{"id":21022,"date":"2020-04-12T09:01:28","date_gmt":"2020-04-12T13:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=21022"},"modified":"2020-04-12T09:01:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-12T13:01:30","slug":"wolfs-conduct-on-the-pipeline-is-impossible-to-explain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=21022","title":{"rendered":"Wolf’s conduct on the pipeline is impossible to explain"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It runs like a scar across Chester County, a tear far more than a flesh wound, winding across the middle of the county as a reminder that the rich and the powerful can always buy off government at the expense of the people.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is, of course, the Mariner East II pipeline. It is appears to be back under construction because of a waiver from the Wolf Administration deeming it \u201clife sustaining,\u201d but strangely, no one has been able to confirm the existence of a waiver.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever is the truth \u2014 something in short supply in the tangled tale of this white elephant project \u2014 work resumed in the county on the project by the middle of last week. I know, because I saw it in person.<\/span><\/p>\n

How anyone in their right mind \u2014 unless compromised by money \u2014 can see this project as \u201clife-sustaining\u201d or \u201cproductive\u201d or \u201csane\u201d needs to have their head examined.<\/span><\/p>\n

This poorly designed, high-pressure mess of a pipeline is years behind schedule because Sunoco\/Energy Transfer Partners is the kind of company that could mess up a one-car funeral. It is allegedly designed to carry some sort of petroleum product intended to make plastics to Marcus Hook, where it will go on a large ship and be transported to Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, none of that makes any sense, economically, environmentally, or basically on any level.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with fracking. Sure, it seems to cause groundwater contamination and there are increasing concerns that it may be releasing radon gas into the atmosphere (radon is very common in the rock strata from Pennsylvania, into New Jersey and southern New York State).<\/span><\/p>\n

So, even if fracking was wildly profitable, it would be problematic at best. But, it\u2019s not.<\/span><\/p>\n

With oil under $25 a barrel, every barrel that comes out of the ground is a big money loser \u2014 estimates suggest fracking doesn\u2019t break even unless oil is around $50 a barrel. In short, there\u2019s an oil glut right now. No one wants or needs the product coming out of the fracking sites in Pennsylvania.<\/span><\/p>\n

So of course, in this time of crisis, the frackers have their hands out for multi-billion dollar bailouts from the federal government \u2014 this after getting millions, if not billions of tax breaks from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. That\u2019s money out of our pockets \u2014 away from our schools, roads and police and lining the pockets of lawless fat cats at Energy Transfer.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the final insult: insisting that this dangerous boondoggle of a product is somehow essential. It doesn\u2019t reach the standard of even mildly advisable, so it obviously isn\u2019t anything like essential or life sustaining.<\/span><\/p>\n

To be sure, it is crappy for the folks living next to the project \u2014 12-hours a day, six days a week with noise and dust, while they are trapped in their homes. Often the kids can\u2019t even go outside and blow off some steam, it\u2019s so bad. And God forbid \u2014 what if there is another accident \u2014 one more serious than previously, but always a possibility with wildly flammable substances under high pressure, with everyone under Stay At Home orders. What would the causality count look like?<\/span><\/p>\n

Seems like a textbook definition of \u201cnon-essential\u201d and \u201clife extinguishing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Which brings us back to why.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is the Wolf Administration this incompetent?<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond this and the mishandling of the state liquor stores, Wolf has largely done a solid job in this crisis. Not as good as the best, but far better than many other governors who seem bent on killing their populations and then hiding the data (yes, I\u2019m looking at you, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis). Wolf earns a solid C grade.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that there is a seed of corruption in both political parties when it comes to this project \u2014 Energy Transfer Partners has thrown a ton of money around (ironically, some of that money came from tax breaks), and we know in some cases it got moved to various political and governmental sources through unions and other fronts.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why, at last count, I\u2019m told there are four separate criminal investigations underway into how this all went down.<\/span><\/p>\n

Something is really, really wrong here. I\u2019m kind of afraid that were really not going to like the answers when we find out this happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/p>\n

While Wolf has done OK, he\u2019s made a couple of really bad decisions \u2014 his decision to close the liquor stores likely had a lot to do with Delaware\u2019s decision to close its borders, with too many Pennsylvania knuckleheads running down to Total Wine. And we\u2019re seeing similar issues with Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio and New York \u2014 booze seeking Pennsylvanians helping to spread COVID-19 \u2014 so this might have been pretty foolish.<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, Wolf is Albert Einstein compared to the President of the United States \u2014 who has been both stupid, lazy and immoral in dealing with COVID-19.<\/span><\/p>\n

At this point, you almost have to wonder if the Trump Administration is trying to screw this up \u2014 from the slow roll out of emergency funds (small business loans, boosted unemployment) to literally playing politics with things like ventilators.<\/span><\/p>\n

The lack of leadership, petty behavior and sheer stupidity not just from President Donald Trump, but many Republican elected officials (the lunatic proposal to reopen many businesses from Pa. legislative Republicans is complete idiocy), boggles the mind. Once this pandemic passes \u2014 and who knows when that will be \u2014 this governance malpractice will cause massive, massive economic damage. My guess is the second half of 2020 will make 2008 positively rosy.<\/span><\/p>\n

A reckoning is coming and it won\u2019t be pretty.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/p>\n

I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge all of the high school seniors who find themselves losing the last third of their school year, proms and of course, graduation. Not to mention how the disruption is making college applications and acceptance complicated at best.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a big hit to the kids \u2014 and their families. A little less than a year ago, my twins graduated from Unionville High School. It was such a time of pride and joy for our family. It is gutting that so many of our local families will not get to enjoy this special moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t question the decision to close schools for the rest of the year \u2014 COVID-19 is dangerous, by the time you read this, 500 Pennsylvanians will have died from the virus. But for these kids \u2014 and their college counterparts \u2014 it\u2019s heartbreaking.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s keep all these kids and their families in our thoughts \u2014 even as we all have so much to worry about these days.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stay safe, keep distancing.<\/span><\/p>\n

And no, we\u2019re not reopening America on May 1. Or a lot of people will die.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times It runs like a scar across Chester County, a tear far more than a flesh wound, winding across the middle of the county as a reminder that the rich and the powerful can always buy off government at the expense of the people. It is, of course, the Mariner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[110,357,8687,3738,3162,759,2641,8781,4595,1895],"class_list":["post-21022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-chester-county","tag-congress","tag-covid-19","tag-donald-trump","tag-featured","tag-gop","tag-gov-tom-wolf","tag-high-school-seniors","tag-mariner-east-ii-pipeline","tag-republicans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21023,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21022\/revisions\/21023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}