Transco Wants Fracked Gas In Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Before Legal Issues Are Settled

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. LLC (Transco) has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to allow fracked gas to flow through the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline by September 10. However, several legal challenges to the pipeline on behalf of local communities are still making their way through the courts. These challenges ask the courts to stop the pipeline’s construction and operation. Similarly, advocates filed a letter with FERC requesting that it deny this and any future requests to place the pipeline into service.

In response, Sierra Club Senior Campaign Representative for the Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign Patrick Grenter released the following statement:

"Transco’s fracked gas pipeline through Pennsylvania is a dirty, dangerous threat to our communities and climate. The pipeline should not be allowed to begin operating until the legal issues around it are resolved. Pennsylvanians deserve protection under the law, no matter how badly polluting corporations like Transco want to make an end run around the courts.”

Ann Pinca, president of Lebanon Pipeline Awareness, said:

“It is beyond understanding that corporations like Transco are allowed to construct a project before all legal issues are settled, but can also ask to begin operations. This clearly demonstrates the unfair advantage corporations hold over the citizenry and violates the rights of all Pennsylvanians under the environmental amendment of our state constitution.”

Mark Clatterbuck, Lancaster Against Pipelines, said:

“As Williams frantically prepares to open its Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline, let's remember how we got here. This pipeline faced overwhelming public opposition, including dire warnings by experts on the dangers it posed. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental protection issued permits for the project anyway, violating its own water and air quality standards in the process. Meanwhile, Catholic Sisters, Amish families, and Indigenous people all have their religious rights and cultural heritage trampled underfoot.

Local communities will no longer stand on the sidelines as our safety—and the Earth itself—is traded for climate-killing corporate profits. In Lancaster County alone, more than 50 friends and neighbors have been arrested for resisting the ASP. We, as local communities throughout PA, vow to resist until we secure a clean, healthy future.”