The Commonwealth Pipeline Project entered the FERC pre-filing phase last month, pushing the large scale industrialization of Pennsylvania's forests from nightmare to sobering reality.   

The pipeline has the capacity to deliver up to 1.2 million dekatherms (currently worth about $14.2 million in the residential market) of natural gas per day. If completed, the 200-mile interstate pipeline would amp up drilling activity across the region and directly impact Pennsylvania's Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, and York Counties. 

Since the Commonwealth Pipeline falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, energy companies would receive eminent domain power. Companies used this unbridled authority to low-ball and strong-arm landowners during MARC1's construction. Pennsylvanians are in for more heartbreak and headaches if this project moves forward. 

Compressor stations will need to be built every 40 miles or so along the pipeline's path. Each compressor station could produce hundreds of tons of air pollution each year. Nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds emitted from these stations can potentially travel over 200 miles from the source before forming.  

The pipeline would transport natural gas produced in the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays to high-demand markets in the Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas. These Mid-Atlantic markets currently meet their energy needs via long-haul pipelines originating in the Southern United States. The Commonwealth Pipeline would free up these reserves for export.

The plan is already in motion. In May 2011, Cheniere Energy received an Energy Department license to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its Sabine Pass LNG import terminal in Louisiana. There are currently 25 LNG-importing countries in Europe, Asia, South America, Central America, North America and the Middle East.   

In short: the Pennsylvania we know and love is being sacrificed so the rest of the world can burn cheap fossil fuel.

To be sure, the Commonwealth Pipeline is a stroke of capitalistic genius. The supplies freed up down south, formerly bound for the northeastern US market, will fetch a pretty return on the international market. And tow of the pipeline's developers (UGI Corporation and WGL Holdings, Inc.) are at both ends of the deal: they're delivering the gas to subsidiaries of themselves.  

We must put pressure on our federal elected officials. Our federal delegation has a duty to protect the natural environment and health of its constituents, as do our state elected officials. Although the state officials have no power over the permitting of a FERC pipeline project, they may comment during the process. So too can you. RDA will keep you informed about the Commonwealth Pipeline as the process unfolds.