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Lancaster Nuns Sue FERC to Stop Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline

A group of Catholic nuns who prefer to worship Mother Nature rather than Jesus Christ (the Person they pledged to serve) is suing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for approving the $3 billion, 198-mile Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project–because it will run through their cornfield. Perhaps the sisters consider themselves Sisters of the Corn? We previously told you about this small group of nuns–who use the same natural gas that will flow through Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline to heat their own property (see Catholic Nuns Use Radicals to Build Chapel in Path of PA Pipeline). The nuns, with the help of radical Big Green groups, plopped a couple of wooden park benches and portable flower trestle in the middle of the same corn field–clearing some of those precious stalks of corn–declaring the spot a “chapel.” What a joke. What if you want to temporarily clear some corn to dig a trench and bury a pipeline? No no no–now THAT crosses the line for the Sisters of the Corn…
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Thailand’s Banpu Investing Another $293M in Northeast PA Shale

Banpu CEO Somrudee Chaimongkol (credit: Nikkei Asian Review)

From May 2016 to May 2017, Banpu Pcl, Thailand’s largest coal producer, has invested in no less than four deals to grab ownership of Marcellus Shale wells and leases in northeast Pennsylvania (see Thai Company Banpu Invests in Another 34 Marcellus Wells in NEPA). So far Banpu’s total investment has been $207 million. The wells they own generate 46 thousand cubic feet (Mcf) of natural gas per day. It seems that Banpu can’t get enough of the Marcellus in northeast PA. In an article running in the Bangkok Post yesterday, Banpu CEO Somrudee Chaimongkol said her company will set aside $293 million to invest in more Marcellus wells from now until 2020, hoping to goose production to 78 Mcf/d (an increase of 70%)…
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Investment Firm Threatens 2nd Lordstown Electric Plant, $30B @ Risk

Update: 7/19/17: An MDN subscriber with inside knowledge of what’s happening wrote to MDN to clarify our post. Magna Seating is the car seat manufacturer. They LOVE Clean Energy Future and both plants. In fact, Magna’s union shop chairman has said he will testify in favor of CEF’s second plant at the public hearing being held next Tuesday, July 25th. However, the landlord that owns the building Magna works in–Vienna Investments–is the one attempting to make trouble for CEF in building a second plant. Here’s the kicker: Vienna knew about CEF’s plans for the second plant BEFORE they bought the building Magna works in. Stands to reason if Vienna had an objection, they might have expressed it when they bought the building–or would not have purchased it in the first place. Which makes us wonder, what game is Vienna playing? Why are they objecting now?

Last June, Clean Energy Future broke ground on the Lordstown (Trumbull County, OH) Energy Center, a Utica Shale-powered electric generating plant that is projected to contribute nearly $1 billion to the local economy (see Lordstown Energy Center Breaks Ground on $890M Electric Plant). Clean Energy Future has also committed to building a second billion-dollar plant at the same location (see Lordstown, OH May Get Second Utica Gas-Powered Electric Plant). According to local economic officials, the two plants, over the next 30 years, will contribute a staggering (incomprehensible!) $60 BILLION to the local economy. We simply don’t have words for this kind of econ benefit for a community like Lordstown and Trumbull County. So it’s understandable that the action of a neighbor in the same industrial park where the plants will get built–a neighbor that manufactures car seats for Chevrolets–is threatening to undo half of that economic benefit by filing to “intervene” in the project with the Ohio Siting Board, regarding the second proposed Utica Shale-powered electric plant. It seems Vienna Investments, which owns the car seat manufacturing plant, is concerned about unspecified “safety” issues with construction of the second plant. Local officials, and the editorial board of Youngstown Vindicator, are somewhat alarmed and “encouraging” (pressuring) Vienna to come clean now about what they’re really concerned about, so it can be addressed and not derail the second plant (and $30 billion worth of income for the region)…
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Bizarre Complaints to Water Authority re Shell’s Ethane Pipeline

An article published in the anti-drilling Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is quite bizarre–even by Post-Gazette standards. The article reports concerns expressed by residents in Beaver County, PA at a recent meeting of the Ambridge Water Authority. The opener quotes one resident this way: “‘No one knows what’s going to happen when the explosions are set off,’ said Bob Schmetzer, 70, of South Heights, referring to the underground blasting required in the fracking process. ‘God forbid that the dam would breach and take out human lives down Raccoon Valley … that would be a national catastrophe.'” Uh, Mr. Schmetzer sir…and “reporter” Eliza Fawcett…there IS NO FRACKING involved with installing a pipeline. Perhaps they’re both a bit confused? Mr. Schmetzer’s confusion likely comes from working with a local anti-fracking group, the Beaver County Marcellus Shale Awareness Committee. The meeting appeared to have gone downhill from there, with wild claims that “volatile compounds” from the Shell cracker plant will “settle” in the Ambridge Reservoir, endangering everyone who drinks water from it. And that the area will become “Cancer Valley”…
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WV Northern Panhandle Sees Econ Revival with Nearby Cracker Proj

It seems the northern panhandle area of West Virginia is sitting in the catbird seat. The geography of Hancock, Brooke, Ohio and Marshall counties sits in between Shell’s ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA on one side, and the proposed PTT Global Chemical cracker plant in Belmont County, OH on the other side. The PTT plant is not yet official, but is certainly looking that way. The next “gold rush” for states including PA, OH and WV are manufacturing plants that use the output from the cracker plants. And the northern panhandle, being between both locations, is getting a lot of interest and attention…
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NY DEC Tells Williams NE Supply Water Permit App is “Incomplete”

