Charlie Wismer’s Dairy Farm in Trappe PA had a barn fire that killed his cows. His son saved some of them. Charlie was the first person I knew who saved his farm from real estate investors. What’s happening to dairy farmers in Canada is horrifying.

 

"Local officials pleaded with about 300 people who defied the order. “If you are still on Sumas Prairie, you need to leave,” said Henry Braun, the mayor of Abbotsford. “I know it’s hard for farmers to leave their livestock, but people’s lives are more important to me right now than livestock or chickens.”

Lana Popham, minister of agriculture for British Columbia, said the storm had battered a key part of the province’s farmland, setting off an animal welfare crisis.

“There are probably hundreds of farms that have been affected by flooding. Some are still underwater, some are on dry locations and we have thousands of animals that have perished,” she said. “We have many, many more that are in difficult situations.”

Officials were racing to carve out routes in impassable areas to get veterinarians to stranded animals, she said. “There will have to be euthanizations that happen, but there are also animals that have survived that are going to be in critical need of food in the next 24 hours.”

Popham said she had spent the past two days on video calls with farmers affected. “Some of them are in their barns, and some of their barns are flooded and you can see the animals are deceased,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking.”

She said while some farmers had towed cows out of the flood waters, the rescued animals were “not in good shape” after their ordeal. “I can also tell you that many farmers attempted to move animals and then had to walk away because the roads were disappearing beneath them.”"

MORE AT:

Canada floods leave thousands of farm animals dead and more trapped

Frantic rescue operation to save livestock from submerged farms underway, with many animals in desperate need of food

Ashifa Kassam

Teslas in North Dakota. Intelligent Wall St. conservatives know electric vehicles of all types will soon replace fossil fuel vehicles of all types. Even coal barrons like Joe Manchin should know this

 Just look at the license plates on their trucks. Those employed at fracking  drilling sites & pipelines in Pennsylvania are mostly from Louisiana. 

Same as the “man camps” of gas fracking drillers “employed” in Pennsylvania: 

“The first oil boom in the Bakken, about 13 years ago, attracted roughnecks and roustabouts who lived in dreary “man camps” and fled back to the Gulf Coast states when the first bust came along a few years later. But petroleum has showered a lot of prosperity on the Bakken, too, and plenty of families stayed, their ranks growing as oil prices rebounded.” 

Maybe because nobody really wants to live in a shithole like Louisiana. 

 EVERY home building contractor is going to want a Ford F-150 Lightning. VIDEO BELOW.

Ford also makes a small family homeowner hybrid that competes with Toyota’s Prius, sort of. I have a Prius V that Toyota stopped making that I use like a small pickup truck. The  Ford Maverick Hybrid Pickup Truck  is available now.  

“EVs will be soaking up electricity,” said Jason Bohrer, head of a coal trade group that has launched a statewide campaign to promote electric vehicles and charging stations along North Dakota’s vast distances. “So coal power plants, our most resilient and available power plants, can continue to be online.”

As many parts of the country attempt to shift their energy production away from fossil fuels and toward solar, wind and other renewables, what’s happening here shows how the electric car revolution might play out in parts of the country far less friendly to either clean cars or clean energy.

The automakers, which have pledged to move largely to electric vehicles over the next decade, will have to overcome cultural hurdles to convince consumers to buy them. The major social spending bill before Congress would increase the subsidy for purchases of EVs from the current $7,500 up to $12,500, if the cars are built in the United States by union labor. But in North Dakota, Wyoming, West Virginia — and in the nine other states where coal is the main fuel for electric power plants — electric cars will still rely on the combustion of ancient carbon-based deposits for their energy unless other sources of power come to the fore.

A provision in the bill to encourage the transition away from coal to solar, wind and nuclear generation was dropped at the insistence of Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.). And as a crucial climate conference proceeds in Glasgow, Scotland, coal remains by far the main fuel for power plants worldwide, and a recent surge in its price suggests that demand is not waning.

Without an intensive turn to carbon capture — a technically feasible but commercially unproven technology — electric vehicles may not be able to make that much of a difference in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions...

