Crime | Electrical Generation | Energy Services | FirstEnergy | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH
2 Defendants Plead Guilty in $60M FirstEnergy Nuclear Bribery Case
In July, now-former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four of his associates were indicted for felonies related to an alleged $60 million bribery scandal in passing the hugely unpopular House Bill 6 (see FirstEnergy Involved in Bribery Scheme to Pass $1B Nuke Bailout Law). HB 6 gives Energy Harbor, a FirstEnergy subsidiary, $150 million per year for seven years ($1.1 billion) in ratepayer funds to prop up the company’s uneconomic nuclear power plants.
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Last week the U.S. Dept. of Energy announced it has extended the terms of seven long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) export authorizations through 2050. One of the facilities receiving an extension is the Cove Point LNG export facility in Maryland, a facility that exports 100% Marcellus molecules.
In 2016 Crestwood Equity Partners formed a joint venture with New York City’s largest utility company, Consolidated Edison Inc., to operate a critical link of pipelines and storage facilities in the heart of the Utica/Marcellus, called Stagecoach Gas Services (see 
Anti-fossil fuel nutters believe they have an opening to try and bully the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) into de-certifying a fully permitted and ready-to-start compressor station in Weymouth, Massachusetts because of an “emergency” release of a few puffs of natural gas during final testing of the facility.
Two shale wastewater injection well companies, DeepRock Disposal and Fountain Quail Energy Services, have merged. The combined company is keeping the DeepRock Disposal name. The new entity is one of the largest SWD (saltwater disposal well) operators in the Appalachian Basin with 12 wells located in Ohio and West Virginia (with permits for several more). However, the bigger news (for us) is that DeepRock plans to offload barged frack wastewater–very soon.
Energy Transfer (Sunoco Pipeline) is pushing back against a demand by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) that the company’s Mariner East 2X pipeline project be rerouted around Marsh Creek State Park (in Chester County, PA) following a drilling mud spill in August. Sunoco has asked the PA Environmental Hearing Board, a special court created to hear appeals of DEP decisions, to override the DEP’s demand to reroute ME2X.
Once again the Mariner East 2 pipeline project is up Snitz Creek…without a paddle? There have been a number of “inadvertent returns” or mud spills in Snitz Creek, place where drilling mud is used to grease a drill bit for drilling holes under the creek. Mud has popped up where it’s not supposed to. Some of the mud spills have been, literally, just a couple of gallons. NOTHING. A recent spill on Oct. 19 was for 200 gallons.
Although the big news from yesterday is that EQT is rumored to be eyeing a takeover of CNX Resources (see our lead story today), EQT released its third-quarter 2020 update yesterday with news almost as big. EQT previously announced it is looking to sell its right to ship gas along the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Yesterday the company said it believes a sale of its MVP capacity will happen by the end of this year.
Patterson-UTI Energy released its third-quarter 2020 update yesterday. The company operates a number of rigs in the Marcellus/Utica region. According to its website, Patterson has 12 active rigs in the M-U (which is more than one-third of all active M-U rigs). CEO Andy Hendricks said yesterday that fracking activity across a number of shale plays is coming back and will continue to grow in 2021.
Anti-fossil fuelers are predictable and their motives transparent. A movement anti in Chester County (liberal, far-left Democrat) wanted to expose confidential safety information about the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline public. Specifically, he wanted to reveal “blast radius” information in hopes of inflaming opposition against the pipeline in his near-religious effort to get the pipeline permanently shut down. It’s a holy war for these people. Zealotry.
There is a battle underway by Big Green groups in Pennsylvania to unduly influence, pressure, and bully a quasi-governmental agency, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), into overturning a legally permitted LNG export facility planned for the New Jersey shore of the Delaware River by New Fortress Energy (NFE).
Enough! How many times do we have to put up with Obama/Clinton liberal Democrat judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit blocking the legal and legitimate construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)–a project which is 92% in the ground and done! Last Friday the clowns did it again for the umpteenth time–slapping a “temporary” order blocking construction because the anti-America, Russia-backed Sierra Club filed yet another frivolous lawsuit against the project.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, located in Massachusetts, has ruled that Enbridge, builder of the Weymouth compressor station, can keep a previously-issued state permit for the station, a permit that allows it to operate. This is the final humiliation and defeat of rabid anti-fossil fuelers who dedicated themselves to blocking the plant.