Energy Services

  • | | | | |

    Nelson County, VA Refuses to Sell Water to Atlantic Coast Pipe

    Talk about obtuse–about cutting off your nose to spite your face. The dunderheads at the Nelson County Service Authority have just voted to turn down $3.5 million of revenue from Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) over the next two years. ACP wanted to buy water from the authority to use in underground horizontal directional drilling for the pipeline as it passes through the region. ACP would have paid half a million dollars for a hookup fee and a rate of 10 cents a gallon for the water. The five dunderheads on the board–three of them brand new in the past month–offered up all sorts of excuses to cover the fact they simply don’t want the pipeline. They don’t want to be seen “supporting” it. Makes for uncomfortable conversations at the local Five & Dime. Frankly, it doesn’t matter. ACP has said they already have an alternative source for the water and will simply truck it in. Congratulations to the Service Authority Board–you just made your community less safe and poorer. Less safe because now water truck after water truck will clog up the highways (running the risk of accidents), and poorer because you turned down $3.5 million you could have used to give a break in water fees to county residents…
    Read More “Nelson County, VA Refuses to Sell Water to Atlantic Coast Pipe”

  • | | | | | |

    Ohio EPA Takes One More Swipe at Rover Pipe with FERC Notice

    Craig Butler (aka Captain Ahab) has risen up with the Ohio EPA (aka harpoon) one last time to see if he can skewer his great white whale, the Rover Pipeline (aka Moby Dick). According to Energy Transfer Partners, builder of Rover, the Ohio EPA, which Butler heads, has filed a Notice of Violation with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as a backdoor attempt to prevent the final segments of the pipeline from going online. ET says the NOV is baseless. An ongoing delay in blocking several Rover lateral segments from going into service is causing economic harm to ET’s customers (and to ET). This isn’t the first, nor even second time Butler and OEPA have gone after Rover. It’s the upteenth time (see our Butler/Rover stories here). What’s the baseless charge this time? OEPA says Rover disposed of “spent” drilling mud containing low levels of the chemical solvent tetrachloroethene (PCE) without approval. Rover has fired back at OEPA in a letter to FERC, accusing OPEA of recycling the PCE issue after it had already been investigated and addressed…
    Read More “Ohio EPA Takes One More Swipe at Rover Pipe with FERC Notice”

  • | | | | | | |

    FERC Approves Pipeline Under the Potomac River from Md. to WV

    Anti-fossil fuel nutters are on a holy mission to stop a 3.5-mile, 8-inch pipeline from being built under the Potomac River by Columbia Gas, from Maryland to West Virginia (see Maryland Antis Oppose 13th Pipeline Under Potomac as “Dangerous”). The pipeline will be built to feed a larger pipeline project from Mountaineer Gas called the Eastern Panhandle Expansion–a pipeline to deliver Marcellus/Utica natural gas via local distribution channels to a new industrial facility in Berkeley County, WV, and to provide gas to other local businesses and residents in the Tri-State area. Mountaineer began building their project in March (see Mountaineer Gas Begins Work on Morgan County, WV Pipeline). We also reported that in March the Maryland Dept. of the Environment had approved the “Potomac pipeline” project, as it’s called by antis. Here’s the inconvenient truth that mainstream news organizations fail to report: This tiny 3.5-mile pipeline will be Columbia’s 13th pipeline under the Potomac! Yet antis insist THIS is the one pipeline that will explode and contaminate the Potomac and make the water flowing down the muddy Potomac undrinkable for millions. Total BS. Here’s the new (and good) news about the Potomac pipeline: Last week the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved it, so it’s now a done deal and will definitely get built. But FERC was split in its approval, with the Democrats (predictably) citing mythical man-made global warming as a reason to deny it…
    Read More “FERC Approves Pipeline Under the Potomac River from Md. to WV”

