Pipeline opponent wins Chester County seat in state House

Danielle Friel Otten says a pipeline being built yards from her back door motivated her to run

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.

Eric Friedman / Submitted

Crews work to stabilize sinkholes in a West Whiteland Township, Chester County neighborhood on March 3. The sinkholes appeared near a construction site for the Mariner East 2 pipeline.

November 7, 2018 | 8:36 PM

Danielle Friel Otten was elected state representative for the 155th district in November 2018.

A prominent pipeline opponent from Chester County will be heading to the state House of Representatives next year. Democrat Danielle Friel Otten beat incumbent Republican Becky Corbin to represent the 155^thdistrict in a race largely defined by community opposition to Sunoco’s Mariner East pipeline project.

Friel Otten says she never thought about running for office until Sunoco began building its Mariner East pipelines 50 feet from her back door.

“There was a group of us who sat around our patio last summer and we talked about what can we do, what are our next steps,” said Friel Otten, “and we agreed that we needed to get people to step up and run.”

Mariner East 2 construction has led to drilling mud spills, sink holes, and contaminated water wells in Chester County.

Friel Otten says frustration battling the pipeline project, concerns about safety and the response from local politicians led her and her neighbors to run for office.

“We need people who make better decisions for our communities and who have the courage and fight when something’s not ok,” she said.

She says she rejected any corporate money for her campaign, and raised $250,000. Last year, pipeline opponents in Chester County got elected as township supervisors and local school board members.

Friel Otten will be joined by 14, possibly 15, new suburban Philadelphia Democrats in the state House and Senate. Many of those have taken a strong stance against new pipelines.

Friel Otten says in Harrisburg she will work to make Pennsylvania a leader in renewable energy.