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EPA’s SAB Says Draft Fracking Report OK with Some ‘Splainin

Lucy-you-have-some-splainin-to-doLast December we asked the question: Will EPA Whore Itself to Antis and Change Fracking Water Study?. The answer at the time appeared to be “yes.” As we stated in December, the one great, huge, towering problem that anti-drillers have is that there is no scientific evidence that supports their wild claims that fracking contaminates water–which is their favorite lie to spread. When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arrived at the same conclusion–that fracking doesn’t pollute water–after four years of studying it, that really took the wind out of the sails of rabid fossil fuel haters (see EPA Draft Report Says Fracking Doesn’t Pollute Groundwater Supplies). So the EPA set about to “fix” the “problem” by using a small committee of people, called the Science Advisory Board (SAB), to change the results of their original findings (see EPA Science Advisory Board Engaging in Fraud re Fracking Study). In a small ray of light, 5 of the 31 people on SAB don’t want to engage in fraud by changing the language of EPA’s original study (see 5 Members of Internal EPA Committee Think Fracking Study Correct). Perhaps the ray of light is growing brighter. The SAB met earlier this week to kick around proposed language and changes to the original EPA draft study. Surprisingly, the SAB agreed that “no significant changes were needed” in the original report. They do, however, want to add some “explanatory quantification” to justify the statement in the original report that there is no “widespread, systemic impacts” on drinking water from fracking (the original report’s conclusion that still drives the antis bonkers). So the question becomes, what extra explanatory language will the SAB add to ‘splain what is meant?…
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South Fayette, PA Pushing Defacto Frack Ban, Again

Comin Around Again - EditedLast month MDN brought you some news that mainstream media in Pittsburgh intentionally ignored: a judge ruled that a new hyper-restrictive (defacto ban) ordinance passed by South Fayette Township, in Allegheny County, was “invalid, null and void” (see South Fayette, PA Restrictive Drilling Ordinance Tossed by Judge). South Fayette is one of seven selfish PA towns that sued the state after the Act 13 law was enacted in 2012 (see Lawsuit Filed: PA Towns Sue State over Marcellus Act 13 Law). Ultimately the towns won their case at the PA Supreme Court level, winning the right to enact their own ordinances with respect to oil and gas drilling. Last year South Fayette enacted a new defacto ban, calling it a zoning ordinance. The judge, as we mentioned, tossed it out last month–but he tossed it because South Fayette didn’t follow proper protocol and procedure. So South Fayette is back–re-advertising the new zoning rule and in July, they intend to adopt it…
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NEPA Pipeline for Power Plant Gets Positive FERC Assessment

TGP logoKinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company (TGP) is proposing to build a small pipeline near Scranton, PA to service what will be the state’s largest natural gas-fired electric generating plant, in Jessup (see Kinder Morgan 4Q15: Cutting Dividend, PA Pipeline Progress). The pipeline project is called the Triad Expansion Project and involves building seven miles of new 36-inch pipeline alongside an existing pipeline in Lenox and Clifford Townships, Susquehanna County, PA. When complete, Triad will deliver 180,000 dekatherms (180 million cubic feet) of natural gas per day to the new Invenergy plant in Jessup, called the Lackawanna Energy Center. Good news for the Triad project and the Invenergy plant: the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has just granted a favorable Environmental Assessment for the pipeline–all but guaranteeing its approval…
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Petition Asks Gov. Cuomo to Approve Upstate Pipeline Project

Consumer Energy AllianceWe hate to say this, but we’ve seen this movie before. Last October the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Dominion’s $165 million New Market Project–a project that expands Dominion’s transmission pipeline from western New York across the state to the Capital Region of the state, near Albany (see FERC Approves Expansion of Dominion Pipeline in Upstate NY). As with any fossil fuel-related project, radical environmentalists objected (see NY Antis Flood FERC in Fight Against Dominion’s New Market Project). Also once again, there’s a holdup in New York–the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), at Gov. Cuomo’s behest, has delayed granting necessary permits for the project to begin. Can anyone say “Constitution” (see NY Gov. Cuomo Refuses to Grant Permits for Constitution Pipeline). Yesterday three groups, including the Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), the Business Council of New York State and New York State Laborers’ filed a petition with Cuomo with 10,000 signatures requesting he get off his rear-end and approve the New Market Project…
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More Support for Atlantic Sunrise at FERC Hearings in PA