But a carbon capture experiment at the Milton R. Young Generation Station adjacent to the BNI mine, devised by a partnership of scientists and the Minnkota Power Cooperative, could make coal more attractive in the clean-energy future — if it works. The idea, known as Project Tundra, is to scrub the carbon dioxide out of the plant’s exhaust smoke, condense it and inject it into deep wells.

Jacobs isn’t sure how many electric vehicles will come to North Dakota, but if their image rubs off on his industry, that’s fine with him.

“A lot of people have a bad taste in their mouth because, you know, we’re polluting the air, ruining the landscape,” said Jacobs, 59. “It would make it more friendly.”

Carbon capture has been a popular idea within the coal, oil and gas sectors for years now. The technology is not out of reach. Plenty of pilot projects have been launched. But so far no one has been able to make it a paying proposition. A pioneering $7.5 billion carbon capture power plant in Mississippi was razed with dynamite on Oct. 9 after its owners wrote it off as an 11-year-old economic failure. North Dakota hopes to break through that last barrier, for both coal and oil.

“True wealth is created by a partnership between man and earth,” said Bohrer. If Project Tundra can show that stuffing carbon dioxide back into the earth is economically feasible, he said, “it’s opening the door for a CO2 economy. It gives the lignite industry a way to survive.”

His group has launched a promotional campaign called Drive Electric North Dakota, which sponsors promotional events, conducts public attitude surveys and lobbies for EVs in the state capital. It has been an uphill struggle so far, but the idea is that the electricity needed to charge cars and trucks can’t all come from unreliable wind or solar, and this will give coal a way to stay in the mix and help keep the grid in fine tune. “The more demand we have in North Dakota,” Bohrer said, “the easier it is to soak up our domestically produced electricity.”

MORE AT WASHINGTON POST

Where electric cars could help save coal 

In states like North Dakota giving up gasoline might not mean giving up fossil fuels

Why a Tesla X?

So how does an electric vehicle hold up in North Dakota? Where do you charge it? How does it compare to “regular” cars? Through this project and the DriveElectricND brand, we have a remarkable opportunity to promote EVs and their uses throughout North Dakota. We’ll be blogging, posting, sharing insights and thoughts about driving and EV from various perspectives.

MORE AT:

DRIVE ELECTRIC NORTH DAKOTA

EVERY home building contractor is going to want a Ford F-150 Lightning. 

The base model costs about $40,000 about 1/2 of what most contractors spend on pickup trucks. 

Ford also makes a small family homeowner hybrid that competes with Toyota’s Prius, sort of. I have a Prius V that Toyota stopped making that I use like a small pickup truck.  The Ford Maverick Hybrid Pickup Truck available now. 

“Drive The Ford Maverick Hybrid - The Least Expensive New Pickup You Can Buy!”

Hemp is used for rope on sailing ships. George Washington grew hemp. Hemp makes great paper. Hempwood is brand new, never done before. Custom furniture makers will latch on to Hempwood. Lumber companies should be afraid, very afraid.

 It’s harder than oak & wears out blades. But furniture makers use harder than oak wood species. 

Hempwood is brand new so variations will come. 

VOCs make new homes unsafe to live in for about a year until they’re done off gassing.  Hempwood has zero volatile organic compounds.

As global warming moves northward, hardwood forests disappear. Hempwood can replace the extinct trees. 

https://hempwood.com/about-the-company/

I was working at the University of Pennsylvania Museum when the first Earth Day was planned. Betsy & me had a ringside seat at the first Earth Day in Philadelphia. It’s time for our “Third Act’” - Bill McKibben

 “We were there for the first Earth Day, and we’ve been glad to see cleaner air and water—but now we know that the climate crisis presents an unparalleled threat.”

Third Act — experienced people working for a fair and stable planet.

My paddles hit dead fish on the Schuylkill River. I had to stop and let the boat drift through them. 

The jazz record shop at 3rd & Market St Philadelphia PA was close enough to the smell the open sewer that was the Delaware River. An amalgamation of raw sewage, crude oil, & brewery stench. The friction of ship’s bows started fires on the water surface. 

