Marcellus Shale Pipelines Heading for Philly Suburbs

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

January 3, 2013 | 5:53 PM

Susan Phillips / StateImpact Pennsylvania

Pipeline construction in Susquehanna county, Pa.

Although shale gas drill rigs won’t be rising out of the backyards of suburban Philadelphia, pipelines may be tunneling beneath its parks and sub-divisions. The Mainline Times reports on a crowded public hearing in Chester county this week discussing the coming construction of the Commonwealth pipeline, which will bring Marcellus Shale gas from Lycoming county to consumers in southeastern Pennsylvania. Here’s more from the Times:

“As the Marcellus Shale gas boom continues in Pennsylvania, scenes like the packed house at a recent Warwick Township meeting are likely to be repeated.
With the gas formation being tapped in remote areas of north central and western Pennsylvania, companies are looking to pipelines to transport the gas to market.
And those pipelines are headed our way.
“Essentially, pipelines are coming,” state Rep. Tim Hennessey, R-23rd Dist., told his constituents at the Dec. 12 meeting.”

To learn more about Pennsylvania’s natural gas pipelines, take a look at our pipeline primer.