The Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force met for the last time Wednesday to finish work on the 184 recommendations on how to better guide the development of natural gas pipelines in the Commonwealth.

The recommendations themselves were not significantly changed, except for some word-smithing here and there.

At the meeting, DEP revealed the results of earlier voting members of the Task Force did on whether they agreed, strongly or otherwise disagreed with each of the recommendations.  There was not an up or down vote on the recommendations.

42 of the 48 members of the Task Force participated in the voting.

The weighted results of that voting will be included in the final version of the report to Gov. Wolf showing where the members agreed and disagreed with recommendations.  The results of the voting were not available yet online.

DEP Secretary John Quigley thanked the members of the Task Force for their work and said the recommendations represented just the beginning of a dialogue on issues related to pipeline development as each agency starts work on implementing the changes in the report.

At the meeting on December 18, DEP circulated a chart showing which agencies are responsible for implementing which recommendations.

The final report is expected to be delivered to Gov. Wolf the second week of February.

Secretary Quigley noted in other meetings, Pennsylvania now has about 12,000 miles of natural gas pipelines and in the next decade DEP expects 30,000 more miles of pipelines to be built.  Pennsylvania also has 545 natural gas compressor stations to serve 3,264 Marcellus and Utica Shale natural gas wells.  About one-third of the wells now ready to produce are not connected to pipelines and cannot deliver their product to market.

Forty-eight Task Force members and more than 100 individuals served on a dozen work groups to develop the recommendations since last July.

Visit Here to see an interview with Secretary Quigley on the Pipeline Task Force and pipeline issues on PEC-TV’s Environmental Focus program.

For more information, visit the Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force webpage for the latest information.

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1/25/2016