  • | | | | | | |

    PA DEP Seeks Comments on Pipe Project to Flow Marc Gas to Ohio

    You don’t often read about pipeline projects that seek to flow more Pennsylvania Marcellus gas into the Ohio Utica region. In January, Dominion Energy filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expand capacity along the existing Dominion Energy Transmission Inc. (DETI) pipeline from Pennsylvania to Ohio (see Dominion Files FERC Request to Expand Pipeline from PA to OH). Why? To flow more gas that will be used to generate electricity for the Midwest market. The project, called the Sweden Valley Project, is projected to cost $48 million and add another 120 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of PA Marcellus Shale gas to the existing flow along DETI. Dominion says all 120 MMcf/d is already contracted and spoken for–by an unnamed customer. The project expands existing capacity by building a tiny three miles of new pipeline, with the new pipeline lying next to existing pipeline (in Greene County, PA). The only greenfield/brand new construction is a 1.75-mile pipeline to connect with the Tennessee Gas Pipeline in Tuscarawas County, OH. The other main part of the project is updating three units a compressor station in Licking County, OH. In the constellation of pipeline projects that disturb earth and disrupt landowners, this one is pretty minor–yet it will deliver big results by flowing an extra 120 MMcf/d of gas west to a new market. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection published a notice in the July 21 PA Bulletin asking for comments on the project in PA–in Greene and Armstrong counties…
    Read More “PA DEP Seeks Comments on Pipe Project to Flow Marc Gas to Ohio”

  • | | | | | | | | |

    FERC Rejects Riverkeeper re Millennium Eastern System Upgrade

    In August 2016, Millennium Pipeline, which stretches from Corning, NY to just outside New York City, filed an application for what it calls its Eastern System Upgrade (see Millennium Pipe Asks FERC to Approve Eastern System Upgrade in NY). The ESU would add 7.8 miles of extra looped pipeline in Orange County, upgrade a compressor station in Delaware County, build a new compressor in Sullivan County and make some minor tweaks to metering stations in Rockland County. In something of a miracle, the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation granted permits for the project (see NY DEC Grants Permit for Millennium Pipe Eastern System Upgrade). Predictably, THE Delaware Riverkeeper, hater of all things fossil fuel, moved for a “stay” to block construction and filed a request for rehearing with FERC, and at the same time filed a lawsuit against the DEC’s water permit approval. In March FERC rejected Riverkeeper’s request for a stay, but not the rehearing (see FERC Rejects Riverkeeper Request to Stop Millennium Eastern Upgrade). The other shoe dropped last week when FERC rejected the request by Riverkeeper (and an anti from Orange County) for a rehearing. But not without some drama. In what has become a repeating pattern, the two Democrat members of FERC wanted a rehearing to consider mythical man-made global warming impacts from the project. It’s total horse manure, but there you go. This is how it’s going to be from here on out. The Democrats have politicized everything, even non-controversial pipeline projects like this one…
    Read More “FERC Rejects Riverkeeper re Millennium Eastern System Upgrade”

  • | | | | | |

    Williams to Appeal FERC’s Constitution Pipe Decision to Fed Court

    Last Friday MDN brought you the sad news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rejected Williams’ request to rehear an earlier decision to not overrule the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) decision to block the Constitution Pipeline (see FERC Declines to Overrule NY DEC re Constitution Pipe 2nd Time). We personally don’t see many (really any) pathways where the Constitution now gets built. But to their credit, Williams is not giving up. After FERC’s decision last week, the company announced it will appeal that decision to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, asking the judges to overrule the DEC (bypassing FERC). Williams has filed in various courts, including the Supreme Court, to hear the Constitution case. Why not try the D.C. Circuit Court? There’s really nothing to lose. The project is currently as dead as a doornail anyway. So, hats off to Williams for giving it one last try…
    Read More “Williams to Appeal FERC’s Constitution Pipe Decision to Fed Court”

