Legislators, business and labor leaders highlight benefits of the Mariner East pipelines

This week, a bipartisan group of Pennsylvania legislators, business and labor leaders gathered at the Capitol for a press conference highlighting the continued need for building out new pipeline infrastructure as well as the tremendous energy and economic opportunities for our state.

State Sen. Camera Bartolotta highlighted how pipelines, including our Mariner East 2 system, help to take more than 200,000 trucks a year off of the roads we traverse daily, preventing more than one million miles of wear and tear from our highways. Pipelines not only are the safest means of transporting energy but are also more cost-effective than trucking.

Bartolotta underscored this point, stating that “by a wide margin, pipelines are the safest and most efficient means to transport gas and oil products to consumers.”

State Sen. Shariff Street recognized the commonwealth’s opportunity to create good-paying jobs, bring down consumer heating costs and to capitalize on expanding the use of an energy source that can help to reduce our carbon footprint and move Pennsylvania toward a clean-energy future.

Pipeline safety and the deployment of advanced technology, proven-safe design and rigorous training ensure that pipelines such as Mariner East 2 are built to meet and often exceed state and federal regulations. State Sen. John Blake attributed the proven safety record of pipelines to the quality skilled labor in the commonwealth.

“I think it’s really important for me to acknowledge the fact that the quality workers that we have in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania led by the labor leaders that stand behind me are second to none.”

“Whether it’s Mariner East 2 or other pipelines, Pennsylvania’s building trades are skilled experienced laborers, and our highest priority on these projects is safety,” said

Mike Trofa, business agent for Philadelphia-based Steamfitters 420. “Our union has been constructing and installing gas pipelines for over 100 years. This is nothing new to our business.”

State Rep. Eric Nelson said that there’s a very clear choice when we talk about comparing pipelines that are safe, reliable and consistent or trucking energy products to consumers.

“An NGL truck holds about 200 barrels of product. Between the Mariner East 1 and Mariner East 2, those represent about 2,700 trucks a day — pressurized gas trucks that if that, if we weren’t using pipelines, would be crisscrossing through the state.”

Click here to watch the press conference in its entirety.