After World War II, the Delaware was a dead river, as dead as any in the United States. During summers in the late 1940s, oxygen levels were typically 1 ppm or less over a 20 mile section of river from the Ben Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia to Marcus Hook near Delaware. In 1950, the urban reach of the Delaware River was noted as one of most polluted stretches of river in the world.

Betsy worked at the Red Cross organizing volunteers for Bloodmobiles and calling field commanders in Vietnam by way of ham radio. 

In Scott High School in Coatesville 5 to 7 of us kids ate lunch at the same cafeteria table. Three of them went to Vietnam and came back in a casket.  

Betsy’s Red Cross friend was married to David Douglas. Dave was a Marine who held his hands over his head as a sniper shot his wristwatch off his wrist at the Battle of Khe Sanh. 

I had David Douglas Duncan’s photo book of the Marines at Khe Sanh. David Douglas the Marine left Khe Sanh before David Douglas Duncan the photojournalist arrived.  

We knew Father John McNamee (Diary of a City Priest). Jim Victor, John McNamee and me walked from the Cathedral of Peter & Paul to the Friends Meetinghouse on 2nd St to hear Daniel Berrigan speak. Jim & me couldn’t understand him when he spoke Catholic theology speak but Father John did. 

I worked in the first basement of the University Museum at the photo studio. Around the corner at 34th St is Huston Hall and the Student Union. Something was always going on, war protest organizing, civil rights organizing or organizing for Earth Day.

It was a dark time but also a time of optimism. 

In a few years the Senate and House would override President Nixon’s veto . We got the Clean Water Act and the Delaware stopped stinking. 

“More than 500 people were detained and subsequently released over the course of the demonstrations, which were organized by the environmental group Extinction Rebellion.

The older protesters who spoke with The Washington Post said they felt a sense of collective responsibility: It was their generation that drove gas guzzlers, thought nothing of flying abroad for a beach vacation in Spain, paid scant attention to deforestation in the Amazon. It was on their governments’ watch that carbon emissions climbed.

That sentiment is not exclusive to Europe. American climate activist Bill McKibben announced this past week that he is starting a new group called Third Act aimed at getting older people involved in climate activism.

‘We’re going to try and organize ‘experienced Americans’ — i.e., people over 60 like me — around issues of climate justice, racial justice, economic justice,” he tweeted. “Our generations have done their share of damage; we’re on the verge of leaving the world a worse place than we found it.”

MORE AT:

The Washington Post

‘Gray greens’: Grandparents are being arrested in London climate protests

Karla Adam

September 4, 2021 at 4:42 p.m. EDT

“We were there for the first Earth Day, and we’ve been glad to see cleaner air and water—but now we know that the climate crisis presents an unparalleled threat. 

The heat is on and we must act quickly to turn it down.

We watched or participated in the civil rights movement—and now we know that its gains were not enough, and that gaps in wealth have only widened in our lifetimes. We’ve got to repair divisions instead of making them worse.

We saw democracy expand—and now we’re seeing it contract, as voter suppression and gerrymandering threaten the core of the American experiment. 

We know that real change can only come if we all get to participate.

You are the key to this work. Maybe you’ve asked yourself: how can I give back on a scale that matters? The answer is, by working with others to build movements strong enough to matter. That’s why we hope you’ll join us."

Third Act — experienced people working for a fair and stable planet.

We've Wasted Enough Decades

Welcome to a new newsletter from an old hand

Bill McKibben Sep 1

"Where never is heard a disparaging word" and the skies are all smoky all day.

Our friends took their family on a trip across the United States from Florida to the Rocky Mountain states in a travel trailer. They had to cut their trip short. Their eyes burned and they choked on smoke from forest fires caused by global warming.

My brother lives in Bozeman MT. I visited in 2006. I said “It's foggy today.” My brother said "It never gets foggy here. That's smoke from the fires in Idaho." 

In 2021 the global warming forest fire smoke makes it difficult for me to go outside, I have asthma and when PM2.5 smoke is in the air I get asthma attacks. 

That PM2.5 smoke is getting into the blood of everyone who breathes the forest fire smoke. My cousin, a firefighter, died of a rare lung disease. I believe PM2.5 smoke will cause a variety of health problems for millions of people. 