  • | | | | | |

    FERC Declines to Overrule NY DEC re Constitution Pipe 2nd Time

    One more thread has broken that holds together hope that Williams’ Constitution Pipeline will ever get built. Perhaps the final thread. Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a ruling denying a rehearing request on the project–the second time they have done so. The Andrew Cuomo-corrupted NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) refused to grant the pipeline project necessary federal stream crossing permits, blocking construction, in April 2016 (see NY Gov. Cuomo Refuses to Grant Permits for Constitution Pipeline). Williams asked the Federal Regulatory Commission (FERC) to overrule DEC and allow construction to begin. In January of this year, FERC denied that request (see Death of the Constitution Pipeline? FERC Refuses to Overrule NY DEC). In February of this year, Williams asked FERC to reconsider their denial. FERC’s response yesterday: No. Meanwhile, Williams had filed a lawsuit in federal court that eventually was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In April, the Supremes refused to hear the case, shutting down that avenue (see Supreme Court Rejects Constitution Pipe Request to Overrule NY). As we’ve previously written, we now see only two remaining threads of hope–and they are very thin threads at that: (1) NY elects Cuomo’s Republican rival as governor and he reverses course and permits the project (about a snowball’s chance in Hades that Republican Marc Molinaro will win), and (2) President Trump signs an executive order overruling NY. That second thread is about the best chance Constitution now has. And even if Trump were to issue an executive order, we expect NY would go to court to try and stop it, dragging it out for years. As sad as we are to say this, for all intents and purposes, Constitution is dead…
    Read More “FERC Declines to Overrule NY DEC re Constitution Pipe 2nd Time”

  • | | | | | | | |

    ME2 Pipe Antis Politely & Completely Skewered at PA House Hearing

    On Tuesday, Pennsylvania State Rep. Chris Quinn (R-Delaware) hosted a House Republican Policy Committee meeting at the Penn State Brandywine Campus (Delaware County) to discuss pipeline safety, construction and siting issues in Chester and Delaware counties. The real aim of the session was to focus on Sunoco Logistics Partners’ Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project–a state-regulated project not under the purview of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Eve Miari of the Clean Air Council and Virginia Marcille-Kerslake from West Whiteland Residents for Pipeline Safety were there to provide an overview of concerns by “the community” with siting and building ME2. MDN friend Garland Thompson, a contributing editor for US Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine, attended the session and wrote a report (below). As usual, Garland does a terrific job in capturing the key points of what was discussed. Spoiler alert: While Garland found Miari and Marcille-Kerslake’s testimony heart-felt, their allegations that nobody was/is in charge of siting a project like ME2, and that Sunoco is not being “transparent” in their building of ME2, were skewered, point by point by point. Here is clear, honest, accurate reporting you won’t get anywhere else…
    Read More “ME2 Pipe Antis Politely & Completely Skewered at PA House Hearing”

  • | | |

    Elba Island, Ga. LNG Export Startup Delayed to 4Q18

    Elba Express – click for larger version

    Southern LNG, a unit of Kinder Morgan, filed a request in March with the Dept. of Energy asking the DOE for “blanket authorization” to export LNG from the Elba Island LNG plant in Georgia beginning in the third quarter of this year (see Elba Island LNG Wants to Start Up in Q3 This Year). Kinder has now changed its tune and says it will fourth quarter, not third, for initial startup. Elba Island will be the second East Coast LNG export plant to go online, following the now operational Cove Point LNG plant. Elba is quite a bit smaller than Cove Point. Whereas Cove Point can take in and liquefy up to 3.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas, Elba Island will be able to liquefy up to 350 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d)–just 10% of Cove Point’s capacity. Still, Elba Island is an important project, because it will almost certainly be Marcellus gas feeding it. How so?…
    Read More “Elba Island, Ga. LNG Export Startup Delayed to 4Q18”

  • | | | | |

    Dunkirk, NY Desperate to Restart Shuttered Electric Plant

    This is a truly sad story. Because of delays from lawsuits and regulators, power generator NRG said last week it has officially given up on restarting a shuttered coal-fired electric plant near Buffalo, in the Town of Dunkirk. There had been plans to convert the plant to burn natural gas, but due to delays, it didn’t happen. NRG closed the coal-fired plant in 2016, which was an economic nuclear bomb for Dunkirk–they get 40% of their tax revenue from that one plant. New York State “generously” shucked out $5.5 million so Dunkirk wouldn’t collapse economically. But doing that year after year will get old quick. Dunkirk needs that plant. Because of delays due to a lawsuit by a competitor (now dropped), NRG needs to restart the project from scratch, which means reconnecting the plant to the electricity grid. Estimated reconnect costs go as high as $115 million! The cost of “transmission upgrades,” according to the NY grid operator. The cost to reconnect would be almost as much as the project cost itself (see Looks Like WNY Coal-Fired Plant Will Never Convert to Gas/Reopen). As we predicted last month, NRG is walking away from the project. They said so, officially, last week. And that has Dunkirk leaders and residents in a panic, desperate to find someone else to take over the project and get it going. Don’t hold your breath. If NRG can’t make the numbers work, what makes Dunkirk think another company can?…
    Read More “Dunkirk, NY Desperate to Restart Shuttered Electric Plant”