In March of this year, Williams filed a full, official application for the Northeast Supply Enhancement project (see Williams Files with FERC to Expand Transco Pipeline to NYC, NE). The new project is meant to increase pipeline capacity and flows heading into northeastern markets. In particular, Transco wants to provide more Marcellus natural gas to utility giant National Grid beginning with the 2019-2020 heating season. National Grid operates in New York City, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. There are a number of components to the project, but the key component, the heart of the project, is a new 23-mile pipeline from the shore of New Jersey into (on the bottom of) the Raritan Bay–running parallel to the existing Transco pipeline–before connecting to the Transco offshore. Just two days ago we told you about an effort in NJ to oppose it (see Battle Heats Up for NJ-NY Raritan Bay NatGas Pipeline). Much of the Raritan Bay pipeline is located in New York territorial waters. In a case of “here we go again,” the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which has been corrupted and politicized by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, sent a notice to Williams (to their Transco subsidiary) to declare the application for a 401 water-crossing permit for the Northeast Supply Enhancement project is deemed “incomplete,” pending certain items…
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Court Tells Munroe Falls to Reimburse Beck Energy $45K Legal Fees

In June 2016, MDN shared with you the news that Munroe Falls (Summit County), OH had filed yet another frivolous lawsuit against Beck Energy to prevent drilling–after already losing a similar case before the Ohio Supreme Court (see Munroe Falls Won’t Let it Go: Files New Lawsuit Against Beck Energy). MDN received a statement from Beck Energy’s lawyer which said, among other things: “…the complaint the City of Munroe Falls recently filed lacks any good faith basis under existing law, and it is clear Munroe Falls’ intention in filing this complaint is to harass and maliciously injure Beck Energy” (see Beck Energy Lawyer Responds to Frivilous Munroe Falls Zoning Case). Munroe Falls’ harrasment of Beck Energy has been going on for years (see our list of stories here). Beck counter sued Munroe Falls and asked for unspecified damages–meaning the potential for the city to be bankrupted by a big judgment (a very real possibility). Beck later backed away from the ledge and dropped some of the counterclaims against Munroe Falls. After all, Beck doesn’t want to bankrupt the good people of Munroe Falls over the illicit actions of its leaders. The final verdict is now in. On July 13, the Summit County Court of Common Pleas awarded Beck Energy $45,000 in attorney’s fees against Munroe Falls for having to defend against a frivolous lawsuit brought by the city. So now the taxpayers of Munroe Falls will have to pony up for the actions of their “leaders”…
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Mass. RINO Gov. Baker Orders “Review” of Compressor Station

[begin political rant] Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is a RINO–Republican in Name Only–and not all that different from another RINO who was once governor of the Bay State: Mitt Romney. We personally find RINOs disgusting. Why don’t they just switch parties and be done with it? Join the Democrats, or if the lib Dems are too far to the left, join the Establishment Party, which is really what they all belong to anyway, regardless of the D or R after their name. [end political rant] Gov. Baker has (surprise!) caved to pressure from radical, insane environmentalists in his state who want to stop a compressor station from getting built in Weymouth, MA. The compressor is part of Spectra Energy’s (now Enbridge) federally-approved Atlantic Bridge project (see FERC Approves Atlantic Bridge Project for New England/Canada). Atlantic Bridge will beef up capacity of the Algonquin Gas Transmission and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline systems–to move more Marcellus/Utica gas to New England and Canada. The compressor station in Weymouth is situated along the Alogonquin Gas Transmission pipeline. The radicals have been ranting about this project pretty much from the beginning. In February, Massachusetts’ two Democrat U.S. Senators, Ed Markey and the faux American Indian, Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to withdraw its approval of the project (see Mass. Senators Ask FERC to Reverse Atlantic Bridge Certification). Since that time, the radicals have continued their campaign to stop Atlantic Bridge. On July 11th, the Boston Globe ran a “you darned well better find a way to stop this compressor station, Gov. Baker” article, and less than a week later, Baker wilted like a picked flower, and said he will sic various state agencies on the case to try and find a way to slow it down. However, Baker does admit that in the end, the state likely can’t do a thing about the compressor, because it’s a FERC-approved project…
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“Privileged White” Actor Cromwell Serves < Half of Jail Sentence

Being famous (and “privileged” and “white”) has its perks. Actor James Cromwell, as we noted yesterday, reported to jail last Friday for refusing to pay a fine and do community service following his illegal activities in blocking construction at the $900 million CPV Valley Energy Center project in Wawayanda, NY (see “Privileged White” Actor James Cromwell Jailed for Power Plant Protest). In an interview with People magazine, Cromwell said he was “excited” to experience something most “privileged white people” don’t experience–time in the clink. Cromwell endangered himself and others with his actions. A judge found him guilty. He refused to pay a small fine, so he received a sentence of seven days. Although we assumed he was in the midst of his sentence when we posted our piece yesterday, alas, come to find out, he was not. Cromwell was already released–after serving just 3 days of his 7-day sentence–less than half of his sentence. Jail officials tossed him out Monday morning, after spending the weekend in jail. So yes, apparently being a famous Hollywood star who is “privileged” and “white” gets you a free get-out-of-jail card–at least in Orange County, where the wheels of justice grind differently, depending on race, economic status and celebrity…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jul 19, 2017

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Court case against nuke subsidies in NY still pending; 10 Utica permits issued last week in OH; oil & gas production goes up in the Utica; Gov. Wolf’s severance tax targets job creators; White House has ‘comforting’ message on energy exports; one analyst sees wild ride ahead for natgas prices; US ethane supplies will be “strained”; Canada late to the table with LNG exports; and more!
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