Atlantic SunriseLast night concluded a round of four public hearings held by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regarding approval for Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project. The first hearing, in Lancaster, PA, was largely a circus freak show of anti-drilling babblers (see Lancaster Antis Try to Bully Pipeline Supporters, FERC Reps). A session held in Lebanon County, PA was dominated by supporters of the pipeline (see Supporters Dominate 2nd FERC Hearing for Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline). Last night’s hearing, held in Dallas, PA (near Wilkes-Barre) also saw many supporters. One of the supporters who spoke in favor was MDN friend Kevin Lynn. MDN editor Jim Willis has appeared on Kevin’s weekend talk radio show a few times in the past (“The Shale Gas News,” heard every Saturday at 10 am on 94.3 FM in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area). Here’s how things went down last night in Dallas…
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Exxon Fights Back Against Mass. AG’s Illegal Subpoena

hyenaMassachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, New York AG Eric Schneiderman and several other Democrat AGs have ganged up like a pack a hyenas with saliva dripping from their legal fangs at the prospect of bringing down one of the biggest preys imaginable–Exxon Mobil. Healey, Schneiderman and others are making fantastical claims that Exxon “knew” that burning their evil, filthy, nasty oil and natural gas is causing Mom Earth to warm up, so they’ve been serving subpoenas to Exxon to turn over ever piece of communication the company has ever had, so they can build a case against Exxon’s free speech (see NY AG Targets/Accuses ExxonMobil of Lying about ‘Climate Change’). As we’ve previously written, these far-out libs represent the rise of the new Enviro Nazis (see Rise of the New (Environmental) Nazis – Free Speech Under Attack). The legal hyenas believe they could bring down the “beast”–stealing Exxon’s money and redistributing it to voters who will keep them in office forever. Just one little problem: Exxon isn’t playing along. The beast is not wilting, not running, not willing to give up and give in, like the legal hyenas thought it would. In fact, the beast is fighting back…
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Nova Scotia Seeks Comments on Plans to Overregulate LNG

Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia – click for larger version (Credit: Wikipedia)

Yesterday MDN highlighted the good news that the government of Canada has given its final, full approval for the Bear Head LNG project proposed for Nova Scotia (see Canada Grants Final Approval for Bear Head LNG Facility). The Goldboro LNG export facility (Pieridae Energy) is also proposed for Nova Scotia. Both facilities would use a considerable amount of Marcellus Shale gas to compress and export–so even though they are Canadian projects, they are of keen interest to us in the Marcellus/Utica region. So it was with equally keen interest we noticed that Nova Scotia is seeking comments on how the province can limit so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, specifically from these two proposed LNG facilities. If Nova Scotia enacts onerous regulations on methane emissions, these plants will never get built. The government of Nova Scotia is eliciting comments on proposed new regulations (see below) from now until July 29…
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Deloitte: Drillers Face $2 Trillion Funding Gap Next 5 Years

DeloitteConsulting and accounting powerhouse Deloitte has just issued an important new report that sounds the alarm that upstream (i.e. drillers) are not spending enough money to replace proved reserves. Deloitte says there is a “funding gap” of $2 trillion over the next five years! Natural gas is more at threat than oil, because natural gas “reserves shortfall is bigger than oil since the commodity is yet to see its best years of demand growth in the developing world.” The Deloitte report, titled “Short of Capital? Risk of underinvestment in Oil and Gas is amplified by competing cash priorities” is embedded below. An interesting read…
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Radical Enviro Groups Push Hillary to Go Extreme

Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton

You think Hillary is a lot more moderate and reasonable when it comes to fracking and the environment? You know that Crazy Bernie Sanders doesn’t stand a chance, so you can breathe easier? Think again. Some of the most extreme and radical environmental groups who were backing Crazy Bernie are now sidling up to Hillary–and pushing her to go extreme when it comes to fracking and environmental issues. You should be concerned that she’ll do just that. After all, Hillary herself said, “By the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place” (see A President Hillary Clinton Would Ban Most Fracking). So she’s already predisposed to ban it–and now we read that Big Green Gangster groups like the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and others are cozying up to Hillary, hoping they can push her to ban fracking outright…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Jun 17, 2016

best of the restThe “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Southwestern Energy not out of the woods yet; investors fleeing corrupt Andrew Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion project; Cincinnati passes resolution against pipeline; Sen. Inhofe tells states to ignore EPA’s Clean Power Plan directives; economics of new gas pipelines; Russians think price of oil stays low for 10-15 years; and more!
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