That global warming smokey air once mostly in western states spans across the United States into Pennsylvania.

“The Polluters Pay Fund would make fossil fuel companies pay for the damage they’ve done by requiring them to pay a fee based on their share of historic carbon pollution that’s been emitted into the atmosphere. The money would then be used to deal with the impacts of climate change and costs of transitioning to a clean energy future.” - Daily Kos

“Today, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) – joined by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) – announced new legislation to require the biggest polluters to begin paying their fair share for a just clean energy transition. The legislation, titled the Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act, requires the largest U.S.-based fossil fuel extractors and oil refiners and foreign-owned companies doing business in the U.S. to pay into a Polluters Pay Climate Fund based on a percentage of their global emissions. The Fund would then be used to finance a wide range of efforts to tackle climate change. The House companion legislation will be led by Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.).”

“For years, fossil fuel companies  have made trillions in profits while spewing carbon pollution that wreaks havoc on our environment and harms the public health. Now, every American is paying the price – from rising health costs to increasingly expensive climate mitigation efforts for everything from flooding to droughts to sea-level rise. Our idea is simple: those who pollute should pay to help clean up the mess they caused – and those who polluted the most should pay the most. This bill will ensure the costs of climate change are no longer borne solely by the American people – and instead require big corporate polluters to pay part of the clean-up bill,” said Senator Van Hollen

“At a time of unprecedented heatwaves, drought, flooding, extreme weather disturbances and the acidification of the oceans, now is the time for Congress to make certain that the planet we leave our children and future generations is healthy and habitable,” Senator Sanders said. “For decades, the fossil fuel industry knowingly destroyed our planet to pad their short-term profits. We must stand up to the greed of the fossil fuel industry, make fossil fuel corporations pay for the irreparable damage they have done to our communities and our planet, transform our energy system and lead the world in combating climate change. That is exactly what this legislation will do.” 

“For too long, the companies that pollute our planet have turned massive profits, while the American people have been left to face the health, climate, and economic consequences. Big Oil and the fossil fuel industry have played an active role in causing the worsening climate crisis, but our communities—and not these companies—are paying the price,” said Senator Markey. “That’s why our legislation, the Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act, would take much-needed and long-overdue action to have fossil fuel companies pay their fair share in order to fund the federal response to the climate crisis they helped cause.” 

“A relatively small number of the world’s largest corporations have been responsible, knowingly, for an outsized percentage of the pollution driving climate change,” said Senator Whitehouse. “‘Clean up your messes’ is a principle that must apply to companies for the damage they’ve inflicted on the planet. The fund would provide resources to help communities adapt to the floods, wildfires, and other natural disasters linked to climate change.” 

“Fossil fuel companies have spent decades fanning the flames of climate chaos—while increasingly extreme wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and heat waves continue threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans,” said Senator Merkley. “It’s time to put the health and well-being of our families and our economy ahead of fossil fuel executives’ wish lists. That means we must finally make the fossil fuel industry pay its fair share and help us tackle this crisis head on.”

MORE AT:

AUGUST 04, 2021

VAN HOLLEN LEADS SENATE DEMOCRATS IN ANNOUNCING NEW LEGISLATION TO MAKE POLLUTERS PAY FOR CLIMATE DAMAGE

"Sunoco, a private sector company, has created a serious threat to our community, therefore we believe plans like this one being developed should become a requirement of the pipeline industry, and especially for Mariner East and TEPPCO."

"Commissioner Josh Maxwell said, 'Sunoco, a private sector company, has created a serious threat to our community, therefore we believe plans like this one being developed should become a requirement of the pipeline industry, and especially for Mariner East and TEPPCO."

"Ginny Marcille-Kerslake, of West Whiteland Residents for Pipeline Safety and Eastern PA Organizer for Food and Water Watch, responded to the County's action. "For almost seven years now, Mariner East has been operating without a credible emergency plan. At long last, our Chester County Commissioners and Department of Emergency Services is acknowledging what residents have been saying for years now."

"However, until and unless we have a credible way to warn and protect the public when Mariner East leaks, its operation must be halted. Every day that our county commissioners delay in taking real action on this, our families and communities continue to rely on luck," Marcille-Kerslake added."

