Little Green Takes 1st Step in Suing to Block Atlantic Coast Pipe
No doubt being advised and funded by national Big Green groups, a group of backbencher local green groups (Little Green) have taken the first step in what will no doubt turn into a lawsuit to try and stop the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project from getting built. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Atlantic Coast, a $5 billion, 594-mile natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina, in October (see FERC Approves Atlantic Coast, Mountain Valley Pipeline Projects). A group of 21 backbencher local green groups located in VA and NC filed a petition with FERC on Monday, asking the agency to “rehear” (reconsider) it’s approval of the project. Among the claims made by the backbenchers: “Federal regulators cut corners, ignored environmental injustice and climate destruction, and usurped state authority in approving construction,” according to NC Warn, one of the backbenchers. Of course all of this is political theater. Grandstanding. Showboating. They don’t really believe FERC will change it’s mind. What happens next is FERC will tell the backbenchers they’re full of beans and to go away, and then the backbenchers can legally file a lawsuit with the Federal Court of Appeals (preferably with the liberal DC Circuit). Filing a petition for a rehearing with FERC is Step #1. Federal lawsuit is Step #2. Below is news about the petition, a copy of the 40-page petition, and a press release from one of the backbencher groups…
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Yesterday was quite a roller coaster ride for Williams with regard to a work stoppage in building the $3 billion Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline. It was just two days ago that the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued an emergency stop work order for Atlantic Sunrise, idling some 2,500 workers in PA and costing the company $8 million a day in downtime (see 
Just before the holidays, thousands of workers who were working on the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project have been escorted to the unemployment office–courtesy the odious Sierra Club. Yesterday we brought you the sad news that the Sierra Club’s lawsuit has stopped work on the $3 billion pipeline project (see 
Some true courtroom drama from yesterday to report regarding a lawsuit brought by Wayne Land and Mineral Group against the Delaware River Basin Commission’s (DRBC) arbitrary and illegal frack ban. Yesterday we told you Wayne landowners would finally get their day in federal court (see 
The arrogance of Big Green was on full display yesterday as they rushed to stop the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project project and silence lawfully permitted work. In response to a lawsuit filed by the worst of the worst (the Sierra Club) on Oct. 30th, a liberal court in the District of Columbia yesterday slapped the Atlantic Sunrise project with an emergency stop work order–for the entire project. Work had already begun to lay pipe on the property of Catholic nuns in Lancaster County, PA. The nuns call themselves Adorers of the Blood of Christ. We call them Sisters of the Corn (
The lawsuit filed by a Wayne County, PA landowner against the egregious overreach by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to stall/delay/block any shale drilling within the Basin takes a very important step forward today. It’s a step feared by the DRBC and radical groups like THE Delaware Riverkeeper–because this case has the real potential to neuter the DRBC’s claim it can block shale drilling in the watershed. In March, MDN reported that U.S. District Judge Robert Mariani ruled against the Wayne Land and Mineral Group in a lawsuit that challenged the right of the DRBC to stop fracking in the Delaware River Basin (see 
The director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Craig Butler, continues to go off the rails with a major grudge against Rover Pipeline (see 
We find this story amusing. A group of left-leaning Catholic nuns in Lancaster County, PA, whipped up by radical environmentalists with ties to Big Green organizations, got it into their heads to try and block a very-safe natural gas pipeline from crossing their property–the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline being built by Williams. The Sisters call themselves Adorers of the Blood of Christ. We call them Sisters of the Corn, because they put a couple of wooden park benches in a cornfield on their property (leased to a local farmer), christening it a “chapel” and claiming because the pipeline would run through the middle of their so-called chapel, building a pipeline is a violation of freedom of religion. In September a federal judge tossed the lawsuit (see 
Last week National Fuel Gas Company, headquartered in Western New York State with drilling subsidiary Seneca Resources and pipeline subsidiary Empire Pipeline, issued its fourth quarter (everyone else’s third quarter) 2017 update. In the accompanying analyst phone call, CEO Ronald Tanski blamed the delay of the Northern Access Pipeline project (delayed by the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation) for lower earnings than the company would have otherwise realized. Thanks, business UNfriendly NY! You may recall in July NFG filed a lawsuit against the DEC for arbitrarily rejecting the project (see 
The odious Sierra Club is at it again. Using what appears to be endless supplies of money from people like the Rockefellers, the Sierra Club, along with a mishmash of other radical environmental groups, filed an emergency motion in federal court on Monday, asking the court to stop any further work on the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline. Atlantic Sunrise is a $3 billion, 198-mile natural gas pipeline project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from northeastern PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. Williams, the company building/owning the project, broke ground in September (see 
Monroeville, PA (Allegheny County, suburb of Pittsburgh) is hostile toward the shale industry and continues to display their hostility in court. In September, Monroeville Council voted to enact a super-restrictive seismic testing ordinance (see 
In March MDN reported on a court case decided in Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals that seems to say that at least some landmen in Ohio DO need to be licensed real estate agents, in order to get paid (see 
NEXUS Pipeline has had to use the unpreferred last option and has taken landowners of 42 properties to court using eminent domain in order to secure easements so they can lay pipeline through those properties. NEXUS is a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. NEXUS received final approval for the project from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in August, the first major pipeline to get approved following a newly restored quorum at FERC (see 
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has just escalated a much-needed war with the CORRUPT, Andrew Cuomo-directed Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) in New York. We won’t recount the entire history, but the DEC had arbitrarily, after more than one year of review, ruled against issuing a federal water crossing permit for a tiny 7.8 mile pipeline Millennium needs to build from its main pipeline to an electric generating plant under construction in Orange County. The power plant is due to be completed in early 2018–and needs a fuel supply. In a monumental decision, FERC overruled NY DEC in September (see 
A cabal of three, rabid, radical so-called environmental groups are once again trying to obstruct the legally-permitted Mariner East 2 (ME2) natural gas liquids pipeline project in Pennsylvania. Clean Air Council, THE Delaware Riverkeeper and the Mountain Watershed Association filed a motion with the PA Environmental Hearing Board, a special court set up to hear appeals of decisions made by the Dept. of Environmental Protection, to revoke permits previously issued by the DEP for the ME2 project–WITHOUT holding a trial. The groups are attempting to rush through a decision to block work on the pipeline by claiming there are “facts” in the case “not in dispute” and that the judge can simply take the reigns of justice into his own hands and rule by fiat. The heart of their case is that DEP granted federal water crossing permits for ME2 for “exceptional value” swamps, er, a, wetlands–and ya know, that just ain’t right. Even the attorney for the odious (and odoriferous) Clean Air Council says the judge won’t rule on the motion for at least two months–which is about the time the pipeline will be done anyway. So we’re not quite sure what these rabid groups hope to accomplish with their latest stunt. Perhaps it’s yet another fundraiser? The holidays are fast approaching…