Clean Air Council Responds to Ongoing Investigation of the Wolf Administration for Corruption and Interference in Mariner East Pipelines Permitting Process

November 12, 2019, Philadelphia, PA – On Tuesday, November 12, 2019, news broke that the FBI is launching a corruption investigation into the Wolf administration regarding its involvement in the permitting of the Mariner East Pipelines.  

Joseph Otis Minott, Esq., Executive Director and Chief Counsel of Clean Air Council, issued the following statement:

“Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2 project has subjected residents across the Commonwealth to untold devastation to their farms, homes, and drinking water.  Clean Air Council raised concerns from the beginning that these permits were being rushed and the consequences have been disastrous.”  

Background:

In February 2017, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued twenty-two permits necessary for Sunoco Pipeline L.P. (now Energy Transfer) to begin construction of its proposed Mariner East 2 and 2X natural gas liquids pipelines. The issued erosion and sedimentation control and water obstruction and encroachment permits are designed to ensure watershed protection.  Clean Air Council immediately appealed the issuance of the permits claiming that DEP had failed to address the negative impacts of the project, such as widespread water contamination. DEP had previously issued a multitude of deficiency letters to Sunoco in September 2016 in response to the earlier versions of the company’s permit applications, outlining hundreds of areas in need of improvement. 

Since construction began on Mariner East, multiple sinkholes have opened up on the Mariner East right of way;  there have been over 200 reported spills of drilling mud across the Commonwealth and over 96 Notices of Violation from the DEP for sediment and erosion control violations, and over 13 million dollars in fines.