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Chester Co DA ME2 Pipeline “Buy a Badge” Case Gets Jury Trial
This is so tiresome. The Chester County District Attorney’s office continues to persecute two lowly Pennsylvania Constables for doing their job in warning off crazy anti-fossil fuel fanatics who approached a construction site for the Mariner East 2 pipeline project. The DA’s office thought it could fool everyone with a catchy slogan, calling what the constables did a “buy a badge scheme.” What it was, was two guys working for near minimum wage who happen to have a badge, using that badge to keep people from hurting themselves. And for that, they’re being prosecuted by the Chester DA. Shameful. The case is being tried before a jury right now.
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A few weeks ago MDN brought you the news that three far-left Democrat judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval for a long-completed and flowing natural gas pipeline in the St. Louis, MO area–a pipeline that flows Marcellus/Utica gas to residents, businesses, and electric generating plants throughout the region (see 
The Supreme Court decision from earlier this week allowing PennEast Pipeline to use the federally delegated power of eminent domain to cross tiny pieces of land owned (or controlled by) New Jersey is still reverberating across the country (see 
Yesterday MDN brought you the news that the U.S. Supreme Court decided that yes, the PennEast Pipeline *can* use federally-delegated eminent domain in order to install a pipeline across New Jersey state-owned land after all (see 
As we previously predicted would happen, New Jersey lost its Supreme Court case to block PennEast Pipeline from using eminent domain to cross NJ-owned or controlled land. This was a critical case to prevent blue states like NJ, and New York, and California from blocking ALL new interstate pipelines aimed at crossing states to deliver product from other states. NJ’s lawless action was an overt attempt at blocking interstate commerce and a direct challenge to one of the purposes of the Natural Gas Act, passed in 1938. Disappointingly PennEast won by only one vote. Still, it’s a victory!
Three far-left Democrat judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit have attacked the Marcellus/Utica by overturning a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval for a long-completed and flowing natural gas pipeline in the St. Louis, MO area–a pipeline that flows M-U gas to residents, businesses, and electric generating plants in the region. The Spire STL pipeline now faces closure. It is a 
On January 4, 2014, Rice Energy (at that time run by Dan Rice IV) hired Vice President for Completions (head fracker) Babatunde Ajayi. After Ajayi assembled a team and a system that propelled Rice to become one of the leading Marcellus/Utica drillers, Rice fired Ajayi on October 31, 2016. Rice claimed Ajayi was double-dipping–that he had a conflict of interest by owning shares in a company doing business with Rice Energy. Ajayi says he had reported his ownership interest–for years–and that Rice fired him shortly after he was forced to sell all of his shares in the other company. The reason he was fired, according to Ajayi, is so that Rice wouldn’t have to pay him $1.9 million in bonuses via shares of Rice stock. According to Ajayi, Rice used him, used his knowledge, then kicked him to the curb. So he sued.
On Joe Biden’s first day occupying the White House, he signed an Executive Order (EO) suspending new oil and gas leasing on all federal while the Interior Department reviews existing leases and permitting practices for 60 days (see 
Adelphia Gateway, a plan to convert an old oil pipeline stretching from Northampton County, PA through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook, recently received permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to begin final the final bits of construction (see 
A federal court in Pennsylvania upheld the findings of a U.S. Dept. of Labor investigation that oil and gas contract worker Henkels & McCoy Inc. owes big money in back wages and overtime to 362 workers at 11 worksites in five states, including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Connecticut, Georgia, and (yes) even in New York too. The company must now pay $1,085,830 in back wages and damages.
In a brilliant move aimed at boxing in the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), two northeastern Pennsylvania State Senators–Gene Yaw and Lisa Baker–along with members of the PA Senate Republican Caucus (27 Senators in all), filed a lawsuit in January against the DRBC accusing the quasi-governmental agency of “taking” the property rights of PA residents without just compensation under the law (see 
Just coming to light for us now is a long-running lawsuit in Tioga County, PA by landowners who claim that UGI has taken their mineral rights as part of operating the Meeker Storage Field, an underground natural gas storage facility. The landowners lost the lawsuit in the Court of Common Pleas of Tioga County (trial court) in March 2019 (although the case began in 2016). The landowners appealed to Commonwealth Court and lost there too, in November 2020. The landowners appealed again, to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The Supremes have just accepted the case.
How does this work in the real world? Gas and electric customers on Aquidneck Island (part of Rhode Island) ran out of natural gas leaving thousands without heat on the island for days during a frigid cold snap in 2019. Customers without heat subsequently launched a class action lawsuit. On Wednesday a judge ruled the lawsuit may continue. Yet RI legislators will not allow the utility, Narragansett Electric (formerly part of National Grid) to implement any permanent fixes (like a new pipeline) to prevent another outage from happening! And it will happen at some point. This is what passes for “justice” in Rhode Island.
New Fortress Energy, which likes to build and own as much of the LNG supply chain as possible, built and finished an LNG import terminal in San Juan, Puerto Rico in early 2020. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) then dinged the company, asking for an explanation as to why they built it without FERC permission (see 
Last fall MDN told you that a Marcellus-fired power plant planned for Clinton County, PA called the Renovo Energy Center, had come back to life as an even bigger project that will produce 1,240 megawatts of electricity when it gets built (see