 "WEST CHESTER, PA — Twelve Chester County municipalities have pipelines running through their terrain and into situations potentially hazardous to residents, and in response, Chester County is beginning the process of forming an emergency response plan.

At the request of the Chester County Commissioners, the Chester County Department of Emergency Services has prepared a Request for Proposal (RFP) to specialist contractors, for the development of a natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline hazard-specific addition to the Chester County Emergency Operations Plan.

The RFP also calls for the development of tools to better prepare the public for a potential emergency arising from either the Energy Transfer Mariner East Pipeline or the Enterprise Products TEPPCO Pipeline, the Commissioners' Office said on Monday.

The pipeline hazard-specific section, which will be of particular value to schools and other vulnerable population facilities, will also be developed and added to the emergency operations plans of the 12 Chester County municipalities in which the Energy Transfer and TEPPCO pipelines traverse.

The 12 Chester County municipalities carrying Mariner East and TEPPCO pipelines are the Borough of Elverson, East and West Nantmeal Townships, Wallace Township, Warwick Township, Upper Uwchlan and Uwchlan Townships, West Whiteland Township, West Goshen and East Goshen townships, Westtown Township, and Thornbury Township.

"Chester County's Emergency Services leadership and staff, along with the thousands of police, fire, and emergency medical service personnel throughout the county, have comprehensive emergency operations plans that allow them to quickly respond to disasters, be they natural or man-made," said Chester County Commissioners' Chair Marian Moskowitz.

"But the product being carried through the Mariner East and TEPPCO pipelines present us with complex and unusual challenges, should there be a leak, or worse. That is why we are seeking a specialist perspective for this addition to our emergency plans," Moskowitz said.

The County's Request for Proposal asks respondents to follow the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) planning process for the recommended emergency management actions necessary in the event of an incident along the Mainer East or TEPPCO pipelines. The RFP also recommends that consideration be given to using the best practices of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory"

"Energy Transfer operates the Mariner East 2 project to expand existing Mariner East pipeline service to deliver natural gas liquids from the Marcellus and Utica Shale regions for distribution to domestic and international markets via a 20-inch pipeline, according to the Chester County Planning Commission.

The County's initiative follows a string of incidents across Chester County where Mariner East crews are working and ongoing outcry from residents who live near pipeline installation sites. The move by the Commissioners comes one year after Sunoco spilled more than 8,000 gallons of drilling fluid into Marsh Creek Lake in Uwchlan Township.

The action by the County also comes alongside an ongoing situation at Valley Creek, behind Chester County Library in Exton, where the DEP confirmed sinkholes are being filled with grout after Sunoco was issued a Notice of Violation for discharging water with excessive "suspended solids" into Valley Creek.

In June, the Boot Road pumping station in West Goshen Township saw a release of hydrocarbons inside the pump station facility. At the time, Energy Transfer Partners told the County the alarm they received indicated a small leak of hydrocarbons inside the pump station facility with no hydrocarbons detected on the outside of the pump station building."

MORE AT:

Chesco Government Aims At Pipeline Emergency Response Preparation

Chester County has taken a step toward forming a specialized pipeline hazard emergency plan.

Posted Mon, Aug 16, 2021 at 5:26 pm ET

 Marlene Lang, Patch Staff

An introduction to the community leaders & public officials In the southeast corner of Pennsylvania fighting for green space: "2021 Green Region Award Ceremony"

It's been a long time since I've been active with Schuylkill Riverkeeper, Perkiomen Watershed & Delaware River Network.  

I didn't see or maybe don't recognize anyone in the virtual Green Region Award Ceremony. I know many of the people I had the privilege of working with are still active. 

It appears that the Schuylkill Riverkeeper has evolved from a mostly watershed restoration/education network to a broader Schuylkill River Greenways. 

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network part:

WATERSHED CONGRESS ALONG THE SCHUYLKILL RIVER

***

This is something that a disabled guy like me might be able to do:  

“In order to monitor the presence and/or distribution of litter along the Schuylkill River, water quality partners are launching a campaign to recruit “Community Scientists” to conduct 5-minute Visual Monitoring Assessments. Using their mobile device, these volunteers can simply record the trash accumulation or dumping points along a 100-foot section of the Schuylkill River via a user-friendly form accessible from a cell phone: bit.ly/litterform..

