Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Lifts Bar on New Mariner East Permit Approvals, Making Government Oversight More Important than Ever

PHILADELPHIA, PA (January 3, 2020) – On Friday afternoon, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced it has entered into an agreement with ETC Northeast Pipeline, LLC that will result in DEP’s lifting its ban on issuing permits and approvals to Energy Transfer.  DEP banned the issuance of new permits and approvals to Energy Transfer (parent company of ETC Northeast Pipeline, LLC), on February 8, 2019, after a string of violations associated with the Revolution pipeline, including an explosion that destroyed a home, a barn, and multiple acres of land.  Today’s agreement addresses violations by Energy Transfer occurring all the way up through December 2019, including over five hundred discharges into streams and wetlands, over a thousand failures to install or implement pollution controls, and filling in over twenty streams. Energy Transfer has sought numerous permits and approvals over the past year to complete its Mariner East pipelines but has been ineligible due to the bar.  These permits and approvals are now eligible for DEP issuance after the agency’s review.

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

As DEP may be preparing to lift the floodgates on Mariner East construction, it is more important than ever that Pennsylvania holds Energy Transfer to task for every poisoned water well, every gaping sinkhole, and every stream destroyed.  Energy Transfer cannot be trusted to obey the law or protect anything but its pocketbook. Given the disastrous environmental degradation Energy Transfer caused with its Revolution pipeline, the company has lost its social license to operate.