Dear Editor,

Recently my neighbors and I received a flier in the mail sent by PennEast, the company that wants to put a 36-inch, 1,480 psi gas pipeline through Carbon County. The flier is blatantly inaccurate, and the residents of Carbon County deserve to know the truth.The flier asks, "Why support clean, American energy …" but the gas that PennEast wants to pump through Carbon County is anything but clean. It is a nonrenewable fossil fuel extracted by the fracking industry that is poisoning the groundwater with chemicals and causing earthquakes. As part of the pipeline project in Kidder Township, PennEast wants to build a compressor station which will release tons of pollutants, including formaldehyde, into our air every year and produce noise that will destroy our quiet country atmosphere.PennEast's flier states, "Lowering costs for families - Fueling businesses - Energizing the Economy." This is a lie! In Carbon County there is not one family home that will be able to use the gas flowing through the pipeline, and our gas prices will probably rise to pay for the project. Only one business, Blue Mountain Ski Resort, will be able to hook up to the pipeline, and Blue Mountain's plans for expansion could be fueled by an existing gas line. Since Carbon County's economy is largely based on tourism and outdoor activities, how can a blighted state park landscape, fragmented game-land forests, torn-up streams and wetlands "energize" our economy? PennEast's claim that it will create thousands of jobs has been proven to be greatly exaggerated. Most of the workers they will use are currently on their payroll and live outside of our area. The few local jobs will be temporary and in peripheral industries. PennEast has stated in their application that only 12 permanent jobs will be created. That's a far cry from the number of jobs touted in their flier!PennEast/UGI is trying to sell us a bill of goods! Their pipeline will not help us at all and is only for their corporate profit. They want us to allow them to take our public land and private property and in return we will live with the threat of leaks and explosions and a devastated countryside. Don't believe their flier! Don't believe a word they say!More information about the PennEast/UGI pipeline can be found at StopPennEast.org and on Facebook at "Stop the Fracking Pipeline."Yours truly,Loyola SchirraPenn Forest Township