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Exciting! DC Circuit Passes Constitution Pipe Case Back to FERC
You can feel the excitement and anticipation building. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the Constitution Pipeline from northeast Pennsylvania into central New York in 2014, more than four years ago. This year, 2019, may be the year construction finally begins–and the year antis who have fought this pipeline every inch of the way finally LOSE.
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Anti fossil fuel freaks have scored a victory in reducing the amount of electricity available to New Jersey’s southern shore area (rolling blackouts anyone?). There was a plan to convert a now-closed coal-fired electric generating plant to use natural gas, fed to it by a new (very short) pipeline.
The light at the end of the tunnel for Constitution Pipeline just got brighter. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to pass the ball back to them so they can reconsider whether or not to overrule New York State’s blockage of a permit for the Constitution. FERC’s action signals they may be ready to rule against NY and allow Constitution to begin construction.
Dominion Energy has about had it up to *here* with the clown judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circus. Dominion asked for all of the judges sitting on the Fourth Circuit to rehear a case that blocks the pipeline from drilling *under* the Appalachian Trail because of a lawsuit brought by colluding Big Green groups trying to kill the entire project. The clowns refused.
We’ve written extensively over the years about the Ohio Dormant Minerals Act (DMA) and even about the Ohio Marketable Titles Act (MTA), both of which impact Utica shale rights. There has been an ongoing question of whether or not the MTA can be used to return previously severed mineral rights back to a surface landowner. The answer to that question appears to have been rendered in a court decision made earlier this month.
Big Green insanity continues at the so-called Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF). The only thing they “defend” is their own twisted philosophy of trying to gouge out the eyes of the oil and gas industry in PA–even at the expense of de-funding their own beloved PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).
There had been an ongoing legal squabble in Trumbull County, OH over a proposed Utica gas-fired electric plant in Lordstown, located next door to another gas-fired plant (see 
In November seven anti-pipeline residents of Chester and Delaware counties (Philadelphia suburbs) filed a lawsuit against the Mariner East pipeline projects–1, 2 and 2X–alleging the pipelines are unsafe. It didn’t take long for others to jump on the litigation bandwagon:
On Tuesday EQT filed lawsuits in both Pennsylvania and federal courts against two former employees it had fired, claiming the employees, before they were fired (sensing it was coming) had systematically copied confidential information from company computers and took it with them when they left.
Finally some good news in our war against the forces of evil (i.e. Big Green). The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has rejected a lawsuit by Big Green groups that would have blocked Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and, as a bonus, would have emasculated the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision-making ability for all pipeline projects.
The Sisters of the Corn (our name for the a group of leftist nuns in Lancaster County, PA) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case in which they claim their religious freedom has been trampled by Williams running a pipeline (Atlantic Sunrise) across their property. The case came up for consideration with the Supremes and they declined to hear it, meaning it’s the end of the road for the Sisters and the green group backing them.
Is this really the depths to which we’ve now descended? If you disagree with a legitimate, legal business and their right to engage in a legitimate, legal practice (but you don’t like it), you bastardize the legal system and launch a criminal investigation?
In 2013 some 10,000 West Virginia landowners/rights owners filed a class action lawsuit against EQT over their practice of post-production deductions from royalty checks. The lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial last November, but at the last minute, it didn’t. Word leaked that EQT had settled out of court (see