  • | | | | |

    Williams: Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Going Online in August

    Atlantic Sunrise – click for larger version

    The sun is rising on Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline, a $3 billion, 198-mile pipeline project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from northeastern PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. When first announced, radical anti-drillers claimed they had a thousand people ready to protest and block work on the pipeline. In the end, something under 50 people were arrested for illegal activities in blocking work on the project. The most recent kerfuffle, from earlier this month, included one of the original founders of Lancaster Against Pipelines, Mark Clatterbuck, who used a “sleeping dragon” technique to block work for a few hours (see 2 Lancaster Radicals Arrested Stopping Atlantic Sunrise Pipe Work). Along the journey to building Atlantic Sunrise we’ve faced down radicalized nuns (“Sisters of the Corn”) who tried to block the pipeline from passing across their property–a property with an old folks home that uses natural gas–using a faux “chapel” in a corn field and by filing federal lawsuits (see Lancaster Nuns Demand “Religious Freedom” Trial re Pipeline). Antis tried building a couple of sheds on stilts, hoping to block construction (see PA Antis Build 2nd Magic Tree House to Stop Atlantic Sunrise Pipe). Antis protested at Williams’ regional office, showed up at various construction sites, got a local tribe of Indians involved–and in the end, all of their machinations were for nothing. Williams issued a press release yesterday to say the pipeline is almost done and will go online–flowing 1.7 billion cubic feet per day of mostly Cabot Oil & Gas Marcellus Shale gas extracted in Susquehanna County–sometime in August…
    Read More “Williams: Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Going Online in August”

  • | | | | | |

    PHMSA Says Leach XPress Still in Danger, Issues 13-Pt To-do List

    Earlier this week MDN told you that TransCanada’s Leach XPress, a 160-mile natural gas pipeline (and compression facilities) located in southeastern Ohio and West Virginia’s northern panhandle, was back online after experiencing an explosion in early June in Marshall County, WV (see Leach XPress Pipe 100% Back Online Following June Explosion). The investigation into why it exploded found the reason to be a “land slip” (i.e. landslide). Disturbingly, Columbia (the division of TransCanada that built and operates Leach XPress) told the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which investigates these kinds of incidents, there are six other spots along the pipeline that are “areas of concern” based on soil conditions, steep slopes or indications of slips. Not good. Just coming to light now–on July 9, PHMSA issued a list of 13 to-dos or “corrective actions” that Columbia must perform if it wants to keep Leach XPress up and running. We have the to-do list below…
    Read More “PHMSA Says Leach XPress Still in Danger, Issues 13-Pt To-do List”

  • | | | | | | | |

    Otsego2000 Snobs Appeal FERC Approval of New Market Pipe Project

    There’s a small group of rich snobs who have created a mini-swamp in Cooperstown, NY. They go to each other’s wine tasting parties and pretend they’re Important People. Gentry class. Folks with lots of money who want to keep Upstate as their own private playground. You know…keep the poor folks away from your property, unless they’re mowing the lawn or weeding the garden. God forbid people like disgusting farmers should actually make money on drilling or pipelines. These are the type of people behind a group called Otsego2000. They just can’t accept the reality that their will is not being obeyed in blocking a VERY modest upgrade to an existing pipeline that runs through Upstate–called the New Market Project. Dominion’s New Market Project (currently under construction) consists of building two new compressor plants and upgrading another to help flow more abundant, cheap and clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas from Pennsylvania into the northeast (see Dominion Asks FERC for New Compressors in Upstate NY, WV). The project costs $159 million and will provide 112,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) of extra natural gas capacity along ~200 miles of existing Dominion pipeline across Upstate. The pipeline runs through the Horseheads, Ithaca, Syracuse and Albany areas. The snobs of Otsego2000 have just sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in federal court to try and stop the project–even though not one of the compressor stations is located in Otsego County! Otsego2000 is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1981 “to protect the environmental, agricultural, scenic, cultural and historic resources of the Otsego Lake region and northern Otsego County.” As near as we can tell, the New Market Project doesn’t impact Otsego County at all. Yet Otsego2000 is fighting the project, with no legal standing to do so. Go figure…
    Read More “Otsego2000 Snobs Appeal FERC Approval of New Market Pipe Project”

