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Welded Constr. Sues Williams for $71M re Atlantic Sunrise Pipe
Welded Construction, the main contractor that built Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project in Pennsylvania, is suing Williams for $71 million, claiming there were cost overruns that Williams never properly compensated the company for. This is a messy situation that we’ve written about before. Welded suing Williams is a new wrinkle in a saga that began last October (see Williams Withholds Payment Forcing Pipeline Builder into Bankruptcy).
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Last Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final approval for Williams’ Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project by a vote of 3-1 (full copy below). The only remaining regulatory hurdles are for both New York State and New Jersey to issue federal Clean Water Act 401 certificates to allow the project to cross bodies of water in their respective territorial waters. All eyes are now on NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo and what he will do. Will he approve the project, benefiting New York City and Long Island with much-needed gas? Or will he veto the project, harming millions of NY residents, simply to placate a small group of very vocal radical leftists who pretend to care about the environment? He has until May 16 to decide.
In March a group of Pennsylvania landowners from Lancaster County asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case in which they say they’ve been screwed over by Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline, that the pipeline should not have had the right to use eminent domain to build the pipeline before the matter of compensation was fully adjudicated (see 
Big Green groups continue to sue pipeline companies and their projects in an attempt to block any new pipeline anywhere from getting built–period. One of their favored angles of attack is to try and find loopholes in, or even overturn, the Natural Gas Act of 1938.
THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, along with a couple of radicals from Lancaster County flying under the name Lancaster Against Pipelines (the Clatterbucks), hoped they could convince the U.S. Supreme Court to consider a case that a series of lower courts dismissed–a case that would shut down the now-operating Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline (see 
Middletown, NJ officials recently passed, unanimously, a resolution opposing the proposed construction of the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline, part of the Transco pipeline system. There are a number of components to NESE, but the key component, the heart of the project, is a new 23-mile pipeline from the shore of New Jersey into (on the bottom of) the Raritan Bay–running parallel to the existing Transco pipeline–before connecting to the Transco offshore. Comments by Middletown Mayor Tony Perry are instructive and provide us with a teachable moment.
In addition to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) slapping down the New York DEC this week (see our lead story), on Wednesday the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals slapped down both New York and North Carolina regulators who tried to block three important Williams pipeline projects, all related to the mighty Transco Pipeline.
An important project from Williams, the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) which would beef up capacity along the Transco pipeline system going into New York City, is now under review in New Jersey. Part of the project must pass through NJ on its way to NY–and it’s time to 
Andrew Cuomo, contrary to the picture he attempts to paint for gullible voters and the even more gullible mainstream news reporters, is a very weak “leader.” In what has become an identifiable pattern, when Cuomo is put under pressure by the fringe left environmental lobby, he folds to that pressure like a cheap suit. Totally gives in and accedes to whatever weird demands they make–like no new gas pipelines. Even when it economically hurts the state.
A group of Pennsylvania landowners from Lancaster County are begging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case in which they say they’ve been screwed over by Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline.
Did Williams just float an alternative/competitive pipeline to PennEast? Sure looks that way to us. On Friday Williams announced a binding open season to add 34 miles of looping pipeline next to existing Transco pipeline along with beefing up some of it’s compressor stations, in a bid to increase flows along the Transco from Luzerne County, PA (where PennEast would originate) to Mercer County, NJ (where PennEast would terminate).
Williams is in the process of conducting open houses for a series of compressor station projects part of it’s recently announced Leidy South Project. The project will expand capacity along the Transco Pipeline system, including the newly minted Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline portion of Transco, adding another 582 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of capacity to the Transco in northeast PA.
The Sisters of the Corn (our name for the a group of leftist nuns in Lancaster County, PA) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case in which they claim their religious freedom has been trampled by Williams running a pipeline (Atlantic Sunrise) across their property. The case came up for consideration with the Supremes and they declined to hear it, meaning it’s the end of the road for the Sisters and the green group backing them.