Atlantic Coast Pipe Oral Arguments Today in U.S. Supreme Court
Oral arguments will be heard this morning beginning at 10 am at the U.S. Supreme Court on a case to decide whether or not the Appalachian Trail will, from now on, block all future pipelines from being installed under it. The case, U.S. Forest Service v. Cowpasture River Preservation Association, will determine whether or not Big Green wins the right to block Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project from crossing under the Appalachian Trail.
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In early December when Williams withdrew their fourth and final permit application to build the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project with the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), we feared that maybe Williams had given up on the project (see 
Williams issued its fourth-quarter and full-year 2019 update yesterday. Among the gems shared, the company reported gathering 13.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas and equivalents during 4Q19, up 10% from 4Q18. Just to put that in perspective, there was 85.5 Bcf/d of shale natural gas production in December 2019, according to the EIA. Williams gathered 15% of all the shale gas produced. That is an amazing statistic! Here’s an even more amazing stat: Although Williams gathered 13.3 Bcf/d during 4Q, their pipeline networks moved/flowed gas gathered by other companies too, to the tune of 21.8 Bcf/d (up 8% from 4Q18). That means the Williams pipe network moves fully 25% of all the shale natural gas that moves throughout the country.
In January the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) lifted a moratorium (in place for more than a year) on new construction permits for the Mariner East 2 pipeline project (see 
Energy Transfer, a huge pipeline company that builds and maintains Marcellus/Utica pipelines including Rover and the Mariner projects, released its fourth-quarter and full-year 2019 update earlier this week. The company reports making the most profit it has ever made in its 25-year history–$3.6 billion in profit for 2019 (more than triple the $1.1 billion made in 2018). Although ET’s financial performance is impressive, it was comments made during the quarterly conference call with analysts about the Mariner East pipeline project that caught our attention.
TC Energy (once upon a time called TransCanada Corporation) is a major pipeline company in North America. The company has a big presence in the Marcellus/Utica region via its Columbia Pipeline subsidiary. Last week TC Energy issued its fourth-quarter and full-year 2019 update and hosted a quarterly conference call with analysts. While the official update contains a mention about the company’s Buckeye XPress project (see 
Score another victory for the Mariner East Pipeline project in southeast Pennsylvania. On Tuesday Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled against Chester County Commissioners and their attempt to obtain an injunction to stop construction of the Mariner East pipeline project. The petition fought to curtail open trench construction rather than horizontal directional drilling on two easements the county gave to the pipeline. Energy Transfer/Sunoco Logistics wants to change from using underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD) to instead use conventional bore or open trench technology on those easements, which would avoid more problems with HDD already experienced during construction.
Big Green continues its fight to strip away the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) right to use tolling orders when considering requests to “rehear” decisions to approve pipelines (see 
Last Friday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking for an extra 45 days to revise an Endangered Species Act (ESA) review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. Also from last week: anti-fossil fuelers (Big Green groups) virulently opposed to MVP (which is 90% built) continued to hound the project by pestering the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) over minor violations the DEQ found in construction activities from September to December. Big Green wants to know what the DEQ is going to “do” about the violations.
UGI Corp. has just won a case on appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that overturns an order by a lower court ordering UGI to pay more than $380,000 combined to two sets of property owners for taking their land as part of the Sunbury Pipeline in Snyder County, PA. The landowners who sued used a so-called expert whose testimony was, according to the judges, “speculation and conjecture” and “not good science.” Therefore the lower court award was overturned.
In January the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) finally, after more than a year, agreed to lift a moratorium on new construction work for several Energy Transfer pipeline projects in the state, including the Mariner East 2 and 2X projects (see 
A Boston University professor has gone on a so-called “hunger strike” in his campaign against fossil fuels and a compressor station near Boston that will flow more of them. And you actually *pay* to send your kids to BU?
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Ohio tax commissioner correctly charged Tallgrass Energy’s Rockie Express (REX) pipeline $2 million in excise tax (based on $699 million of income), for gas transported from and to (within) Ohio. REX claimed it did not owe the tax because the same law that exempts gas transported out of state applies to gas sales in-state. But the tax commission, and now the Supremes, say that the portion of gas transported through REX that stays in Ohio is not exempt and can be taxed. So pay up.