Joe Manchin Tells (Off) Dick Glick: “Do Your Damn Job!” re Pipes
Two weeks ago U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, from West Virginia, unloaded on the five commissioners of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) during a hearing before the committee he chairs, the Senate Energy Committee (see U.S. Sen. Manchin Rips FERC Commissioners Over Climate Policies). Specifically, Manchin took FERC to task for overstepping its bounds with new regulations that use global warming as a consideration when approving new pipeline projects. He’s not done. Last week at CERAWeek in Houston, Manchin said FERC Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick should “just do his damn job” with respect to approving new natural gas pipelines.
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How many times must we say this before it sinks in: FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) is an economic agency, NOT an environmental agency. FERC’s role is to ensure pipelines, electric transmission lines, etc. are able to get built and are economic and not an undue burden for ratepayers. FERC’s role is NOT to worry about so-called global warming. Yet the liberal Democrats inside FERC, and now the liberal Democrats on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, insist FERC reopen already-approved projects, like a tiny pipeline expansion in Massachusetts, and re-do long-completed evaluations in light of global warming considerations. It’s INSANE.
Plum Boro (Allegheny County, PA) officials and environmental leftist groups (backed by Big Green foreign money) are gearing up to oppose Plum’s second wastewater injection well with smears and lies. A long-fought-over wastewater injection well in Plum finally opened for business in mid-2021, having overcome all sorts of smears and slanders and lawsuits by the enviro-left (see 
There’s a reason a single shale play near the Gulf Coast, the Louisiana and East Texas Haynesville, has more active rigs and drills more wells than both the Marcellus and Utica shales combined. That reason? Lower taxes and less regulation. Particularly compared with Pennsylvania, where the taxes and “fees” are high and regulations are far too restrictive. Two Pennsylvania State Senators, one of whom is in a primary for governor, propose to correct the situation with a new bill that would suspend the state income tax on shale drillers, among other positive moves.
We’ve written about Doug McLinko, Commissioner for Bradford County, PA, a number of times. McLinko has been a strong supporter of the shale industry for years. In a recent interview with a local newspaper, McLinko and fellow Commissioner Daryl Miller took national leaders to task, including President Biden, for their pursuit of foreign energy sources over domestic sources. In particular, McLinko believes rail and pipelines could be an effective countermeasure to move our energy around, guarding against wild price gyrations.
For years MDN and others have warned of coming shortages for natural gas in New England, including the State of Maine. We told you that natgas and electricity prices will go through the roof due to lack of new pipelines (almost all electricity produced in New England is from gas-fired power plants). Yet New England and Maine have steadfastly refused to allow new gas pipelines to get built. So we don’t feel all that bad for Maine residents who have seen their electricity prices double and even triple since January of this year.
Last November MDN told you about a brand new organization called the Utica Energy Alliance (see 
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