Some Ohio Landowners Say Rover Violating FERC Tree Clearing Order
A group of approximately 250 Ohio landowners, represented by an Ohio eminent domain law firm, is doing its best to stop Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline project dead in its tracks. Rover is playing beat the clock to finish tree clearing following a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) final approval of the project on Feb. 3 (see ET Rover Pipeline Gets Final Approval by FERC). In order to comply with the batty regulation to have trees cleared no later March 31 (due to roosting bats that are protected), Rover moved immediately to begin the tree clearing process. Most Ohio landowners have granted easements and permission to Rover to clear trees. But there are those that have not–either because they want more money, or because they’re anti-fossil fuelers. Regardless, Rover has the right to do it and is using eminent domain procedures to do it. The group of 250 trying to stop Rover has taken two actions: (1) filed a complain with FERC claiming Rover is violating the terms of FERC’s order by not giving landowners advanced notice before clearing trees, and (2) filed a lawsuit in Ohio federal court asking for a restraining order. Will it work?…
Read More “Some Ohio Landowners Say Rover Violating FERC Tree Clearing Order”
On Feb. 3, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a long-delayed project–National Fuel Gas Company’s (NFG) Northern Access 2016 pipeline project (see 
Donny Beaver is a serial entrepreneur. He co-founded New Pig in the mid-1980s–a company that absorbs anything that leaks, drips, splatters or spills. In 2001 Donny founded what would become a series of exclusive fly fishing clubs/retreat centers called the HomeWaters Club across Pennsylvania. In January 2013 he co-founded and launched HalenHardy, which solves problems for the Marcellus (and by extension construction) industry. Donny would talk to Marcellus workers who frequented his HomeWaters Club and his natural curiosity landed him in a new venture to help solve problems for the industry. HalenHardy’s tagline is that it develops and manufactures “tools to tackle crappy jobs®” for the mobile industrial workforce. First up was the excellent and award winning Mobile Air Shower by HalenHardy (MASHH) units that remove silica dust from workers in 30 seconds (see 
Today is the day that (some of) Maya’s minions will show up at a meeting of the Delaware River Basin Commission to attempt to bully DRBC staff during the public comments period. As we’ve been reporting (from a well-placed mole on the DRBC email list) Maya has been issuing orders to her minions–people who apparently aren’t bright enough to form their own thoughts about matters like the PennEast Pipeline (see 
TransCanada, one of Canada’s leading midstream/pipeline companies, cooked up a deal last year to pipe natural gas from Canada’s West Coast to the East Coast in order to fend off cheap supplies of Marcellus/Utica gas that will flow into Canada when/if the NEXUS and Rover pipelines get built (see 
That was fast. Last Friday MDN reported that New Jersey’s largest utility, Public Service Enterprise Group (PSE&G), is shopping its ownership stake in the $1 billion PennEast Pipeline project (see 
A group of anti-fossil fuel nutters from the Philadelphia suburb of Middletown, PA (Delaware County) spent good money to buy themselves a report from an “independent” consultant that they say proves the Mariner East 2 Pipeline is too dangerous to build through their township. We don’t know how much the Middletown Coalition for Community Safety blew on the study, but we do know that Middletown Township is blowing $45,000 of taxpayer’s hard-earned money for a similar study (see 
CONE Midstream, a joint venture between CONSOL Energy and Noble Energy (CO from CONSOL and NE from Noble Energy) was formed in summer 2014 (see 
Is there still a market need for the NEXUS Pipeline project? That is the $2 billion question. Last December, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a positive final Environmental Impact Statement (see 
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), charged with overseeing potential impacts on the Delaware River and the various tributaries that feed it, has stepped outside of its legal bounds with plans to review the PennEast Pipeline, part of which will run through the Delaware River Basin area. In 2014 the DRBC tried to tell PennEast and its sponsors that the pipeline will need their approval before it can be built (see 
New Jersey’s largest utility, Public Service Enterprise Group (PSE&G), is shopping its ownership stake in the $1 billion PennEast Pipeline project. Which may sound bad, but isn’t. Is PSE&G losing confidence in the project? Not happy with progress (or lack thereof)? Afraid it won’t ever get built? No, no and no. According to a company spokesman, the $10 billion PSE&G wants to focus on power projects, not pipelines. A little background and context is helpful. PennEast is largely being driven by Pennsylvania-based UGI, a natural gas and electric utility serving 700,000 customers in 45 counties in Pennsylvania and one county in Maryland. UGI is managing the project, and has the largest ownership stake. Other investors/owners of the project include PSE&G, which has only invested $11 million and owns a 10% stake; NJR Pipeline Company, a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources, an NJ utility; SJI Midstream, a direct subsidiary of South Jersey Industries; Southern Company Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company, a midstreamer; and Spectra Energy, now a part of Enbridge, yet another pipeline company. Even though PSE&G wants to sell its share of the project for financial reasons, it will remain one of the customers for the PennEast Pipeline when (not if) it gets built…
Sometimes this regulatory stuff gives us a headache. Like today. A common practice by anti-fossil fuel nutters when opposing a pipeline project at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is to request a “re-hearing” on a decision FERC has made to authorize a project. It’s just standard operating procedure. If the antis can get FERC to agree to a re-hearing, it effectively slows, even stops, an active pipeline project. So in an effort to prevent important projects from being slowed or stopped, FERC developed something called a “tolling order”–which grants FERC more time to consider whether or not a full re-hearing is justified. During the time of the tolling order (which can last up to six months), work on a pipeline continues. Sometimes the work even gets completed! Which of course drives the antis bonkers. Antis claim FERC uses tolling orders to avoid lawsuits. You see, antis can’t take their frivolous cases to a court until FERC has officially denied a re-hearing request. So by using a tolling order, FERC can drag out the process of deciding to deny a re-hearing, avoiding the inevitable frivolous lawsuit that comes with it, and work on important projects gets done. This is how things must operate in our litigious society that tolerates the antics of anti-fossil fuelers (with seemingly bottomless pockets of money to litigate every project). New wrinkle: When FERC Commissioner Norman “cry baby” Bay resigned in a huff effective Feb. 3, it left FERC without enough Commissioners (without a quorum) to vote on tolling orders, re-hearing requests, etc. So on Feb. 3, before Bay left, the existing three Commissioners delegated their authority over re-hearings and tolling orders to FERC staffers–until a new Commissioner is appointed and sworn in. Antis against Atlantic Sunrise are using the delegated tolling order issue against FERC in their attempt to stop commencement of construction on Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project, claiming they are being deprived of their “due process”…
There are a few last, desperate gasps at attempting to stop Sunoco Logistics Partners’ Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline from being built. The pipeline is currently under construction (see