ETE & Williams Engage in More Posturing Before June 24 Deadline
The ongoing soap opera of whether or not Energy Transfer Equity really will buy Williams continues to play out. Yesterday ETE (and Williams) issued press releases announcing that Williams shareholders have until 5 pm on June 24 to provide their official voting documentation on the merger. ETE is careful to point out that Williams shareholders should hold on to their shares–not turn them in–until the merger is official and completed. ETE also says once they’ve voted on the merger, Williams shareholders can’t turn around and sell their Williams shares of stock until the final merger is either declared a “go” or a “no go.” The elaborate ands, ifs & buts in the ETE statement still leaves us wondering whether or not this is all just kabuki theater–a show–with no real intention of closing on the merger. Case in point: here’s what ETE’s lawyers said in yesterday’s announcement…
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MDN first told you about IMG Midstream in August 2014 (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. May was no different–although the good news is that the rate of decline slowed. Patterson reports operating an average of 53 rigs in May, versus 56 in April–a 5% drop…
It’s always fun to point out just how hypocritical Big Green groups, like the Sierra Clubbers, actually are. The Sierra Club in New Jersey is all up in arms that utility company UGI has hired a former member of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Pamela Witmer, as vice president of government affairs. MDN was the first source to tell you the importance of her hiring, i.e. to help get the PennEast Pipeline approved (see 
Last July MDN told you that Talen Energy, an electric generation company based in Allentown, PA, had cut a deal to acquire MACH Gen, LLC, the owner of three natural gas-fired electric generating plants (see 
Since announcing the project in 2012, the Constitution Pipeline has handed out more than $2 million in community grants to fire departments, police departments and a variety of nonprofit organizations that benefit the community. Recently New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo decided to block the Constitution Pipeline to placate his radical left supporters (see 
There’s an old saying that goes like this: “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” Not long ago MDN reported that Eclipse Resources had drilled what is believed to be the longest horizontal well (on land) in the world–the 3.5 mile “Purple Hayes” Utica Shale well (see 
When did it become “vindictive” to prosecute criminals? That’s what we’re supposed to believe about the prosecution of a radicalized, anti-fossil fuel environmentalist who was just, after nearly one and a half years, sentenced to serve 15 days in jail for lying, falsely claiming local police assaulted her. In February 2015 Heather Doyle, a radical “activist” climbed a crane at the Dominion Cove Point LNG export facility to hang a banner that said, “Dominion get out. Don’t frack Maryland. No gas exports. Save Cove Point.” It’s bad enough that she endangered herself along with another activist who aided her. She also endangered rescue workers and police who had to remove her from the crane. Then Doyle lied to the police and claimed Calvert County Sheriff’s Office deputies assaulted her as they were removing her from the crane SHE climbed up. That’s a very serious charge–especially in this day and age. The police investigated and discovered she was lying, so the District Attorney pressed charges. And it took this long for the case to play out. On May 27, Judge Marjorie Clagett of the Calvert County Circuit Court sentenced Doyle to three months in jail, with all but 15 days suspended, 240 hours of community service, two years of supervised probation, and $165 in court costs. It ain’t much, but it’s a little bit of justice against radicals who frequently break the law in a misguided attempt to protest fossil fuels…
We have nothing against renewable energy like wind and solar, per se. We just want them to compete with other forms of energy, like natural gas–without taxpayer money propping up renewable projects. Well-intentioned companies like Dominion frequently engage in dalliances with wind and solar projects–more of a public relations thing than a real effort at developing such sources. How can we say such a thing? Why be so harsh? Look at the recent announcement from Dominion that the U.S. Department of Energy has just withdrawn a promised $40 million grant the company was going to use to build two advanced-technology, 6-megawatt wind turbines in federal waters about 24 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, VA. At peak production, the two turbines would generate enough electricity to power up to 3,000 homes. It will cost $300 – $380 million to build them. Compare that to a new natural gas-fired electric plant built by Dominion in Virginia that recently went online–the Brunswick Power Station. That plant cost $1.1 billion to build, produces 1,358 megawatts of electricity (even when the wind doesn’t blow) and powers 325,000 homes. So for about trip the cost the natgas plant powers 322,000 more homes than the wind project. That’s what we call a no-brainer–and a perfect illustration of why the government should not be in the business of funding dud wind projects…