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Consultant: Sunoco pipelines bring $4.2B impact to Pa.

Joseph Deinlein//February 6, 2015//

Consultant: Sunoco pipelines bring $4.2B impact to Pa.

Joseph Deinlein//February 6, 2015//

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Econsult Solutions Inc., a Philadelphia-based economic consulting firm hired by Sunoco Logistics to perform the study, also said the Mariner East pipeline projects would directly or indirectly create or induce more than 30,000 jobs across the state. There would be 300 to 400 permanent jobs once the two-year construction was complete.

In November, Sunoco said it planned to invest about $2.5 billion in the state for the projects, taking natural-gas liquids from western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and eastern Ohio to its Marcus Hook Industrial Complex — a former oil refinery — for storage, processing and distribution.

The Mariner East pipeline runs through Cumberland, York, Dauphin, Lebanon and Lancaster counties and, since 2014, has been transporting butane, propane and other natural-gas liquid products from west to east, ending at the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex in Delaware county. The line was constructed decades ago to move gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from east to west.

Already there is a Sunoco terminal facility supporting the pipeline off Simpson Ferry Road in Hampdon Township, Cumberland County.

The Mariner East 2 pipeline is a proposed 16-inch-diameter line that would run parallel with the existing line and would increase capacity. A proposed delivery point would be built in Schaefferstown, Lebanon County.

According to the study, the projects will generate an estimated $23 million in personal income tax for Pennsylvania during construction, plus a secondary potential fiscal impact of $62 million in taxes for the state from Sunoco’s direct, indirect and induced activities, its vendors and employees.

More specific economic impacts for the midstate were not clear. Messages left for an Econsult spokesman were not immediately returned.

Messages seeking comment left for spokesmen at PennFuture, which advocates for environmental and health policies, and the Pennsylvania-based Clean Air Council were not immediately returned.