The Risberg Line, a 60-mile pipeline from Crawford County, PA to Erie County, PA and from there across the border into Ashtabula County, OH, went into service on Friday with a ceremonial ribbon cutting and a literal turning of the valve by Ohio Lt. Governer Jon Husted. Pop the cork on the champagne!
Read More “Risberg PA-to-OH Pipeline Starts – Flows Marcellus Gas to OH”
In Nov. 2017 the Ohio Attorney General’s office under then-AG Mike Dewine (RINO swamp dweller, now governor) sued Energy Transfer at the prompting of the Ohio EPA claiming the company’s Rover Pipeline project was guilty of “polluting state waters while constructing a natural gas pipeline across Ohio” (see OH EPA Director Manipulates Atty General to Sue Rover Pipeline). A Stark County judge threw the case out in March of this year (see OH Judge Tosses AG’s Lawsuit Against Rover Pipe Enviro Violations).
Read More “Ohio AG Lawsuit Against Rover Pipe Tossed by Appeals Court”
The husband and wife team of Mark and Melinda Clatterbuck are at it again–getting themselves arrested for illegal trespass and disorderly conduct at a pipeline site. They previously got themselves arrested in Lancaster County, PA when protesting the Williams Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project (see Lancaster Pipeline Protesters ‘Do the Hokey Pokey’ & Get Arrested and 2 Lancaster Radicals Arrested Stopping Atlantic Sunrise Pipe Work). Now that Atlantic Sunrise is built and in the ground and flowing gas, they’ve moved on to protesting against Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2 project near Philly.
Read More “Antis Arrested for Trespass Near ME Pipe Claim “Intimidation””
In October MDN told you Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) had been bullied by the Attorney General in Virginia into agreeing to pay a $2.15 million fine and subject itself to stricter monitoring–an ongoing anal exam–as they complete construction of the pipeline in the state (see Fed Court Suspends Mountain Valley Pipe Permits; $2.15M Fine). MVP construction is currently on hold and is due to restart in 2020. Although the AG and MVP both agreed to the outrageous fine and oversight plan in October, it’s not official until a judge signs off–which happened on Wednesday.
Read More “Mountain Valley Pipeline Settles Lawsuit, Pays Virginia $2.15M”
Columbia Gas of Ohio says it can’t build local natural gas delivery pipelines fast enough to meet the demand for new customers. “We’re adding new customers, commercial, industrial, residential, in every quadrant of the region” according to Columbia Gas President Dan Creekmur. And he doesn’t it see it stopping any time soon. So the company is spending big bucks (nine figures) to build new local gas pipelines–this year!
Read More “Columbia Gas of Ohio Investing $100M to Flow More M-U Gas”
Duke Energy is ready to start up a new 560-megawatt natural gas-fired electric generating plant at its Asheville, North Carolina Lake Julian site in western NC. Duke will close down its coal-fired plants at the same site come January. The new gas-fired plant contains two 280 MW units. The new gas plant will be fed by a pipeline built by Public Service Company of North Carolina Inc. (PSNC Energy), a division of Dominion Energy. We can’t prove it, but our educated guess is that the gas that will flow to power this plant will come from the Marcellus/Utica region.
Read More “Duke Energy’s Asheville, NC Gas-Fired Elec Plant Ready to Start”
On Oct. 1 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted permission to Kinder Morgan to finally begin full export operations for Train #1 at the Elba Island, Georgia LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facility (see FERC OKs Kinder Morgan Elba Island LNG Train #1 to Begin Service). It’s taken over two months, but the very first LNG carrier that will export Marcellus/Utica molecules from the facility is docked and (maybe) loading.
Read More “Elba Island Exporting First Marcellus LNG Cargo This Week – Maybe”
Reveal Energy Services is a Houston-based oilfield service technology company that offers hydraulic fracture mapping and monitoring services to validate oil and gas well completions designs for U.S. shale wells. In something of a coup, Reveal has lured Steve Schlotterbeck, former CEO of EQT, to become the new Reveal Chairman of the Board.
