Spectra: All 4 TETCO Pipes in SWPA Now in Service After Explosion
On April 29, Spectra Energy’s Texas Eastern Transmission (TETCO) “Delmont Line 27” pipeline exploded in Westmoreland County, PA, seriously injuring one resident who was burned over much of his body (see Texas Eastern Pipeline Explodes near Pittsburgh, Antis Celebrate). The reason for the explosion and fire was corrosion on welds covered with a particular kind of pipe tape no longer in use (see Spectra Says PA Pipeline Explosion “Unacceptable,” Blames Pipe Tape). In September we brought you the disturbing news that an investigation four years ago (in 2012) discovered corrosion in the very area where the pipe would eventually explode (see Spectra Admits Detecting Corrision in Exploded TETCO Pipe 4 Yrs Ago). It’s been a long road back, but finally, after more than six months, Spectra reports all four lines are now back in service…
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Each month the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy issues a report on LNG exports and imports. We check in on the report from time to time. This month’s report (with data through September) is particularly interesting. It shows the rapid scale-up of Cheniere’s Sabine Pass export facility on the coast of Louisiana. Sabine Pass is exporting U.S. shale gas, including some Marcellus/Utica gas, which is why we are interested in the LNG story. November is predicted to set a new record on the export of U.S. shale gas from Sabine. The LNG import picture, increasingly small, is also interesting and instructive. All of the LNG coming into the U.S. (via ship, not via pipeline from Canada) this year has come from one country: Trinidad. And there is a single import terminal that receives almost all incoming, non-pipeline LNG: Everett, MA (near Boston). Which is why GDF Suez, the operator, has been agitating against new pipelines to New England (shame on them)…
The radicals at the Sierra Club are at it again. Causing private companies to expend big money to defend their Constitutional, capitalistic rights. The NEXUS Pipeline is a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. It is a critically needed pipeline to move Utica and Marcellus Shale gas from an over-saturated market in the northeast to markets in the Midwest and Canada. The Sierra Club has just sued DTE Energy, one of the sponsors of the project, falsely claiming DTE’s electric customers will end up paying more for electricity because of the pipeline…
Crestwood Equity Partners (nee Crestwood Midstream) recently issued its third quarter 2016 update. In April Crestwood announced that New York City utility giant Consolidated Edison Inc. has formed a 50/50 joint venture to purchase ownership of pipelines and storage facilities in the PA and NY Marcellus region (see 
It’s about time! A U.S. District Court Judge in Texas recently granted Exxon the right to examine “internal phone records, other communications and depositions” of far-left Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, related to her involvement in attempting to persecute Exxon Mobil for daring to say man-made global warming may not be all it’s cracked up to be (see 
Paul Driessen is senior policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), which is sponsoring the All Pain No Gain petition against global-warming hype. He also is a senior policy adviser to the Congress of Racial Equality and author of “Eco-Imperialism: Green Power – Black Death.” Driessen writes and publishes in a number of venues, including Townhall. A recent article penned by Driessen (below) absolutely nails the anti-pipeline movement in our country. We’ve long known that antis moved from fracking to piplelines, figuring they could stop the use of fossil fuels if they can strangle the pipeline network necessary to move oil and gas to market. But as Driessen explains, the real root of this movement, the thing that motivates them more than anything, is not saving Mom Earth. It is the total annihilation of capitalism (and our country). That’s what drives these anti-pipeline fanatics…
Another week, another so-called research paper that purports to show a link between fracking and earthquakes. Two researchers at the University of Calgary looked at drilling and fracking of shale wells in Canada’s Duvernay Shale (western part of the country), looking for clues that might indicate fracking itself–if done near an underground fault–can lead to low-level earthquakes. The researchers claim they have found such a link–which is the first such study to make a connection between fracking and earthquakes. The researchers have just published “Fault activation by hydraulic fracturing in western Canada” (full copy below), in the journal Science. We have repeatedly reported, based on studies and observable facts, that disposing of high volumes of wastewater in injection wells near underground faults (large cracks in the rock layer) can lead to earthquakes. We’ve also chronicled that fracking directly over a fault can also lead to an earthquake–which has been documented to happen perhaps half a dozen times, ever, out of the hundreds of thousands of times wells have been drilled and fracked. Statistically zero. But this study claims there is a link and the inference is that fracking leads to more earthquakes that you may think. Should we be worried?…
Events related to drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, primarily pro-drilling.
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Williams looking like a better investment; antis put on pathetically small dog & pony show in Baltimore; fracking in Florida; Dakota Pipeline won’t reroute around criminal protesters; the Obama rush to regulate oil & gas before he leaves office; coal on the ascendancy, may re-assume title of king for electric generation; former electric utility head may lead FERC; and more!