Jim Willis

Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

The PennEast and Adelphia pipeline projects are, of course, opposed by the Delaware PovertyKeeper and company, but their facts support the two projects.

After we picked ourselves up off the floor from laughing so hard, it dawned on us the far-left radicals at THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Clean Air Council and PennFuture have done both the PennEast Pipeline and Adelphia Gateway pipeline projects a huge beneficial service.

Those three nutty groups commissioned and have just released a new “study” (copy below) that uses data to show PennEast and Adelphia together, when (not if) they get built, will mean that Pennsylvania drillers have to drill and connect another 1,913 to 3,061 new shale wells to feed them. Well, duh! Of course it means that!! And that’s a great thing for all of the Commonwealth. More economic stimulus. More jobs. More tax revenues flowing to local municipalities. Do these groups know they’ve just handed us a new argument in favor of these pipeline?



These silly nutters believe they’re building a case against the pipelines because (they assume) everybody hates fossil fuels as much as they do. Not so. Not in Pennsylvania.

In their zeal to prove these pipelines will lead to more shale drilling, they proved, well, that they will lead to more shale drilling. Voila! That’s exactly what we hope happens! (Excuse us while we recover from another laughing/coughing spell.)

Here’s Big Green mouthpiece PA Environment Digest Blog breathlessly reporting on this latest study that purports to show pipelines equal more shale drilling which (according to them) equals killing Mom Earth.

On March 30, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Clean Air Council and PennFuture released a report from Synapse Energy Economics, LLC saying between 1,913 and 3,061 new Shale gas wells would be needed to support the PennEast and Adelphia Gateway pipeline projects now pending before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. DEP now receives applications for between 1,200 and 2,000 Shale gas wells every year. The PennEast and Adelphia pipeline projects are two interconnected pipelines, proposed to carry natural gas from the Marcellus shale through southeastern Pennsylvania. In a new filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) the PennEast Pipeline company is now proposing to build its 116 mile long pipeline project in two phases, with the Pennsylvania phase being first. The new pipeline project includes an interconnection with the Adelphia Gateway pipeline project with the two pipelines clearly being interconnected and co-dependent. PennEast is proposing this new, modified project in direct response to successful legal opposition from the State of New Jersey regarding eminent domain authority. According to the report, if the newly proposed PennEast/Adelphia pipeline is built, the number of unconventional gas wells drilled and operated in Pennsylvania will increase by between 1,913 and 3,061. The report estimates that the cost in climate damages from the upstream gas development to the combustion of the gas delivered ranges up to $6 billion in the United States and up to $43 billion globally over a 40-year projected lifespan. The increased gas well development would alone result in greenhouse gas emissions between 2.6 and 4.2 million metric tons (M)t of CO2 equivalent (CO2e). Using the social cost of carbon, the report estimates the cost of damages from the wells induced by these projects could range from $13 million in the United Stated to $153 million in global climate change damages. “FERC is required by law to consider the climate changing and environmental impacts of the projects it approves, as part of its legal duty to weigh the project harms against the public good and to make informed decisions. Yet time and time again, FERC refuses to undertake the climate assessment and worse yet falsely claims it can’t be done. It is disgraceful that as a non-profit, we must commission expert reports to do FERC’s job for them,” said Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper and leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “We do not need any more fracked gas pipelines when there is already a glut of fracked gas in Pennsylvania, and when the Earth is already experiencing the devastating effects of climate change. The impacts of this highly polluting industry will be felt everywhere, from communities near the wells experiencing the devastating community, environmental, and pollution effects of fracking, to the downstream communities already feeling the effects of climate change, including increased flooding and destruction of property. The costs of these proposed projects are too great for our communities to bear, and as our report demonstrates they are also too costly for our world and future generations.” The report, secured by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, was included as part of a March 30, 2020 comment submitted by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, in conjunction with Clean Air Council and PennFuture, to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding the Environmental Impact Statement for the PennEast Pipeline Company’s new, two-phase construction plan. The comment urges FERC to review the new project plan as a whole, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

A copy of the new report showing more pipelines means more shale drilling may be downloaded here.

Finally, here is a copy of the comments submitted by THE Delaware Riverkeeper and the other radicals to FERC, sharing the results of their new study with the obviously unlearned and dull FERC commissioners. You will notice THE Delaware Riverkeeper inserts a lot of Musts they believe FERC Must do. “FERC Must” do this and “Must” do that. Arrogant lot.

Editor’s Note: Always remember what these groups—THE Delaware PovertyKeeper, Clean Air Council and PennFuture have—have in common; they’re all paid gentry class shills on behalf the Heinz Endowments and the William Penn Foundation, two private foundations that imagine they should rule Pennsylvania in their own special interests. The “nutters,” as Jim calls them, are nothing but muttering mouthpieces of the moneyed.It’s time to cut off the heads of the big snakes by challenging their tax-exemptions as private foundations.

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