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Pipeline Rage: Anti Hits Flagger with Car in Lancaster Co.

Daniel Forry

This is “old” news. An old man (77 years old) got so “riled up” against Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline work happening near him in Lancaster County, PA that in three separate incidents he either engaged in violent acts, or threatened to. It’s old news in the sense that two of the incidents happened in March and one in June. However, the three incidents are just now coming to light. In one case, the crotchety old anti inched his car forward and “tapped” a flagger–someone standing on the roadway to prevent cars from passing and hitting workers who were crossing the road. In another incident, the man attempted to drive around a flagger, actually hitting him. The man’s actions are not only threatening and menacing, they are illegal and violent. What’s to say that next time the old man won’t simply run someone down? According to the District Attorney’s office no one was injured during his bouts of “pipeline rage.” The man has been served with papers to appear in court to answer for his illegal actions. Here’s the kicker. The old man, Daniel K. Forry, is a member of the board of education for the Hempfield School District…
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CNX Resources Fined $250K for PA Pipe Construction Violation

UPDATE 7/19/18: Aside from stiff fine for letting some muddy water get into a nearby creek, there is a second aspect to this story uncovered by ace reporter Jamison Cocklin at NGI’s Shale Daily: the local gathering pipeline CNX was building (and has now abandoned) in Indiana County was supposed to connect to a test Utica well they are/were drilling there. Abandoning that pipeline puts the future of CNX’s Utica drilling in the area in doubt. See NGI’s story: CNX Cancels Plans for Pipeline to Gather Natural Gas from Deep Utica Test Pad.

CNX Resources was installing a pipeline in Indiana County, PA and apparently didn’t, according to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), properly construct erosion barriers for the project. It rained, hard, and sediment-laden water went over the erosion barriers and got into an unnamed stream, which empties into Mudlick Run, a “high quality water” creek. In other words, a tiny creek got muddy, and some of that muddy water *may have* entered a slightly bigger creek. And for that violation, CNX is going to pay a whopping $250,000 fine. The DEP says following an inspection in March, the DEP ordered CNX to fix the problem by April 3, but as of May 16 the problem had still not been fixed. CNX disputes that they violated their permits and has told the DEP they’ve quit building that particular pipeline. In order to make it all go away, CNX is paying the DEP a $250K negotiated shakedown, PLUS pay to fix the “problem”…
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Duke Energy Plans 1 Bcf LNG Plant in NC Fed by Marc/Utica Gas

Robeson LNG facility location – click for larger version

Some exciting news from Piedmont Natural Gas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Duke Energy. The company recently announced it plans to spend $250 million to build a 1 billion cubic feet LNG storage facility in southern North Carolina, in Robeson County. Gas is liquefied and stored as backup for residential customers to use during periods of high demand–mainly wintertime. And guess which pipeline (now under construction) will terminate right there, in Robeson County? That’s right, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline–a joint venture between Dominion Energy and Duke Energy. The new LNG facility will also be able to use gas from a second pipeline in the county–Williams’ Transco. The Transco pipeline flows Marcellus gas all the way from northeastern PA. Translation: Marcellus/Utica gas will feed the 1 Bcf LNG plant, an important new (big) customer for our our natural gas…
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Misguided Philly Moms Arrested for Illegal ME2 Pipeline Protest

Last week two young mothers, no doubt radicalized by watching Captain Planet cartoons when they were growing up, sat themselves down in front of construction equipment in Middletown, PA (Delaware County, near Philadelphia) in an attempt to block construction of the Mariner East 2 Pipeline. The two, along with a handful of other mothers (and grandmothers) call themselves the “Mama Bear Brigade.” They held a “Teddy Bear Picnic” at the construction site, and sang children’s songs with new non-children lyrics. The “mama bears” have decided our nation’s laws no longer apply to them if they don’t happen to like the law, so they elected to take the law into their own hands. Frankly, they’re just a handful of misguided and misinformed moms who believe the pipeline will explode and kill everyone living in “the blast zone.” What’s funny about the story are the comments. One commenter said this: “Why do liberal losers always give themselves stupid nicknames…Lock them up and build the pipeline!” There were other comments we can’t repeat here since we’re a family-friendly blog. Here’s the story of some misguided moms who believe they’re protecting their kids by breaking the law…
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$83.7B Chinese Investment in WV Shale & Petchem Still Alive?

Chinese yuan

Is China’s $83.7 billion investment in West Virginia’s shale and petrochemical industries, announced last November, on hold or not? In early April, when the current “trade war” with China began to heat up, we said this with respect to the deal China signed to invest $83.7 billion in West Virginia shale and petrochemicals: “However, if a trade war does develop, it would be foolish to not think those investments (withholding them) will be used against us.” (see Will Trade War with China Affect $83.7B Investment in WV Shale?) In June at the Northeast U.S. Petrochemical Construction Conference in Pittsburgh, our fears (and prediction) were confirmed. Chinese officials were due to attend the event and announce the first round of investments in WV. However, Brian Anderson, director of the West Virginia University Energy Institute, said given the trade war now on with China, the officials elected to stay home instead. Anderson said, “The pending trade war has put this project in jeopardy” (see Trade War Puts $83.7 Billion Chinese Investment in WV on Hold). But what’s this? Anderson now appears to have changed his tune. He recently told a reporter, “In terms of the development process, we continue to move forward…We’re even working on the next potential visits by officials and team members, so it’s not just the high-level executives, but development teams.” Hmmm. Which is it? Is the deal in jeopardy or moving forward?…
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Seneca Lake LPG Storage Project is Now Officially Dead

Basil Seggos, Commissioner of the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (and tool of Andrew Cuomo and Big Green radicals) has officially killed the Seneca Lake LPG storage project planned near Seneca Lake. In May, Crestwood, the project’s sponsor, said the depleted salt cavern that would house the LPG (propane) underground may leak in one small area (see Crestwood Testing Proposed LPG Storage Site @ Seneca Lake for Leaks). That was all the Big Green radicals, including Seggos, needed as an excuse to kill the project. Seggos saw his opening and took it. Last Thursday Seggos issued a 31-page ruling denying the project (copy below). It’s obvious from the length of the report and the stated reasons that he uses, that Seggos had already, long ago, decided to deny the project. He talks about cockamamie, airy fairy things like the project is “inconsistent with the character of the local and regional Finger Lakes community.” Really? As if the salt mining operation that used to be there was consistent with the character of the region? It’s all nonsense. This report was written months ago, before the “leak” issue was known. The fact that one small part of the underground storage caverns (plural) is not airtight was the magic bullet Seggos needed to pull the trigger. And he did. While Crestwood has not yet responded and admitted that the project is dead, we see no way it can now move forward. Hey Schuyler County, how does it feel to kiss a $30 million addition to your tax base goodbye? What’s that? Nobody is left who lives in Schuyler County any more? Guess we know why…
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Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Jul 16, 2018

The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: New date for PA impoundments to register, comply with regs; time to comment on PA revised regs for erosion & sedimentation control at drilling sites; Earthworks releases Ohio air quality “study” with no actual air quality data; California continues to slip, now #6 producer of oil in the U.S.; Cali cities desperately try to avoid counterlawsuit from Exxon; surge in drilled natgas wells; U.S. on pace for “record smashing” oil and gas year in 2018; natural gas prices melt; Trump exposes Germany’s natgas hypocrisy; and more!
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