Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel

Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Olympus/Huntley & Huntley | Pennsylvania | Regulation

How One Couple Blocked the West Deer Well Pad – Lessons Learned
January 7, 2022January 7, 2022

Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. In 2021 Olympus filed an application to build a new well pad in a rural part of Allegheny County, in West Deer Township. So-called “concerned citizens” got amped up to oppose the project (see Antis in West Deer, PA Gear Up to Oppose Olympus Well Pad). Antis successfully convinced the board of supervisors to come over to the dark side. In December, West Deer supervisors voted 4-0 to deny a permit to build the pad (see West Deer Township Denies Olympus Permit to Build Shale Pad). This is the story of how the effort to block legal drilling activity was accomplished in West Deer Township.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY State Teachers Union Harms Pensioners by Divesting Fossil Fuels
January 6, 2022January 6, 2022

We hope the current and future teachers who get a pension from the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System enjoy getting less money in their golden years. Pension payments for teachers are about to go DOWN because the people managing their retirement investments have decided to divest from fossil fuel companies. Translation: The Retirement System portfolio will take a major financial hit (i.e. won’t be as profitable). The Retirement System is about to flush pension money right down the toilet.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

14 Democrat Attorney Generals Pressure Feds to Block LNG-by-Rail
January 5, 2022January 5, 2022

In June 2020 the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), published final rules to allow LNG (liquefied natural gas) to be safely transported by special rail cars (see PHMSA and Fed Railroad Admin Publish Final LNG by Rail Regs). Anti-fossil fuel zealots hate fossil fuels, including natural gas, so much, they launched two lawsuits to prevent the new LNG-by-rail rules from taking effect. One lawsuit was filed by 14 Democrat state attorneys general, including PA AG Josh Shapiro (see 14 AGs Join Radical Green Groups Suing to Block LNG by Rail). Those same 14 AGs are now pushing the PHMSA to indefinitely suspend the LNG-by-rail regulation.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

M-U’s Future Production Growth Stunted by Lack of Pipelines
January 4, 2022January 4, 2022

Once again we return to the topic of pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica. Specifically, lack of pipeline capacity to handle all of the production we could be making were it not for constraints. Those constraints are because of vicious, anti-American leftists who oppose new pipeline projects by abusing our own court system. The M-U is forecasted to hit production of 42 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by 2025–and there it will stay because no new pipelines will get built or completed after 2023. We will be stunted.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia

Sierra Club Asks 4th Circus Clowns to Overturn VA, WV Permits for MVP
January 4, 2022April 20, 2022

The Sierra Club, which is likely funded (in part) by foreign bad-acting countries including Russia and China (see EPA Asks DOJ to Investigate Green Groups $$ from Russia, China), is once again using their considerable wealth to challenge recently-issued permits by both Virginia and West Virginia that allow the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to finish the final 6% of the pipeline not yet built. The permits were made under the federal Clean Water Act’s Section 401 and allow the pipeline to cross creeks and rivers. It is the final major aspect of the project not yet done.
Read More “Sierra Club Asks 4th Circus Clowns to Overturn VA, WV Permits for MVP”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Chester County | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

Bitter Antis Admit Defeat – ME2 Pipeline to be Completed in 1Q22
January 3, 2022January 3, 2022

In early December the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) agreed to allow Energy Transfer to change the way it will install the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline in the Marsh Creek Lake area in Chester County, PA (see PA DEP Approves ME2 Plan to Finish Pipe Thru Marsh Creek Lake Area). Two weeks later the DEP issued the necessary permits to allow construction to commence (see PA DEP Issues Revised Permits for ME2 Pipe Near Marsh Creek Lake). The Marsh Creek Lake work is the final big project to complete ME2. Needless to say, anti-fossil fuel zealots are distraught. Antis get funny when they get upset.
Read More “Bitter Antis Admit Defeat – ME2 Pipeline to be Completed in 1Q22”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Enbridge | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines

MA Court Rejects Appeal to Cancel Permit for Weymouth Compressor
January 3, 2022January 3, 2022

In November 2020 the town of Weymouth, Massachusetts dropped a legal fight to block an Enbridge compressor station under construction in the town (see Weymouth, MA Drops Opposition to Compressor in Return for $38M). The price to get the town to shut up was an initial $10 million lump-sum payment (due within 30 days) followed by $28 million more in property taxes over the next 35 years, for a total price tag of $38 million smackeroos. However, leftist wackos who truly believe this plant will cause man-made global warming didn’t get the memo. A group of wackos co-filed with the town to appeal a state permit allowing the plant to get built. A three-judge panel ruled last week the wackos don’t have standing to appeal a state agency approval of the compressor project.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide VA | Virginia

Radicals Convince FERC to Cancel Deal with Pipe Contractor in Va.
December 23, 2021April 18, 2022

Score another victory for the forces of evil. Based on the flimsiest of excuses, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has canceled a $102 million contract with Burns & McDonnell, an environmental engineering and construction firm, to perform an environmental review of a Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline project that includes upgrading a meter station and two compressor stations in Virginia. Anti-fossil fuel zealots are responsible.
Read More “Radicals Convince FERC to Cancel Deal with Pipe Contractor in Va.”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

FERC’s 3rd Democrat Commissioner Spells Trouble for O&G Industry
December 23, 2021April 18, 2022

