An Opposing View on Waiving the Jones Act for US LNG Shipments
Last week we brought you the news that President Trump is considering a waiver to the 1920 Jones Act for LNG to be shipped from port to port in the U.S., even if the ships used are foreign flagged (see Trump Considers Waiving Jones Act to Allow Domestic LNG Shipments). We like the idea because it means we may be able to move more of our Marcellus/Utica gas to New England without using pipelines. However, MDN friend Garland Thompson, a talented reporter and magazine writer, has a different take on the Jones Act and potential waivers to it.
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Maybe it’s time to let Ithaca just go dark. Turn the electricity off, or rather, let the plants producing electricity that helps power the college town die off, and let rolling blackouts commence across the region. The battle continues to rage in the lib Dem socialist utopia of Ithaca (Tompkins County), NY over a plan to convert a local coal-fired electric generating plant to use much better-for-the-environment and far-less-polluting natural gas. Yet local antis, who irrationally (and we mean clinically insane) hate fossil fuels, continue to object. Fine. Turn off the lights.
Kinder Morgan has left a string of broken promises about the date for which the first Elba Island (Georgia) LNG export plant “mini-train” will begin producing and shipping LNG. We’ve chronicled the journey extensively. A month ago KM announced it was once again pushing back the startup of the first mini-train to April, “because of construction delays” (see 
We’ve been keeping an eye on natural gas supplies coming out of the ground in the Permian (West Texas and eastern New Mexico) for more than a year. Why? Because all that associated gas being produced in the Permian has to go somewhere, and increasingly it goes to places where Marcellus/Utica gas also goes. A potent competitor. A year ago we told you about Permian and M-U gas competing in Midwestern markets (see 
An overlooked aspect of yesterday’s Executive Order signed by President Trump will have an impact on natural gas by altering the way it’s transported. In addition to directing the federal EPA to rework rules that impact pipelines, Trump’s EO issued yesterday also directs the Secretary of Transportation to write a new rule allowing specially constructed tanker cars for railroads to ship LNG (liquefied natural gas). Which has antis fit to be tied, screaming “bomb train!”.
Earlier this month MDN told you that a plan to build a $60 million Marcellus LNG export facility on property owned by Philadelphia Gas Works was just one vote away from becoming reality (see 
Does one government hand know what the other is doing in Puerto Rico? More to the point, is there a brain instructing either hand what to do? That’s the question we had as we read the legislature of PR has just passed an idiotic law requiring all electricity generation on the island to come from so-called renewables by 2050.
We spotted a story that says India’s GAIL (formerly known as Gas Authority of India Limited) has put yet another one of its contracted LNG shipments of Marcellus Shale gas coming from Dominion’s Cove Point LNG export facility, up for sale. In fact, it’s already sold and on its way to be unloaded at a port in Belgium.
Two weeks ago the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted a request to Kinder Morgan to “introduce feed gas, back-up fuel, and BOG fuel” to the first of what will be 10 production units at its Elba Island, Georgia LNG export facility (see 
A recent Bloomberg article got it wrong, as they typically do, with this headline: “Biggest Threat to Once-Prized Gas Is Getting Kicked Out of Homes.” Residential natural gas use has been relatively flat, for years. Yet natural gas demand has rocked upward, which begs the question–so who are the new customers using all that gas? MDN friend Jude Clemente has the answer…