FERC Dem Chairman Willie Phillips Making Progress on Pipes, LNG
Willie Phillips, the Acting Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), continues to impress us. We reported in January that Phillips said he would tackle a new policy for pipeline approvals (see Acting FERC Chair Willie Phillips Will Tackle New Pipe Policy). He’s trying to balance the uncompromising leftist wackos in his own Democrat Party with common sense folks who seek to advance natural gas projects. He’s charting a “middle ground” and attempting to restart many stalled gas pipeline and LNG projects. How’s it going?
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Freeport LNG continues to rapidly ramp up its liquefaction and export capability. The facility experienced an explosion and fire in June 2022. It was just over a week ago that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted the facility permission to restart two of three liquefaction trains (see 
Isn’t it typical for Democrats to try and use a crisis that has nothing whatsoever to do with shale and natural gas to block shale and natural gas? Seven members of Pennsylvania’s Congressional delegation, every single one of them a Democrat, sent a letter (copy below) to another Democrat, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (an incompetent nincompoop), asking him to permanently delete a rule adopted during the Trump administration that allows LNG to be safely transported by special rail cars. The reason cited for banning LNG by rail? The train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio–an event that has nothing whatsoever to do with shale energy.
The Sabine Pass LNG terminal, owned and operated by Cheniere Energy, is spread over an 853-acre site in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. The facility is the largest receiving and regasifying terminal in the world with a total send-out capacity of 4 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) and a storage capacity of 16.8 Bcf. The “nameplate” capacity of the facility with six trains operating is roughly 30 mtpa (million tons per annum). Last Thursday, Cheniere announced it has pre-filed to expand its Sabine Pass operation significantly, by another 66% to around 50 mtpa. This is good news for the Marcellus/Utica.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, along with Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), and John Kennedy (R-La.), reintroduced the Natural Gas Export Expansion Act, which would expedite the federal approval process for exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) and increase free trade, particularly as European countries are looking for new sources of clean, reliable energy.
Finally! The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has granted permission to the Freeport LNG facility, located in Quintana, Texas, to restart two of three liquefaction “trains,” two of three LNG storage tanks, and one of two LNG births for ships to tie up and load. While the third train and third storage tank will need further FERC permission, Freeport predicts the entire facility–all three trains and the infrastructure that supports them–will be online and producing the maximum 2 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) within “the next several weeks.”
UGI, a diversified energy company with midstream (pipeline) operations and one of PA’s largest utility companies, is planning to build a second LNG peak shaver. The peak shaver will be located in Middlesex Township in Cumberland County, PA. In November 2020, UGI launched the operation of a new 2 million gallon LNG peak shaver in Bethlehem, PA (see 
Earlier this week, we reported the exciting news that two shipments of LNG had been loaded and sailed from the Freeport LNG facility, which (until now) has been out of commission since June 2022 due to an explosion and fire (see 
Yesterday we reported the surprising news that a load of LNG had left the Freeport facility, even though the facility has not been fully blessed to restart operations (see 
There are a (very) few Democrats in Washington, D.C., who still support natural gas. It seems most national Democrat leaders (in Congress and beyond) have been coopted by the radical left of the party and now endorse the national suicide of dumping fossil energy. But not all Dems. A group of so-called moderate Democrats who aligned themselves with Bill Clinton formed a think tank in 1989 called the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI). The PPI recently published an issue brief (report) called “The Climate Case for Expanding U.S. Natural Gas Export.” The report says expanding U.S. LNG exports can lower global greenhouse gas emissions significantly, especially if fugitive emissions of methane are deeply reduced. The report even supports the construction of more pipelines here in the U.S. Imagine that! A group of Dems who support natgas and LNG exports. It’s like spotting a unicorn in the wild.
Tuesday of last week, Freeport LNG, which has been out of operation since an explosion and fire in June 2022, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to begin re-introducing feedgas back into one of three liquefaction “trains” (units) at the facility. A day later, FERC agreed, and small amounts of gas began to flow (see 
Last October, the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held a hearing in Philadelphia about potentially locating an LNG export facility there. The country’s largest natural gas producer, EQT, showed up to discuss the key role gas has played in reducing emissions here at home and the role it could play in helping other countries reduce their emissions. Labor unions were there to talk about the jobs that would be created by such a facility. Penn LNG, the company that wants to build such a facility (and has lined up $6.4 billion so far to make it happen), was there too. But you didn’t know about it–because the event was ghosted by “mainstream” media.
Tuesday of last week, Freeport LNG, which has been out of operation since an explosion and fire in June 2022, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to begin re-introducing feedgas back into one of three liquefaction “trains” (units) at the facility. A day later, FERC agreed, and small amounts of gas began to flow (see 
Joe Biden has big plans to force you to change the way you get (and consume) your energy. He wants you to use hydrogen, electricity (generated by unreliable renewable sources like wind and solar), force you to capture your carbon dioxide (the stuff you breathe out with every breath you take), and in general, use anything other than fossil energy. Joe is happy to export LNG (a nasty fossil fuel), but only because other people will use it and not you. There’s one big problem with making Joe’s dystopian future a reality: The government bureaucracy and red tape that it spins, is preventing his preferred sources of energy from getting built and used. Isn’t it delicious? The very bureaucracy the left loves and adores is strangling the left’s attempts at the forced conversion of society to alternative energy.