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick never met a pipeline project he actually likes. Now Glick has ammunition to torpedo every single newly proposed pipeline project that comes across his desk in the person of newly added Democrat Commissioner Willie Phillips, a swamp-dwelling D.C. apparatchik (see Senate Confirms D.C. Swamp-Dwelling Democrat Lawyer to FERC). This was the nightmare scenario we warned you about prior to the 2020 election, that FERC will be politicized and refuse to authorize any new pipelines. We hate being right about these things.
Read More “FERC’s 3rd Democrat Commissioner Spells Trouble for O&G Industry”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

NJ Gov Murphy Seeks to Ban NatGas for Heat, Appliances Statewide
December 23, 2021April 18, 2022

New Jersey is a huge and important market for Marcellus Shale gas. NJ’s far-left Governor, Phil Murphy, recently won reelection to his job by 84,286 votes, about 3% of all votes cast. In other words, Murphy doesn’t have any kind of mandate to continue his socialist policies. Yet he’s now doubling down. Murphy is attempting to ban the use of natural gas for heating, stoves, etc. across the entire state! It’s completely bonkers and insane. Some 75% of the homes and businesses heat with natural gas.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

New York Plans to Outlaw Heating with Wood, Cites Global Warming
December 23, 2021April 18, 2022

In June 2019 the New York State legislature passed a horrific “energy” bill that was later signed into law by the now defrocked Gov. Andrew Cuomo (see New York Pulls the Trigger, Commits Energy Suicide with New Law). The new law, called the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (or “Climate Act”), limits carbon dioxide emissions to zero (an impossibility) by 2050. Tuesday we brought you a guide to understanding all of the evils contained in the bill (see Citizens Guide to Understanding New York’s So-Called Climate Act). As we predicted in 2019, not only will this bill outlaw the use of oil and natural gas for heat during out cold winters, it will also outlaw the use of wood stoves.
Read More “New York Plans to Outlaw Heating with Wood, Cites Global Warming”
Alternative Energy | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues

Exposing the Abject Lie of “Energy Transition” from Fossil Fuels
December 23, 2021April 18, 2022

The left incessantly chatters about a so-called energy transition that’s “already underway” and “arriving any year now.” The transition is from using fossil fuel energy, which has led to the greatest advancements in civilization since we emerged from living in caves, to replacing fossil energy with so-called “renewables” including unreliable wind and solar. It’s pure fantasy that we will dump the use of fossil fuels anytime soon–within the next 100 years. But the lie is spreading nonetheless. How about checking in on how the “transition” is actually going, using real numbers and hard data.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Nacero | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants

Big Green Organizes to Oppose Nacero GTL Plant Near Wilkes-Barre
December 22, 2021December 22, 2021

Nacero technology overview (click for larger version)

A group of 16 radical left groups (far far outside the mainstream) have banded together to announce their opposition to Nacero’s recently announced $6 billion gas-to-liquids (GTL) refinery, to be built on the site of a former coal mine in Newport Township and Nanticoke in Luzerne County, PA (see NEPA Huge Deal – $6B Plant to Convert Marcellus Gas to Gasoline). The plant will convert Marcellus natural gas into zero-sulfur gasoline for use in existing cars and trucks without modification. The groups, both local and statewide, are spreading lies about the facility and its environmental and economic impacts. Typical.
Read More “Big Green Organizes to Oppose Nacero GTL Plant Near Wilkes-Barre”
Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Olympus/Huntley & Huntley | Pennsylvania | Regulation

West Deer Township Denies Olympus Permit to Build Shale Pad
December 22, 2021April 20, 2022

Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. Earlier this year Olympus filed an application to build a new well pad in a rural part of Allegheny County, in West Deer Township. So-called “concerned citizens” got amped up to oppose the project (see Antis in West Deer, PA Gear Up to Oppose Olympus Well Pad). Looks like the antis successfully convinced the board of supervisors to come over to the dark side. Last week West Deer supervisors voted 4-0 to deny a permit to build the pad.
Read More “West Deer Township Denies Olympus Permit to Build Shale Pad”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues

Inflation is Fueled by Bad Policy, Not “Greedy” O&G Companies
December 21, 2021April 20, 2022

Joe Biden and the Democrat Party have turned what was a surviving, even thriving economy into a wasteland by pushing trillion-dollar spending bills, banning pipelines, banning new oil drilling on federal lands, and pressuring banks to deny lending to fossil fuel companies. The result is and (if you read MDN) was predicted: soaring energy prices and an economy teetering on the verge of collapse. Now that the Democrats ‘ failed governance has led to inflation through the roof and economic chaos, they are doing what politicians (of either party) always do: try to blame someone else. In this case, the Dems blame the oil and gas industry.
Read More “Inflation is Fueled by Bad Policy, Not “Greedy” O&G Companies”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

“We Hate Pipelines” Rhetoric from FERC’s 3 Democrat Commissioners
December 20, 2021December 20, 2021

Richard “Dick” Glick

Last Thursday at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) open meeting in Washington, D.C., the three Democrat Commissioners uttered policies and statements that amount to an “I hate pipelines” philosophy. This is a bit odd, given their statutory role and responsibility as FERC commissioners is to enable pipelines, not stop them. Yet the Democrat Party is now completely radicalized and is corrupting agencies like FERC. The Dem FERC commissioners have lost their way and believe FERC is an environmental agency when, in fact, it’s an economic agency. Elections have consequences folks, and we repeatedly warned you in 2020 that FERC would be a casualty under Joe Biden. It is–in spades.
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