of disparate parts:
Industry, state actors, regulators, legislators, judges, state and local police, big bankers, media companies.
It is treasonous, because they subverted the civil law.
It is domestic terrorism, because they used violence, bullying, and coercion to advance their harmful agenda.
My friend Craig Stevens says the toxic harms of the Oil and Gas industry in PA is "beyond pandemic". I agree. Public Herald has uncovered nearly 10,000 complaints to PADEP from 2003-2016 which coincides with onset of gas drilling. This dataset is most likely incomplete.
These were NOT all preexisting conditions! I know for a fact how good the water was in NEPA. I grew up in South Jersey, drinking what tasted like "pool water" coming out of the tap, there was so much chlorine. When I visited my Aunt Ruth with a water well in Athens, Bradford County, I used to ask my mom to bring it home in bottles. It tasted so pure! I was 5 or 6 years old (1966?).
There were over 2,000 complaints from 2003-2007, when they were fracking only in SWPA, before gas drilling in NE PA! So did Tom Corbett order the cessation of issuing new permits? Hell no. They covered it up at all levels of government.
I am not a pessimist! I am only stating what is plainly obvious: The Pennsylvania Government has been utterly captured by industry for 15 years or more.
Consider me a Son of the American Revolution. The blood of my ancestors is in the rocks of Northeast PA. I am prepared to help the people regain a Democratic form of government in the Commonwealth of PA.
You can count on me.
Thanks for reading this.
BH
--
--
May you, and all beings
be happy and free from suffering :)
-- ancient Buddhist Prayer (Metta)
May you, and all beings
be happy and free from suffering :)
-- ancient Buddhist Prayer (Metta)
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