There's been a lot of talk about the risks associated with the Mariner East 2 pipeline.
The grassroots organization Delco-Chesco United for Pipeline raised the money to do one of their own. It raised some ominous possibilities.
Delaware County, feeling the heat from citizens' groups, did one of their own. They hired Texas-based G2 Integrated Solutions $115,000 to probe the risk linked to pipelines. The result? You have about the same chance of dying in a car crash or house fire as you do in a pipeline accident.
Residents were not impressed. For months they have suggested that Sunoco and parent company Energy Transfer Partners, who are building the 350-mile pipeline to bring hundreds of thousands of barrels of volatile liquid gases to a facility in Marcus Hook each day, of not paying attention to their concerns.
They suggested that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and the state Public Utility Commission were lax in their oversight of Sunoco's work on the pipeline.
Yesterday Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan chimed in with a little risk analysis of his own.
He agrees with the residents.
Hogan announced he was opening a criminal investigation into construction of the pipeline, specifically claiming Wolf and state regulatory agencies have failed to hold Sunoco's feet to the fire.v
As you might expect, Wolf and state officials offer a drastically different view.
Hogan said his concerns grew after a recent incident involving an explosion in western Pennsylvania, as well as a visit with some Chester County residents who have the pipeline running through their properties.
"The concerns and fears of those citizens were both disturbign and heart-wrenching," Hogan said.v
Sunoco officials fired back at the D.A., first noting they were taken by surprise by his actions, and stressing they have not done anything criminal in building the pipeline.
"We are confident that we have not acted to violate any criminal laws in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and we are committed to aggressively defending ourselves against these baseless allegations," said Vicki Grenada, a spokesperson for Energy Transfer Partners.
Lisa Dillinger, another company spokesperson, earlier had indicate much the same, and also said the company is looking forward to opening a dialog with Hogan.
We'd like to be in the room for those talks.
You can get the full update on Hogan's blockbuster here.
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