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Blue Racer Midstream’s Natrium, WV NGL Plant Now Up & Running

blue racer snakeBlue Racer Midstream, a joint venture between Dominion and Caiman Energy, was supposed to have a new $500 million wet gas (natural gas liquids) processing plant online in Natrium, WV last December (see Dominion $500M NGL Processing Plant in WV to Open in December). The date was then changed to “late spring” (see Natrium, WV NGL Plant Behind Schedule, Will Open “Late Spring”). Blue Racer finally stopped predicting when the plant would open, but MDN told you in late May the signs were there for an “imminent” opening (see Natrium, WV NGL Processing Plant Start-up Close).

Strike up the band! Even though Blue Racer has decided not to make a public announcement, the Akron Beacon Journal is reporting the plant has been up and “quietly” operating for the past several weeks…
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Niles, NY Turns Off NatGas Spigot for Everyone in Hasty Vote

Oops. Looks like the town board of Niles (Cayuga County), NY has just voted to turn off the natural gas spigot for everyone in the town. Guess they’ll now have to heat with oil or wood or coal–or maybe stick up a windmill or a solar panel. On June 13, the town board of Niles voted to institute “a permanent ban on the drilling, storage, transfer and/or treatment of natural gas within town lines.” Guess what folks–storing and transferring natural gas includes moving gas through existing underground pipelines the local gas utility operates that connect to homes and businesses in the town. It also prohibits propane trucks from delivering gas to homes, and it prohibits people from throwing the backyard barbecue grill tank into the car to get it filled up.

No storage, no transfer. We’d sure hate to live in Niles…
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Allegheny College Faces Green Monster of Its Own Making

This is truly rich. Allegheny College, a private, exclusive, rich coeducational liberal arts college (2,100 students, tuition $38,750/year) in the northwestern PA town of Meadville has been a national leader in brainwashing teaching young college kids about the morally superior ways of so-called sustainability and worshiping Mother Earth and all things “green.” But dang, some of those nasty fossil fuel companies are waving big bucks in front of Allegheny College to lease some of the college’s land. Specifically, drillers want to lease, wait for it… the 283-acre Allegheny College Environmental Research Reserve. Talk about ironic! Like taking a bite from the apple all those years ago in Eden, it seems the temptation is just too much for Allegheny.

The college has assembled a white-wash working committee of faculty, staff and students to try, somehow, desperately, to justify selling their souls to the fracking devil so they can take those piles of money. Problem is, the college has created a legion of true green believers who now feel violated, betrayed, confused that the very institution they pay $38,750/year to teach them to hate all fossil fuels would possibly consider changing course for filthy lucre…
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Solyndra 2: DOE Pushes $8B in Loans for New Fracking Technology

The U.S. Dept. of Energy just launched a new program to encourage research into “advanced resource development” in fossil fuels to reduce carbon emissions (what utter folly). Regardless, the feds have $8 billion of taxpayer money they want to give out in loan guarantees for companies willing to come up with new and improved ways of drilling and fracking…
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Obama Nominates CO Democrat for FERC Chairman

President Obama just nominated Ron Binz to serve as the next Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC, as you may know, is the federal agency in charge of approving new interstate natural gas pipeline construction in the U.S. Pipelines are a critical component of getting natural gas and gas liquids from point A to point B. A slow-down in pipeline construction would be a disaster for shale drilling. Although Binz has been a “strong proponent” of renewable energy, based on his background and history in Colorado, he seems like an OK choice for FERC and the shale drilling industry (as good as you get from an extreme leftist like Obama)…
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Questerre Gets $26.5M Loan for Drilling, Still Hopeful for Utica

Canadian driller Questerre Energy has just secured a $26.5 million line of credit with an unidentified Canadian bank which they plan to use for shale drilling operations. One of those operations they dearly want to use it for is drilling in the Canadian Utica Shale–a portion of the Utica which lies under Quebec. If only the Quebec government would just allow it. Like New York State, Quebec has had a moratorium on fracking in the province for a number of years now. At various points Questerre has been critical in chiding the Quebec government (see Questerre Energy Points Out Quebec’s Hypocrisy on Fracking), and more subdued and hopeful in their tone (see Questerre Energy Hopeful Quebec will Lift Fracking Moratorium).

The latest announcement from Questerre once again strikes the more subdued and hopeful tone…
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