{"id":2740,"date":"2019-02-27T14:48:36","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T19:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/?p=2740"},"modified":"2019-02-27T16:27:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T21:27:43","slug":"bgts-comments-re-dep-permit-e06-701-dep-permit-hdd-reference-pa-br-0071-0000-rd-16-dep-hdd-s3-0200-cumru-spring-berks-county-highway-222-crossing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/?p=2740","title":{"rendered":"BGT’s Comments Re: DEP Permit E06-701, DEP Permit HDD Reference PA-BR-0071.0000-RD-16, DEP HDD# S3-0200, Cumru & Spring, Berks County, Highway 222 Crossing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

February 27, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Re: DEP Permit E06-701, DEP Permit HDD Reference PA-BR-0071.0000-RD-16,\nDEP HDD# S3-0200, Cumru & Spring, Berks County, Highway 222 Crossing<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Berks Gas\nTruth submits these comments on behalf of its members and in support of the\naffected communities with whom it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Procedural Comments:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DEP\nsuspended review of all construction permits for ETP and its subsidiaries\nearlier this month. This reevaluation would not be occurring if ETP projects\nwere not such spectacular failures, due in large part to the company\u2019s\nconsistent pattern of indifference to regulators, elected officials, and the\npublic. In addition to the DEP\u2019s suspension, the company is currently the\nsubject of a criminal investigation by a District Attorney, various legal\nproceedings brought by, among others, a state senator, and a formal complaint\nby the Inspections and Enforcement division of the PUC. Why is this company\nallowed to do anything in this state? And why wouldn\u2019t the reevaluation of permits\nbe included in the current review suspension? DEP should indefinitely suspend\nthis review, as it pertains to construction permits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should DEP\ndisregard our first point, we further object to the short length of the comment\nperiod and the insufficient notice provided to the public. The Mariner East\nproject has been a very controversial one, as noted above. DEP would not be\nconducting this reevaluation otherwise. Therefore, the public should be given\nproper notice in each county\u2019s paper of record —  in this case the Reading Eagle<\/em> — and sufficient time, at least 30 days, to read,\nprocess, and comment on, in this case, a 96-page report. DEP should extend the\ncomment period after properly advertising it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three consulting firms provide a\nlot of the technical data in the report. Tetra Tech<\/a> is a longtime Associate Member of the Marcellus\nShale Coalition. The others, Rettew<\/a>\nand Skelly & Loy<\/a>, list among their professional\naffiliations the Marcellus Shale Coalition, as well. Their involvement in MSC\ncalls all three firms\u2019 credibility into question and threatens the integrity of\nthe DEP\u2019s reevaluation process. DEP should reject the report with its current\ncontributors and vet all future contributors as part of the evaluation process\nshould it continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General Comments:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We oppose continued shale gas\ndevelopment in Pennsylvania. Communities have been harmed for more than a\ndecade and our environment has been irreparably damaged. Climate changed. In\naddition to the on-the-ground impacts of fracking and fracking-related infrastructure,\nPennsylvanians are already experiencing the impacts of climate change shale gas\ndevelopment is exacerbating. Methane is well-known to be a dangerous greenhouse\ngas, but, as Pennsylvania foolishly pursues plans to become a petrochemical\nhub, the dangers of the greenhouse gas ethane must be recognized as well. The\nstate should ban all fracking immediately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunoco\/ETP has been the subject of\na show trial in recent months for the cynical purpose of suggesting that it is\na bad actor among good actors. Sunoco\/ETP is an outrageously bad actor among\nbad actors. All pipeline companies bully residents, bend every imaginable rule,\nbuy politicians, lobby their way out of regulations and laws, and disregard the\nones they can\u2019t defeat or manipulate. Sunoco\/ETP simply makes it an art form.\nThe day Governor Wolf announced his emissions reduction plans last month, he\ntold KDKA radio that if PA wants a strong natural gas industry, we need more\npipelines. We don\u2019t want a strong natural gas industry. We want a transition to\nrenewable energy. Governor Wolf has also included further pipeline development\nin his criminally wrong-headed Restore Pennsylvania plan as just one of the\nways the industry would get its severance tax dollars back in spades. DEP has\nan obligation to live up to its name and protect the environment by advocating\nagainst further shale gas development, not spending its time and taxpayer\ndollars enabling it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This series of reevaluations was\nmandated because of Sunoco\/ETP\u2019s recidivism. Surely the DEP is familiar with\nthe saying that the definition of insanity is doing things the same way and expecting\na different outcome. This week, Kelcy Warren told investors that his company\nwould do better. Interesting that he has never felt compelled to say that to\nthe many here he has harmed, many of whom who have turned to protesting the\npipeline because their attempts to stop the pipeline by participating in formal\nprocesses like this one have been ignored. They are the ones Warren has said\nshould be \u201cremoved from the gene pool.\u201d As for Warren\u2019s promise to do better,\nwe are reminded of the pattern of the abusive partner who swears it’ll never\nhappen again every time it does. How would you advise loved ones in that kind\nof relationship? Would you urge them to hang in there? Surely you wouldn\u2019t.\nProtest is intervention. We urge DEP to recognize that it is time to break free\nof this bad relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This specific reevaluation pertains\nto Berks County, a county that has been the site of some of the incidents that\nled the state to suspend permits on Mariner East 2 construction in the past and\ncaused the PUC\u2019s Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement to file a formal\ncomplaint. HDD is been a colossal failure along the entire route. The section\nof highway that is the subject of this reevaluation is one of the busier\nstretches of Berks County\u2019s busiest highway. Berks County\u2019s communities and\nnatural resources have suffered enough. Allowing for a process almost certain\nto fail at a site that would cripple transportation in the area when it does is\nunacceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have no more specific comments\nto offer because we cannot in good faith participate in the process of\ndetermining how best to construct the noose the shale gas industry is using on\nus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respectfully,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen Feridun, Founder<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berks Gas Truth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February 27, 2019 Re: DEP Permit E06-701, DEP Permit HDD Reference PA-BR-0071.0000-RD-16, DEP HDD# S3-0200, Cumru & Spring, Berks County, Highway 222 Crossing Berks Gas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2742,"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2740\/revisions\/2742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}