Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Seven months of sometimes-contentious meetings by a statewide task force focused on the expanding network of gas pipelines generated a starting point for debate but no binding directives.
“It’s not meant to be the final word but a start of a conversation,” Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Quigley said Thursday about the final report issued by the Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force he chaired.
The report includes 184 suggestions for streamlining the permit process, improving safety, ensuring environmental protection around pipelines and easing the growing strain between pipeline builders and community leaders. The industry needs additional pipeline as it produces more gas from Marcellus and Utica shale, but a complex permitting process and community opposition are slowing the buildout, Quigley acknowledged.
Seven task force meetings were punctuated by protests, arrests of environmentalists and frustration voiced by some members about how the report would be presented.
Because some of the suggestions faced opposition from within the task force, its 48 members chosen by Gov. Tom Wolf voted on the top 12 recommendations for further consideration. They include encouraging pipeline companies to meet earlier and more often with communities, more training for emergency responders, expanding agency staffing and expanding oversight of smaller gathering lines under the state’s one-call system.
The task force, which delivered its report to Wolf for consideration, said thousands of miles of pipelines are planned. Inadequate infrastructure has contributed to a supply glut in the region that is pushing down prices.
The report identifies appropriate agencies to review each suggestion but requires no action.
The Public Utility Commission, which is seeking to take over operation of the one-call system, and the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance commended the report.
“We look forward to working with the Governor’s Office, the General Assembly and other stakeholders to begin putting these measures into action to further safeguard our vital infrastructure,” said PUC Chair Gladys Brown, a member of the task force.
Industry groups, companies and their representatives on the task force expressed concerns about recommendations that would require new laws or that conflict with existing laws.
“Many of these recommendations … are adequately addressed by existing federal and state regulations and programs, making them redundant with limited additional environmental or public benefit,” wrote Pamela Faggert, chief environmental officer for pipeline company Dominion. The 658-page report included comments from the public and from task force members, some showing wide disagreement on the panel.
“The (task force) members were not allowed ample time to review, consider, discuss, edit or combine the recommendations published in this report,” wrote member Cristina Jorge Schwarz of environmental consultant Apex Cos.
Quigley acknowledged state agencies would need to review any recommendation before considering action, and that some of the report’s suggestions related to issues already covered by regulations.
“Reminders, in my view, are OK,” he said.
DEP officials have started meeting more regularly with agencies that oversee pipeline permits, such as the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Quigley said.
Expanding state oversight of issues that are under federal purview will likely face resistance, though, said Keith Coyle, an energy attorney in Washington for Pittsburgh law firm Babst Calland. He was one of more than 100 people who served on working groups that advised the task force.
“What we don’t want is legislation at the state level to get ahead of federal oversight,” he said, noting the gathering line issue. The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration plans to release rules covering the lines that run from wells to larger transmission lines.
David Conti is the assistant business editor at the Tribune-Review. Reach him at 412-388-5802 or dconti@tribweb.com.