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President Trump Coming to Pittsburgh Shale Insight Event Next Wk

President Donald J. Trump

Look who’s coming to town! President Trump will be the keynote speaker at Shale Insight in Pittsburgh next week. Trump previously addressed Shale Insight attendees in 2016 when he was running for president, and MDN was there (see Highlights from 2016 Shale Insight, Day Two – Trump!). MDN will be there again this time to capture Trump’s comments and share them with you. But President Trump isn’t the only reason to go…
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FERC Shuts Down All Mountain Valley Pipeline Construction

As MDN previously reported, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit bought the lies of colluding Big Green groups and decided to put a hold on a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that allows the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to build through areas with so-called endangered and threatened species (see Fed Court Suspends Mountain Valley Pipe Permits; $2.15M Fine). Because of the suspended FWS permit, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Tuesday told Equitrans, the builder of MVP, to stop ALL work along ALL of the project until further notice.
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Allegheny County, PA Proposes O&G Lease-Shaming Registry

Allegheny County, PA (Pittsburgh and surrounding suburbs) is seriously considering a new law that would require landowners to report, via a public registry, land they have leased oil and gas drilling. Specifically land leased for shale wells. The law would require all sorts of private information to be divulged, publicly, including what kind of drilling/fracking will theoretically take place. And what if a landowner doesn’t “register” with the authorities? Here come the fines. The only reason we can divine for such a law is to shame landowners (lease-shaming), to prompt neighbors to hassle them for leasing their land. Or perhaps to alert Big Green groups so they can use paid protesters (as they so often do) to show up and protest in front of someone’s leased property. What has our society become?
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NC Strikes Out – US Supreme Court Won’t Overturn 3 Pipe Approvals

In April, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals slapped down both New York and North Carolina regulators who tried to block three important Williams pipeline projects, all related to the mighty Transco Pipeline (see DC Circuit Court Slaps Down NY, NC Request to Block 3 Pipelines). North Carolina regulators appealed the dismissed case to the U.S. Supreme Court and on Tuesday the high court refused to hear the case, meaning NC has fully and completely struck out.
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National Grid: Long Island, NYC Heading for NatGas Shortage, Soon

New York City’s CBS affiliate WLNY Channel 2 recently got a sit-down interview with National Grid President John Bruckner to discuss the company’s moratorium on new gas hook-ups, to grill Bruckner on whether or not there really is a gas shortage in the region. Bruckner handled the adversarial interview well, telling the reporter that yes, there really is a shortage. Currently there is a shortage between supply and demand–to the tune of 10,000 homes. Bruckner said if there’s a serious cold snap this winter, Long Island and parts of NYC served by National Grid will experience a service outage–a natural gas blackout, if you will. It’s a scary prospect.
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PA Sen. Yaw Intros Bill to Allow 3rd Party Review of Erosion Permits

PA State Sen. Gene Yaw

In the past, shale drillers have waited more than eight months to receive an erosion and sediment control (Chapter 102) permit, used in building roads and shale well pads. Turnaround from the time a permit is requested until it is supposed to be approved is, by DEP’s own statutory standards, 14 days. In 2017 it was taking over 250 days in some areas of the state (see More Pushback on PA Senate Plan to Fix Slow DEP Permit Reviews). Earlier this year DEP’s southwest office said they’ve been able to knock the turnaround time down to 30 days (see PA DEP Southwest Office Says Permit Backlog Down 75%). Better, but still not good enough, and the standard is not even across the state.
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Puerto Rico Imports Russian LNG Thanks to U.S. Jones Act

Here we go again. Not only does Boston and New England now depend on Russian LNG, so too does U.S. territory Puerto Rico (PR)–thanks to a century-old law that prevents the U.S. from shipping LNG to our own states and territories! It’s bizarre and must stop. The closest LNG export facility to PR is Kinder Morgan’s Elba Island, Georgia facility, which recently came online (see FERC OKs Kinder Morgan Elba Island LNG Train #1 to Begin Service). Yet none of the Marcellus/Utica LNG from Elba Island can legally go to PR–because there are no American built and flagged LNG carriers to transport it there. That’s the Jones Act.
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Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Oct 17, 2019

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Kinder Morgan to bring 9 Elba Island LNG units into service by first half of 2020; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Gulf Coast supply, demand growth puts natural gas pipeline grid at risk; Gov. Gavin Newsom signs bill limiting oil and gas development; NATIONAL: Natural gas industry urged to advance ‘positive message’ to ensure pipelines; A draconian crackdown looms over natural gas; E&Ps’ performance belies negative investor sentiment.
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