The lit the fuse on the Delco November elections Monday.
Out near Aliquippa, Pa.
That's where an explosion in an Energy Transfer partners methane gas pipeline lit up the landscape in the pre-dawn darkness. No one was injured, but a some structures were destroyed, some people were evacuated, and some roads were closed.
It did not go unnoticed on this side of the state, where residents have for more than a year been complaining about the decision to put another of the company's pipelines, Sunoco Logistics' Mariner East 2 pipeline, through densely populated neighborhoods in Delaware and Chester counties.
Mariner East 2 will deliver hundreds of thousands of barrels of highly volatile natural gas byproducts such as propane and ethane from the Marcellus Shale region to a facility in Marcus Hook.
Its critics say the routing, which basically follows an old, existing pipeline originally used by Sunoco for petroleum products, is too close to residential developments, elementary schools and senior centers.
Monday night the Middletown Council voted for an ordinance that would limit the times when Sunoco could do digging for the project near local schools. Mariner East 2 will run just a few hundred feet from Glenwood Elementary School.
The images of the massive blast and fire coming from the western part of the state no doubt are only going to exacerbate the foes' hopes to derail this project.
And you can bet that candidates are going to get an earful about it.
After the blast in Aliquippa, both state Rep. Chris Quinn, R-168 of Middletown, and state Sen. Tom McGarrigle, R-26 of Springfield, called for an immediate halt to all Mariner East 2 construction until Sunoco can investigate the blast and assure the safety of residents here in Delco.
They also are being torched by their foes because both men were supporters of the project in its early stages.
Be prepared to hear a lot about this in the weeks between now and when voters go to the polls on Nov. 6.
We talk about it on today's editorial page.
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