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US Supremes Reject Dela. Riverkeeper Lawsuit re Atlantic Sunrise
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 Riverkeeper Appeals Atlantic Sunrise Lawsuit to US Supreme Court). Miss Maya and the Clatterbucks have stuck out. On Monday, the Supremes told them they don’t have a case.
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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 
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.
Williams is planning to build two new compressor stations in eastern Pennsylvania as part of its Leidy South Project (see 
This stuff continues to make us angry. In March we told you that MacAllister Machinery Co. Inc. of Michigan used lawyers to serve landowners in Lancaster County, PA with “mechanic’s liens” making the landowners liable to pay money to MacAllister for work done on the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project (see 
Last Thursday, “more than 300” anti-fossil fuel nutters protested to “demand” that Gov. Cuomo block Williams’ proposed Northeast Supply Expansion (NESE) pipeline project. We have extensively covered NESE and the coming decision by Cuomo’s lapdogs at the Dept. of Environmental Conservation.
It’s no secret that upstream companies (drillers) like EQT are trimming head count and reducing annual spending. So it probably won’t come as a surprise that EQT has put 46,000 square feet (out of 250,000 sq. ft.) in its palatial headquarters in downtown Pittsburgh up for sublease. Meanwhile, in a contrasting bit of news, midstream (pipeline) company Williams has just renewed the lease for its big regional Pittsburgh headquarters at Park Place Corporate Center–a 112,481 sq. ft. building.
During the signing ceremony on Wednesday when President Trump signed two executive orders to make it harder for states to block new pipelines for political reasons, Trump revealed part of the motivation for the EOs when he said, “And also, in New York, they’re paying tremendous amounts of money more for energy to heat their homes because New York State blocked a permit to build the Constitution Pipeline.” So we ask the question, will Trump’s EO actually help get the Constitution built?
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.
The Cuomo-corrupted New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is spitting and sputtering, “warning” the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that if they (FERC) decide to rule that NY took too long to approve the Williams Constitution Pipeline and now gives the project a go-ahead, the DEC intends to rain down all sorts of legal hell on the agency. Which tells us one thing: the DEC is VERY nervous that their power to block pipeline projects is about to be neutered.
Anti-fossil fuel radicals are making noises, threatening noises, about how they may react when and if (as seems likely) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) decides to overrule New York State and allow the Williams Constitution Pipeline to finally, after five years, get built.
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.