NJ Judge Dismisses Trespassing Lawsuit Against PennEast Pipeline
In May MDN told you about a sham lawsuit brought by two radical environmental groups–Homeowners Against Land Taking – PennEast Inc. (HALT PennEast) and the New Jersey Conservation Foundation–against the PennEast Pipeline (see PennEast Responds to Sham NJ Lawsuit Re Surveying w/o Permission). The lawsuit falsely claimed PennEast was surveying on New Jersey landowners’ property without permission. PennEast has responded that the claims of trespassing to survey are (our words) horse manure. PennEast checks carefully before entering a property to survey. So the company mounted a “vigorous defense.” A New Jersey State Superior Court judge yesterday tossed the HALT lawsuit…
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It’s been some time since we’ve heard anything about/from the Ashtabula Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) plant project that Velocys says it will build in Ashtabula, Ohio. As a quick tutorial for those who may not know, GTL converts natural gas, a hydrocarbon, into other hydrocarbons, like diesel fuel, gasoline, solvents and (for Ashtabula) waxes. An abundance of cheap natural gas in the Marcellus/Utica is one of the prime motivators for establishing a GTL plant in the area. But although we’ve heard plenty of talk about such plants, none of them seem to get built–including the Ashtabula plant. There has been progress on the Ashtabula project. Early in 2015 Velocys filed for a permit, which was subsequently granted (see 
The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed a lengthy comment with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week regarding the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project (full copy below). The EPA said, in a nutshell, that more studies should be done. The EPA said the pipeline could have “significant adverse environmental impacts.” They also said alternate routes should be considered. A few things to know about the EPA’s filing: First and foremost, the EPA is treated like any other individual or organization who files comments on a project with FERC. That is, the EPA’s comments will receive no special treatment or consideration. Second, the only value in EPA’s comments is publicity for anti-pipeline nutters. Third, the “alternate routes” the EPA professes to prefer have already been considered, thoroughly, and discarded by FERC. So this is a lot of smoke and noise and mirrors–and nothing else…
Another day, another attack on natural gas by the radicals of the Sierra Club. In this case, the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club found a retired geologist they could buy, er, a, hire to write a report slamming the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The pipeline is due to be built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners. The geologist who sold himself out to the Sierra Club says the pipeline would run through a “karst” area–an area of sinkholes and caves–and building the pipeline could potentially damage the water aquifer in that area. Below is a news report and a copy of the sham report released by the Virginia Sierra Clubbers…
This is how it works with adults, those who wear “big boy pants.” A few weeks ago the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) told Energy Transfer that their Rover pipeline, a $3.7 billion, 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada, and Columbia Pipeline that their Leach XPress pipeline, running from Marshall County, WV through Ohio to Leach, KY, that a small section where the pipelines cross must be reworked or it’s a “no go” for both projects (see 
As we do every month, MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). Month by month Paterson’s rig count has declined over the past year plus. We have been waiting for over a year to report this: We’ve finally turned the corner! The Patterson rig count in June ticked up by 2 rigs–to 55 active rigs (up from 53 in May). Perhaps it’s too early to pop the cork on the champagne, but we are excited and hope/think this portends the slow down has finally hit rock bottom and new drilling is, ever so gradually, beginning to pick up again…
Nearly half of the Williams board (6 of 14 board members) were part of a cabal that tried to force the company to sell itself to Energy Transfer Equity–a deal that went horribly wrong. Following the aborted merger, six of Williams’ board members tried to engineer a palace coup to depose current CEO Alan Armstrong. The coup failed and the board members were either forced out, or resigned in disgust (we’re not sure). Either way, it’s good news for Williams and their operations in the northeast. Among the board members pushing for a sale to ETE (and pushing for the ouster of Armstrong) was Keith Meister, a disciple and student of evil corporate raider Carl Icahn (see 
In 2008 Dominion approached oil and gas producers in West Virginia, before the Marcellus Shale was a household word, looking to build a pipeline for “several hundred million dollars” (ended up costing $750 million). Dominion held several meetings and told West Virginia’s independent natural gas producers that the producers would need to commit to firm transportation if they wanted to sell their natural gas. At those meetings Dominion handed out forms asking producers to write down how much production they might have for firm commitment. Following the meetings, producers received contracts in the mail “out of the blue” with a very short deadline and a not-so-subtle threat that if they wanted to sell their gas, they would sign on the dotted line. The producers say they were pressured into signing a 10-year deal. Dominion’s Appalachian Gateway Project, with 110 miles of new pipeline and upgrades to several compressor stations, went online in September 2012 (see 
Last Friday MDN told you that TransCanada completed its $10 billion purchase of Columbia Pipeline Group (see 
In March MDN reported that Canadian midstream giant TransCanada wants a bigger piece of the Marcellus/Utica pipeline pie and decided to buy Columbia Pipeline Group for $10 billion (see 
Once again a group of so-called religious leaders, including a serial criminal, were arrested in Boston blocking work on a very short, 5-mile pipeline (West Roxbury Lateral) that will bring cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas to local residents in the Boston area. Some 26 were arrested, some of the same nutters were arrested in May (see 
A few days ago MDN told you how proud we are of the Marcellus/Utica industry for stepping up the plate and donating money (and time) to assist flood victims in West Virginia (see 
Finally Williams has admitted, in writing, that the attempted buyout/merger by Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) is, as we said yesterday, dead (see 