Read More “Former EQT CEO Steve Schlotterbeck Joins Board of Reveal Energy”
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday refused to hear a case that challenged a ruling in the Hoopa Valley Indian Tribe case–a ruling/case that has HUGE implications for Williams’ Constitution Pipeline running through New York State. The Supreme Court rejection is a crushing defeat for Big Green groups Trout Unlimited and California Trout, and very good news for the Constitution project.
Read More “Ruling Stands: States have 1 Calendar Yr to Review Water Permits”
Williams, the pipeline giant, held its annual analyst day in New York City last Friday. The company’s top brass was there to wow and woo investors with the company’s plans for 2020 and beyond. In reading about the session, we picked up on some startling statistics. Stats like Williams now provides 30% of all LNG feed gas in the U.S. And most of that (all of it?) comes from the Marcellus/Utica.
Read More “Williams Currently Sends 1.5 Bcf/d of M-U Gas to Gulf Coast LNG”
Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) previously filed a request with the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that judicially creates a new law stipulating pipelines can’t cross under the Appalachian Trail without (no kidding) an Act of Congress. The clown judges of the Fourth Circus (our name for that court) revoked a permit issued by the U.S. Forest Service. A list of 21 business and oil/gas industry groups filed a “friend of the court” brief yesterday supporting ACP, asking the Supremes to reinstate the Forest Service permit for the project.
Read More “21 Industry Groups Ask US Supreme Court to Restore Pipeline Permit”
As far as we can tell, MDN is exclusively breaking the following news: On December 5 (last Thursday), the PHMSA (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration) granted a special permit to Energy Transport Solutions, LLC (i.e. New Fortress Energy) to transport LNG in DOT-113C120 rail tanker cars between Wyalusing, PA and Gibbstown, NJ. This is huge! There still is not a new regulation/law to allow shipment of LNG by rail across the country, but somehow New Fortress has gotten a special permit to do so anyway. Huge!
Read More “U.S. Gov’t Grants New Fortress Permit to Ship NEPA LNG by Rail!”
“Peaker plants” are small electric generating plants that produce electricity for brief periods during high demand. Older peakers were often powered by oil. Newer peakers are powered by natural gas. In early November Dominion Energy floated an RFP (request for proposal) for companies to build a series of peakers (no smaller than 50 megawatts) totaling a combined 1,500 MW to come online beginning 2022 in Virginia. A month later, following criticism from a competitor, Dominion has canceled the RFP…at least for now.
Read More “Dominion Issues RFP to Build Gas-Fired Peaker, Cancels Mo. Later”
Here we go again. In August a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had the right to approve Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project, including the right to use eminent domain to build it before details are finalized over compensation to landowners (see DC Court Upholds FERC Authority in Approving Atlantic Sunrise Pipe). The Sierra Club and other Big Green groups, with endless mountains of money from people like Mike Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, kept pushing and finally convinced the entire DC Circuit (all of the judges, call “en banc”) to rehear and reconsider the case already decided by three of their number.
Read More “DC Court to Rehear Atlantic Sunrise Pipe Eminent Domain Decision”
Last week Equitrans subsidiary EQM Midstream Partners (formerly EQT Midstream) canceled a contract with Texas-based Trinity Energy to build portions of the now-stalled Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. You may recall that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) stopped all new construction on MVP in October, until a new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service permit that passes muster with the courts can be issued (see FERC Shuts Down All Mountain Valley Pipeline Construction). We’re not sure what Trinity was doing in the meantime with a shutdown of construction in place, but Trinity reps expressed surprise that their MVP contract has now been canceled.
Read More “Equitrans Cancels Trinity Energy Contract re Mountain Valley Pipe”
Earlier this week MDN told you the great news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has green lighted construction of a compressor station in Weymouth, Mass., and that Enbridge (the builder) said they will begin construction any day now (see Stop Press! Enbridge to Begin Construction on Weymouth Compressor). Indeed, crews are at the site getting things ready, and that brought out “more than two dozen” (according to a CBS report) anti-fossil fuel protesters. Some of the protesters couldn’t help themselves and tripped over into committing a crime by blocking the entrance to the facility so crews could not come and go with equipment. Typical.
Read More “2 Dozen Antis Protest at Weymouth Compressor Site – 4 Arrested”