“Trash is important to address when talking about the health of a waterway because it’s often the most visually obvious form of pollution. Bacterial and chemical pollution are generally less directly observable, but when we see trash, it instantly informs our impression of a body of water,” said Chloe Wang, River Programs Coordinator at Bartram’s Garden. “And, it can point to larger problems. For example, near Bartram’s Garden, a lot of trash washes into the river from combined sewer overflows, which also introduce harmful bacteria into the water. It will be interesting to see how the presence of trash differs along various stretches of the Schuylkill.”

The Community Scientist visual assessments require no formal training and are meant to be a simple effort that any resident can complete.  We’ve developed an assessment survey, which can be accessed and submitted via a smartphone or tablet by opening the link in the phone/tablet’s browser.

“This is an opportunity for anyone with an interest in the Schuylkill River to spend time on the river and provide valuable feedback on the conditions of the river,” said David Bressler, Project Facilitator at Stroud Water Research Center. “Schuylkill River Greenways and its partners in this project are looking for motivated and dependable individuals to help them learn about the Schuylkill River and move in positive directions toward making the river more accessible to the community. Support from volunteers is very important and is greatly appreciated.”

The goal is to document critical areas of trash accumulation or dumping points in order to guide management efforts to better deal with this pollution. In addition to the multiple-choice questions to rank trash levels and quantities, this platform asks volunteers to submit a photo of the area and collects the GPS location. By utilizing this user-friendly platform, the data collected under this effort will be summarized and visualized by the project team.

“This project is an important study that we can hopefully use to connect people back to the river and show that the Schuylkill River is a place to be enjoyed by all,” said Michael Griffith, Education & Watershed Specialist at Berks Nature.”

MORE AT:

Schuylkill River Community Scientist Monitoring Project to Kick Off on World Habitat Day

Miica Patterson

Help Assess Trash Seen Along The River

***

Water Spirit

Artist: Sarah Kavage

What is Lenapehoking ~ Watershed?

 

We are a wide-ranging, multifaceted art project that wants to introduce you to your watershed! 

the initiative winds its way through the landscapes and waterways of the Delaware River Watershed in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. 

Taking place from spring of 2021 to late fall of 2021, Lenapehoking~Watershed offers multiple opportunities for inspiration, refreshment, and learning. You're invited to discover new things, meet new people at outdoor cultural gatherings, and enjoy solitary meditations on art and nature. 

I believe the extreme volatility of heavier than air methane, butane & ethane gases in Mariner East Pipeline combined with Chester County's limestone geology of underground caverns make an explosion that will kill people a likelihood. Not a possibility.

"WEST WHITELAND TOWNSHIP, PA — A sinkhole 23 feet long by 10 feet wide by 6 feet deep opened up along the Mariner East easement in West Whiteland Township on June 4 in a situation that a drilling industry publication called "not good.”

There are two active Mariner East Highly Volatile Liquids (HVL) pipelines on either side of the sinkhole. It was one of several sinkholes to open this year in this area of Mariner East construction behind Exton Library and near Meadowbrook Manor.

The Marcellus Drilling News, a drilling industry website, reported to others in the business today "Another sinkhole has appeared in Chester County at a Mariner East 2 (ME2) Pipeline construction site. This time it's located near the Chester County Library. The sinkhole is approximately 23 feet long, 10 feet wide, and six feet deep. It runs between two existing (older) pipelines that actively carry petroleum products. Not good.”

 Sinkholes In West Whiteland Twp. Shut Down Pipeline

Sinkholes appeared near Meadowbrook Manor after water overwhelmed a Sunoco pipeline groundwater pump at the pipeline work site.

***

"What can Sunoco do if the problem is serious? From what I hear, the drill at the front of the auger is broken and has become stuck in place. That’s a problem. It might be possible to dig down to the broken drill, retrieve it, and replace it.  If that were simple to do, it would already have been done. I have to assume it can’t be done, perhaps because of difficulties in reattaching the new drill to the front of the auger. Even if this approach were to be attempted, it would be very difficult to keep ground water out of the hole. I believe that the present location of the drill is below the local water table.

