Sad Day: Federal Court Strikes Down FERC’s Use of Tolling Orders
Yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (DC Circuit) handed down a decision that was expected, but sad nonetheless. The court told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) it can no longer use “tolling orders” to stretch out the time to respond to a “rehearing” request when a FERC decision has been challenged. It sounds complicated. The simple version is FERC no longer has the ability to prevent anti-fossil fuel Big Green groups (with loads of money) from challenging each and every pipeline decision FERC makes in court, tying up those decisions for years at a time. Antis now have free rein to game the system and shut down new pipelines from getting built.
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The media spin machine and anti-fossil fuelers are in overdrive, but they can’t paper over this fact: Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court expressed a very loud and clear interest in hearing the PennEast Pipeline vs. New Jersey case–and that spells bad news for NJ and its radical Attorney General who is trying to block the pipeline from entering the state.
Former Chester County, PA District Attorney Tom Hogan (RINO), and his successor Deb Ryan (Democrat) are 100% humiliated after a Chester County Magisterial District Judge dismissed the entire case against the local head of security for Energy Transfer in what the DA’s office lyingly calls a “buy a badge scheme.” Judge John Bailey dismissed all 54 criminal counts against Frank Recknagel over his hiring of constables as off-duty security guards for the Mariner East pipeline project. The DA’s office tried to criminalize moonlighting for the pipeline.
A landowner in Allegany County, NY who tried to block National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) from crossing her property with its Northern Access Pipeline to flow PA fracked gas into the Empire State, has failed. Last week New York’s highest court, called the State Court of Appeals, overturned a lower court ruling. The high court decision clears the way for NFG to use eminent domain to cross the woman’s property when (not if) the pipeline gets built.
We should have guessed this was coming. A New York City law firm has launched what it hopes will turn into a class action lawsuit against Cabot Oil & Gas for securities fraud following the sleazy attempt by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro to turn a 12-year-old accident (methane migration) into a felony (see 
Coincidentally we have a second story today about pipe welding inspectors. In another post, we tell you about a pipeline welding inspector who falsified records (see ME2 Pipe Worker in SWPA Admits Falsifying Welding Records 77 Times), which is very much the exception and not the rule. In this second story, an inspector who worked for Equitrans Midstream has filed what he hopes will become a class action lawsuit against the Equitrans, claiming he and others were jilted out of overtime pay.
In the American system of justice, when someone is accused of committing a crime, they are presumed innocent under the law until it is proven, in a court of law, they have committed said crime. But when a defendant, someone accused of committing a crime, is a fossil fuel company, that defendant is automatically presumed to be guilty. There is no presumption of innocence. That’s what is happening to Cabot Oil & Gas.
A perceptive MDN reader emailed yesterday to ask us the status of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit (NP) 12, blocked for all pipelines in May by a Montana federal judge appointed by Obama (see 
On Monday Dominion Energy’s 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) scored a major victory at the U.S. Supreme Court with a decision that allows the project to drill and install pipe underneath the Appalachian Trail (see 
Earlier this week Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced an indictment of Cabot Oil & Gas for allegations of methane migration going back more than a decade (see 
We finally have a major court victory over the forces of anti-fossil fuel evil, so let’s sit back and soak in the warmth and sunshine of this moment. Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a decision we expected, a decision that allows Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), a 600-mile project from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina, to cross under the Appalachian Trail. The decision is not only a victory for ACP, which is only about 6% built, but also a victory for the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline, which is 92% built. MVP also needs to pass under the Trail.
The door has been closed on “Dimock” (in Susquehanna County, PA) for years. Dimock, you may recall, was made famous by Josh Fox’s so-called documentaries Gasland and Gasland 2, aired endlessly on HBO. His allegations about fracking malfeasance by Cabot Oil & Gas were completely debunked in a real documentary called 
After spending years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to investigate Range Resources over a simple regulatory matter settled years ago by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, PA’s leftist Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, announced on Friday he had finally bullied Range into pleading “no contest” to so-called environmental crimes (misdemeanors), forcing the company to pay $50,000 in fines and $100,000 to Shapiro’s favorite Big Green charities. Does that sound like a success to you? Shapiro spent multiple hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to force the company to pay $150K. Sounds like Shapiro is The Biggest Loser to us.
Equitrans’ 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project from West Virginia to southern Virginia is now 92% in the ground and complete. That final 8% is frustratingly delayed because of lawsuits and regulatory actions brought on by Big Green groups. But have no fear. In an announcement released yesterday by the builder Equitrans Midstream, MVP will be 100% done and operational in “early 2021.” The end is in sight.
In what is a hollow victory for anti-fossil fuel zealots, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied hearing an appeal for a case from Sunoco Logistics Partners about a permit for a pump station in Lebanon County, PA. The Supremes’ rejection means a lower court ruling stands that overturns the permit. Thing is, that pump station was built years ago and has been functioning ever since. There’s no way that pump station is going away. So why did the antis blow all that money in litigation over the years?