FERC Lifts Mountain Valley Pipe Stop-Work Order, Rehiring
Some good news to lighten your Thursday. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order yesterday allowing Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to restart work on virtually all of the 303-mile project–everywhere but 28.5 miles in and around the pipeline’s path through Jefferson National Forest (about 9% of the total). On August 3, FERC told MVP to stop all construction, prompted by an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacating permits issued for the project as it crosses 3.5 miles of Jefferson National Forest in West Virginia and Virginia (see FERC Shuts Down ALL Work on Mountain Valley Pipeline in WV, VA). Two weeks later FERC partially lifted the stop-work order, allowing MVP to work on 77 of its 303 miles–about 25% (see FERC Lets MVP Restart Work on 25% of Pipe; MVP Lays off ‘Thousands’). Because of the stop-work order, MVP had to lay off nearly half of the 6,000 workers actively working on the project. A serious blow. With this restart, MVP says they will bring back “a significant amount of workers” who had been laid off. In typical, predictable fashion, both of the Democrat FERC commissioners, Cheryl LaFleur and Dick Glick, said they don’t want construction to resume on the project…
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Two different townships in the Philadelphia area, amped-up by and using money from Big Green groups like THE Delaware Riverkeeper (aka Maya van Rossum), tried to stop Sunoco Logistics Partners’ Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project by claiming it violated local zoning ordinances. The construction of ME2 is governed by the PA state Public Utility Commission and the state Dept. of Environmental Protection. It is not a federal (i.e. FERC) project. Because it is a state-oversight project, the issue of primacy (whose rules and regulations govern) resides at the state level and not at the local level. Two local townships–one in Chester County the other in Delware County–argued in separate cases before PA Commonwealth Court that local zoning regulations for siting the pipeline should still apply. Commonwealth Court, in a pair of decisions earlier this year, ruled against that view (see 
Did you know there are 16 major, announced pipeline projects in the northeast?! We recently happened across a handy list of those projects, a list published by the Northeast Gas Association less than a month ago. The list includes a description of what will get built, who’s doing the building, and the target in-service date. A few of the projects are in limbo (Constitution, Access Northeast), but most are either under construction or soon will be. We dig this kind of list–well laid-out, concise, and useful. And we think you will too. Here’s the name of the pipelines in the list: Access Northeast, Atlantic Bridge, Atlantic Sunrise, Constitution, Eastern System Upgrade, Empire North Expansion, Northeast Gateway, Northeast Supply Enhancement, Northern Access, PennEast, Portland XPress, Rivervale South to Market, Station 261, Wright Interconnect, Valley Lateral Project. Click to view the list, with full details…
A pair of recent stories shows that progress is being made with respect to building an ethane (NGL) storage hub somewhere in the Marcellus/Utica region. In fact, progress is being made on two such facilities. Appalachia Development Group is leading an effort to get a $10 billion NGL (primarily ethane) storage hub established in Appalachia–most likely in West Virginia (see 
Massachusetts is throwing up more roadblocks and hoops in order to slow down (stop?) a Kinder Morgan project to expand capacity of its Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) in the Springfield, Ma. area. Columbia Gas of Massachusetts and Holyoke Gas and Electric have both requested more natural gas from TGP. They need it, desperately. Kinder Morgan’s solution is to expand the delivery capability of the pipeline in the region by adding a minuscule 2.1 miles of new looping pipeline (buried next to an existing TGP pipe), upgrading a compressor station, and building a new connection, called a delivery gate. It’s a minimal project, and yet Massachusetts has just ruled Kinder will have to conduct a months (years?) long, full-blown environmental impact statement before they can do the work. Which we find strange. TGP is a federal, not state, regulated pipeline. TGP plans to file an application for the project, known as the “261 Upgrade Project” (named after Compressor Station 261), with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in September. Massachusetts does not have jurisdiction over the building of the project! Yet they are demanding an environmental impact study. If we were TGP, we’d tell Mass. to get lost…
Using taxpayer’s money, the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel, an “independent” state agency that supposedly represents the interests of consumers of electric, natural gas, water/sewer, telecommunications, cable TV service, and insurance (residential, small business, commercial and industrial customers), has sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in federal court asking the court to overturn FERC’s approval of the PennEast Pipeline, a $1 billion, 120-mile natgas pipeline that will stretch from northeast PA to the Trenton, NJ area. Most of PennEast is located in PA, but the pipeline terminates and flows gas into NJ. The Rate Counsel appears to be a rogue agency using taxpayer’s money to try and defeat a project that will benefit those very taxpayers. NJ residents pay some of the highest taxes in the country. Now we know why…
For years we’ve had a Canadian LNG export project on our radar, bringing you news about the project, hoping that prodigious amounts of Marcellus/Utica gas would be used at the plant. The project is called the Goldboro LNG project, planned by Pieridae Energy for the coast of Nova Scotia. Two weeks ago we told you that $3 billion of German money will be used to propel the $10 billion project to begin (see 
The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: FirstEnergy closing last OH/PA coal power plants; Wall St analysts like Eclipse/Blue Ridge merger; CELDF’s OH loss rate now 86%; NEXUS referendum for Green goes to OH Supreme Court; flaring in the Permian; PHMSA taking bigger role in approving LNG export projects; climate alarmists throw temper tantrum, refuse to debate skeptics; and more!