Another option might be digging a huge pit to expose the entire casing, cutting the casing into pieces, and pulling the pieces out with a crane. That would require operating heavy equipment in close proximity to the other operating pipelines in the easement, a dangerous proposition. And again, ground water would be a massive problem. Once the casing and auger were removed, the pit could be filled and Sunoco could try again.

Abandoning the partially-installed casing and starting again nearby would require finding a new drill path in a 50-foot easement that already has several active pipelines in it. It seems unlikely that a practical alternative path for such a large casing could be found.

What about rerouting? Finally, Sunoco could find an alternative route for this section of Mariner East (as the DEP is asking Sunoco to do at Marsh Creek). That would add a year or more to the project. And finding a new route in a densely-populated area like Exton would be very difficult."

MORE AT:

DRAGONPIPE DIARY

Sunoco has a problem at Valley Creek in Exton

View all posts by galex49 April 18, 2021

***

I believe the extreme volatility of heavier than air methane, butane & ethane gases in Mariner East Pipeline combined with Chester County's limestone geology of underground caverns make an explosion that will kill people a likelihood. Not just a possibility.

Imagine this Carlsbad Caverns room full of explosive gasses.

Power doesn’t only come out of the ground anymore. Cheap power comes direct, from sunlight, wind and water. Investors could be stuck with way too expensive to sell out of the ground power.

 “If you rebuild a pipeline, just like building a new pipeline, you’re putting millions and millions of dollars into it,” Margolis said. “You’re locking us into fossil fuel use for decades.”

This is a world wide problem. Countries like Germany with one of the most stable economies are changing to clean energy. 

There’s another way to think about investing in power. 

Power doesn’t only come out of the ground anymore. Cheap power comes direct, from sunlight, wind and water. Investors could be stuck with way too expensive to sell out of the ground power. 

“There aren’t that many pipelines proposed for the near future. We know they’re not economical, we know we need to move beyond fossil fuels, so at this point, it’s like, what’s the next issue with pipelines?” Margolis said, pointing out that pipelines like Colonial are particularly dangerous in terms of explosions, water pollution, and other on-the-ground impacts. “There’s a couple ways to deal with this aging infrastructure. The big way, the main way we see it, is that these things should be decommissioned. When you see a pipeline that’s this old with these kinds of problems. It shouldn’t be repaired, it should be shut down.”

There are around 190,000 miles of pipelines that transport liquid petroleum products across the U.S. Deactivating pipelines is a messy, protracted affair, with several steps required from regulatory bodies to make sure it’s done correctly. It’s also expensive: Enbridge has estimated that properly deactivating its aging Line 3 pipeline and taking it out of the ground would cost more than $1.2 billion dollars. The company is currently considering simply abandoning it and paying off the landowners involved, which it says would cost a relatively paltry $85 million, but leave corrosive pipes littered underneath the landscape.

Activists opposing new pipelines also haven’t stopped fighting them even after being built. The resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline morphed from blocking construction to shutting off a functioning pipeline after Trump lifted blocks set by his predecessor and allowed the pipeline to begin transporting oil. However, in July of last year, a judge ruled that the government did not complete an adequate impact assessment

For older pipelines like Colonial, which have been around long enough to survive any legal challenges related to their initial construction, the chance for shutdown could come when the owners make moves to make significant repairs–especially if those repairs cross new territories or require new permits. That struggle is playing out right now in Minnesota, where Enbridge is looking to construct a new pipeline to replace the crumbling Line 3. The company’s proposed route for the replacement is facing legal challenges and significant backlash from Indigenous groups and activists who say the pipeline violates treaty rights with tribes in the area.

Just because pipelines like the Line 3 replacement or Colonial aren’t technically new infrastructure doesn’t mean that they can’t keep the U.S. locked into using dirty fuels. If shareholders spend big to keep a pipeline working, they’ll be less and less interested in suddenly doubling back on that investment.

MORE AT:

One of The Nation’s Largest Pipelines Caused The Biggest Spill in Decades–And We’re Just Hearing About It