FERC Approves Birdsboro Pipe Near Philly to Begin Service
That was fast! Construction began on a new 14-mile pipeline from the Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) mainline in Rockland Township, to a natural gas-fired power plant under construction in Birdsboro in Berks County, near Philadelphia, in June (see Construction Begins for 14-Mile Pipe to Feed Berks Gas-Fired Plant). DTE Midstream is building the pipeline to feed Marcellus gas to the new, under-construction gas-fired Birdsboro Power plant being built by EmberClear. The pipeline itself was done in November and DTE asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to start it up on Nov. 19. That permission was finally granted on Monday, Dec. 10. But wait! The power plant won’t be done and online until the middle of 2019…so why start up the pipeline now?
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Big Green forces who pinned their hopes of stopping the Mariner East 1 and 2 pipelines on a rogue PA Public Utility Commission (PUC) administrative law judge had those hopes dashed yesterday. In May of this year, Elizabeth Barnes, PUC administration law judge, unilaterally ordered Sunoco Logistics Partners to “cease and desist all current operation, construction, including drilling activities on the Mariner East 1, 2 and Mariner East 2X pipeline” in West Whiteland Township in Chester County, PA (see 
The days of radical, wild overregulation on the part of the federal Environmental Protection Agency are, thankfully, over. At least while Donald Trump is in office. One of the worst examples of regulatory abuse under the Obama Administration was the EPA’s redefinition of what is called Waters of the United States (WOTUS). The Obamadroids redefined WOTUS to mean everything down to mud puddles–and no, we’re not exaggerating (see 
A small group of paid protesters from Big Green groups colluded with sycophantic liberal reporters in Albany and Trenton to stage a fake rally where they “delivered” form-generated “petitions,” supposedly with 100,000 signatures (no doubt many of them faked), given to Govenors Cuomo and Murphy, respectively, demanding that the governors support a permanent ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin. NY and NJ are two of five members of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), a rogue group that has pledged to permanently ban fracking in the Basin based on baseless fears fracking may contaminate New York City and Philadelphia drinking water supplies. Total bogus B.S.–but that’s the fearmongering used by people with no ethics. There’s one teeny tiny problem with the DRBC’s proposed ban: A U.S. District Court is currently considering whether or not the DRBC has the legal authority to ban fracking, even if it wants to (see 
On November 27, a variety of Big Green groups including the Clean Air Council, Widener University Environmental Law and Sustainability Center, eco(n)law LLC and 61 others submitted a “rulemaking petition” (407-page plan) to the Pennsylvania Environment Quality Board requesting the Board and PA Gov. Tom Wolf establish a cap-and-trade greenhouse gas emission reduction program to eliminate carbon emissions from major sources by 2052. It’s a bizarre plan, meant to eliminate fossil fuel production and use, including Marcellus Shale production. The kicker is that Wolf is actually thinking about doing it. Hey PA residents–still glad you reelected Wolf?
TransCanada, one of Canada’s leading midstream/pipeline companies, cooked up a deal in 2016 to pipe natural gas from Canada’s West Coast to the East Coast in order to fend off cheap supplies of Marcellus/Utica gas that will flow into Canada from the NEXUS and Rover pipelines (see 
The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: EQT postpones conference call to discuss 2019 guidance and updated analyst presentation; A push to make fracking waste water usable in agriculture – even for drinking; Cheniere ships first Corpus Christi LNG commissioning cargo; Sleepless nights for U.S. gas traders as volatility surges; Yamal LNG ramps up to full capacity; Cuadrilla pauses gas fracking at English site after more tremors.