TransCanada Sells 4 Northeast Powergen Assets, 1 in Marcellus
Canadian-based TransCanada, famously known for wanting to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast, didn’t want to be left out of the most important midstream story of the century (the Marcellus/Utica), so they bought Columbia Pipeline Group–closing on the sale in July 2016 (see TransCanada and Columbia Pipeline Tie the Knot Today). The original deal cost TransCanada $10 billion (U.S. dollars), and later TransCanada bought out the remaining portion of Columbia it didn’t own for another $915 million (see TransCanada Raising Big $ to Complete Buyout of Columbia Pipeline). In order to pay for everything, both the original purchase and buying out the rest of Columbia, TransCanada announced floated $3.2 billion (Canadian) in new stock, and entered an agreement to sell off their electric power assets in New England for $3.7 billion (U.S.). On Monday, TransCanada announced the closing of the deals and the transfer of their electric power assets–3 natgas-fired plants, including one located in the Marcellus region (Lebanon, PA), and one wind farm. According to their announcement, TransCanada will hit their asking price of $3.7 billion, using the money to pay off “bridge loans” involved in financing the Columbia Pipeline deal… Read More “TransCanada Sells 4 Northeast Powergen Assets, 1 in Marcellus”
In December, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) threw a little cold water on two important pipeline upgrades to carry more Marcellus/Utica gas to southern markets. A final environmental impact statement (EIS) was due from FERC for both the Mountaineer XPress and Gulf XPress projects no later than April 28, 2017. FERC said that the deadline would slip by three months due to reroutes and additional environment information requested (see 
Last week the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Columbia Pipeine’s Leach XPress and Rayne XPress pipeline projects (see 
Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voted to approve and issue a certificate to Columbia Pipeine’s Leach XPress and Rayne XPress pipeline projects. This is fantastic news for the Marcellus/Utica region. MDN has covered these projects from their beginning. In August 2014 Columbia, then a subsidiary of Nisource, committed to building the two projects that will flow Marcellus/Utica gas to the Gulf Coast (see 
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has just thrown a little cold water on two important pipeline upgrades to carry more Marcellus/Utica gas to southern markets. A final environmental impact statement (EIS) was due from FERC for both the Mountaineer XPress and Gulf XPress projects no later than April 28, 2017. FERC says that deadline is going to slip by three months due to reroutes and additional environment information requested. MDN has previously reported on Mountaineer XPress, which includes 165 miles of new pipeline with approximately 2.7 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day of transportation capacity from existing and future points of receipt along or near the Columbia pipeline system–most of it located in West Virginia (see 
In early November Canadian midstream giant TransCanada announced they were going on a fundraising bender to get money to pay for their recent $10 billion acquisition of Columbia Pipeline (see 
In January of this year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) launched five investigations into four pipelines, three of which operate in the northeast, to determine whether or not those pipelines have been “substantially” overcharging their customers with the excuse of “we have to recover our costs” (see 
We have, as long as we’ve been writing the MDN website, warned that the federal Environmental Protection Agency, particularly under B.H. Obama, is an out-of-control, lawless, aggressive cancer on the country. The EPA has repeatedly attempted to UNCONSTITUTIONALLY control oil and gas drilling–something only state governments have the right to regulate. The EPA has repeatedly sought to influence (i.e. control) o&g development via other means–like expanding the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and Waters of the United States (WOTUS). The latest evidence of EPA’s illegal overreach comes with EPA’s bullying of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). EPA is telling FERC to get its head screwed on straight with respect to an approval for two Marcellus/Utica projects–Leach Xpress and Rayne Xpress Expansion projects. EPA says FERC is ignoring mythological man-made global warming bullcrap in their review of the projects, and EPA is demanding a meeting with the top brass at FERC to bully them into submission…
Last July Canadian-based TransCanada, famously known for wanting to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast (a plan that Obama obliterated), didn’t want to be left out of the most important midstream story of the century, so they bought Columbia Pipeline Group this year, closing on the sale in July (see 
This is how it works with adults, those who wear “big boy pants.” A few weeks ago the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) told Energy Transfer that their Rover pipeline, a $3.7 billion, 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada, and Columbia Pipeline that their Leach XPress pipeline, running from Marshall County, WV through Ohio to Leach, KY, that a small section where the pipelines cross must be reworked or it’s a “no go” for both projects (see