  • | | | | | | | |

    Philly Antis Commission Faux “Risk Study” Targeting ME2 Pipeline

    Unhappy that local and state political leaders refuse to shut down the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project, a small group of anti-fossil fuelers from the Philadelphia area are coughing up $50,000 of Big Green (likely Tom Steyer’s) money to fund a biased “study” that will say ME2 is too risky. Del-Chesco United for Pipeline Safety, working with East Goshen Safety and Environmental Advocates, has hired Quest Consultants–a company that sells itself to the highest bidder. The funny thing is, the same company (Quest Consultants) did virtually the same report for the same region last year, charging the Middletown Coalition $45,000 (see Report by Philly Antis Proves Mariner East 2 Pipeline is Safe). Why even bother with the pretense? The end result is already written (just look at last year’s report). You always get what you pay for, and this is paid for by antis. This new “report” is not about hard science but about political science. It’s about scientific hucksterism. It’s about paying $50K so you can wave a report around and make a baseless claim to new “facts” (that aren’t facts at all). It’s just more of the same from the same people…
    Read More “Philly Antis Commission Faux “Risk Study” Targeting ME2 Pipeline”

  • | | | | |

    Dominion Looking to Sell Gas-Fired Power Plants in PA, RI

    Dominion Energy, headquartered in Richmond, VA, is a large utility and pipeline company providing ~6 million customers in 19 states with natural gas and electricity. Dominion not only flows energy to customers, it also generates it. In 2016, Dominion brought online a brand new, 1,358 megawatt, natural gas-fired generating plant in Brunswick County, VA (see Dominion Brunswick NatGas-Fired Plant Begins Electric Generation). Dominion built and now operates the Cove Point LNG export facility, which began exporting Marcellus gas in April of this year (see First-Ever Shipment of Marcellus LNG Leaves Cove Point, Maryland). In other words, Dominion really digs natural gas. Yet the company is rumored to be shopping two of its natgas-fired generating plants, looking to make $1-$1.5 billion. One plant, the Fairless Power Station, is located in Bucks County, PA near Philadelphia. The other, Manchester Street Power Station, is located in the People’s Republic of Rhode Island. So why on earth would Dominion, a company that really digs natgas, want to dump two of its power generating plants situated in large, urban areas? It all has to do with regulation…
    Read More “Dominion Looking to Sell Gas-Fired Power Plants in PA, RI”

  • | | | | | |

    Stark County, OH Farmer Sues NEXUS Pipeline for Erosion Damage

    The NEXUS Pipeline project, owned by DTE Energy and Spectra Energy (Enbridge), is being sued by a farmer in Stark County, OH. NEXUS is a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that runs from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. The Stark County farmer signed an easement with NEXUS in 2016. Construction began earlier this year. In late March, a lawyer hired by the farmer sent NEXUS a letter telling the company of erosion at the farm, due to their digging activities. The farmer estimated about $23,000 of damage at the time. But, according to the lawsuit, NEXUS didn’t fix the problem and that led to more damage–now up to $55,000 worth. The problem is that topsoil on the farm has been washed away. The farmer wants it replaced. If true, it certainly seems like a reasonable request to us. The farmer isn’t demanding millions of dollars, just the cost to replace soil swept away by NEXUS-related digging…
    Read More “Stark County, OH Farmer Sues NEXUS Pipeline for Erosion Damage”