FERC Issues Final EIS for Cumberland Pipeline to TN Power Plant
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally-owned electric utility corporation in the U.S. TVA’s service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. TVA is the sixth-largest power supplier and the largest public utility in the country. In 2021, MDN told you that TVA is spending over $1 billion to replace six coal-fired plants with natgas-fired turbines (see TVA Investing $1B to Build New Natgas-Fired Electric Plants). Late last year, TVA recommended moving forward with replacing one of the six–a coal-fired plant located near Cumberland City–with a natural gas combined-cycle power plant (see TVA Recommends Replacing Cumberland Coal Plant w/Natural Gas). On June 30, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a favorable, final environmental impact statement (EIS) for a pipeline to connect the plant to bountiful M-U molecules.
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Here’s a question: What are the 15 biggest (by company revenue) natural gas-owning pipeline companies in the world? The U.S. has the biggest natural gas pipeline infrastructure in the world, covering a distance of 333,000 kilometers (206,917 miles). Even so, only one U.S.-based company is in the top 5 biggest pipeline companies. Can you guess which country takes the top 2 spots on the list?
Kinder Morgan issued its fourth quarter 2022 update yesterday. Among the news updates, we learned that work on two of three compressor station projects along the Tennessee Gas Pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey (near New York City) is now underway. There was also some big news about top management shuffles. CEO Steve Kean is retiring, setting off a game of musical chairs (or musical ladders) with existing employees moving up the ladder at the company.
In April of this year, Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) plan to flow more Marcellus gas to Westchester County, NY, and to New York City, called the East 300 Upgrade Project, took a giant leap forward when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued permits that allow TGP to upgrade two existing compressor stations (in PA), and build a brand new compressor station in West Milford (Passaic County, NJ), just across the border and not far from Westchester County (see 
As part of its third quarter 2022 update, Kinder Morgan (KM) CEO Richard Kinder said his company is bullish on U.S. LNG exports. Kinder said he expects (predicts) U.S. LNG exports will more than double, from the current 11 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) to 28 Bcf/d by 2030–less than eight years away. KM flows around 50% of all the molecules that get exported as LNG from this country, so Kinder should know a thing or two about the LNG market.
Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) plan to flow more Marcellus gas to Westchester County, NY, and New York City, to be used for Consolidated Edison customers, is called the East 300 Upgrade Project. The East 300 project took a giant leap forward in April when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued permits that allow TGP to upgrade two existing compressor stations (in PA), and build a brand new compressor station in West Milford (Passaic County, NJ), just across the border and not far from Westchester County (see 
We were excited to see a Reuters article with the headline, “U.S. pipeline companies eye nat gas infrastructure for growth.” Cool. More pipelines means more opportunity to sell product. And maybe it means there’s a change in attitude coming to allow more pipelines, right? Wrong–at least for the Marcellus/Utica. The article (below) does talk about some of the largest pipeline companies in the U.S., including Kinder Morgan, refocusing on LNG and exports. However, as the article points out, anywhere outside of Texas and possibly Louisiana, *nobody* is planning new pipeline projects. Why? Due to extreme resistance from the left and the current administration in Washington, D.C.
There is a very dangerous thing happening across the country. If you happen to have an opinion, a viewpoint, that’s different from the socialist left–and if you want to express that opinion in social media, via paid ads, etc., the left wants it shut down, calling it “dangerous.” You see, the socialist left can’t compete in the marketplace of free and open ideas and tolerance. Leftists are the most intolerant among us. Case in point: the group Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future (founded in 2010) promotes information about the useful role of natural gas and the pipelines that flow it–and those ads target (among others) black and Latino voters. The ads are effective, so the socialist left is attempting to shut them down–kill free speech.
Pipeline giant Kinder Morgan (KM) issued its second quarter update and held a conference call on Wednesday with analysts. Kinder’s upper management had some VERY interesting things to say about LNG and how LNG is driving Kinder’s expansion plans in the coming years. Here’s a fascinating statistic we didn’t know before reading comments by Kinder’s muckety mucks: Roughly half of all the natural gas delivered to the U.S.’s LNG export plants is delivered via Kinder Morgan pipelines.
A portion of Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) running through Clermont, PA (in McKean County) exploded and caused a fire in a remote part of the town (wooded area) last Tuesday evening (see 
Shippers (drillers, utility companies, others that buy and sell natural gas) are now free to buy and sell producer certified gas (PCG), or responsibly sourced gas (RSG), at all pooling points across the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) system. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the TGP pooling plan after previously rejecting the plan. FERC decided the pooling plan is precisely what we said it was–a marketing thing–and not an endorsement by FERC of whether or not the methane flowing with that designation meets certain environmental criteria.
When a pipeline company considers whether or not to build a new pipeline, the company conducts an “open season”–a time when drillers (producers), traders, buyers, and others who want guaranteed capacity along that pipeline can sign long-term contracts. Such contracts guarantee pipeline companies will be able to make back the considerable amount of money they have to spend to build the pipeline. What happens when those 5-, 10-, and 20-year contracts expire?
In December, Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP), a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan, filed a proposal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to implement a “responsibly sourced natural gas (RSG) supply aggregation pooling service” at select locations across the TGP system (see