PA DEP Approves ME2 Plan to Finish Pipe Thru Marsh Creek Lake Area
Yesterday MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) along with the state Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) jointly fined Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project $4 million and is requiring it to perform another $4+ million worth of work at Marsh Creek Lake where construction last year caused an accidental spill of 8,000 gallons of nontoxic drilling mud (see PA Charges Mariner East Pipeline $8M+ to Fix Marsh Creek Lake). Lost in all the hoopla over the big numbers for fines and fix-it work is the fact (whispered by the DEP) that the DEP is agreeing to and allowing ME2 to complete its work in the Marsh Creek Lake area–the final major area of construction for ME2.
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Back in October Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is running for the Democrat nomination for governor in 2022, told trade union workers he didn’t like current Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a huge tax on carbon dioxide assessed on coal and gas-fired power plants (see 
While drilling in Chester County in August 2020 in the Marsh Creek State Park area, Energy Transfer’s (ET) Mariner East 2X pipeline experienced an “inadvertent return”–nontoxic drilling mud coming up out of the ground where it’s not supposed to (see 
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), lapdog of leftwing Gov. Tom Wolf, tried to bypass the state legislature and secretly push through and get adopted a proposed regulation on the state joining the highly controversial Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state compact to limit carbon emissions from power plant operators (a carbon tax). The DEP just got caught red-handed.
Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) has contracted with Project Canary to monitor methane emissions from both the company’s drilling operations (the upstream) and the company’s pipeline operations (the midstream). While a number of other Marcellus/Utica drillers have signed up with Project Canary to monitor methane emissions, the Olympus deal is different and special for two reasons: (1) it’s a private (not publicly owned) company, and (2) the deal covers both upstream and midstream, for the same company.
The odious leftists from the so-called Food & Water Watch (Big Green group, funded with foreign money) continue to pressure, cajole, woo, and hoodwink local municipalities in New Jersey to oppose building a new dock on the Delaware River–a dock that would allow LNG cargo carriers to come alongside and load up with yummy, safe, clean-burning LNG. The latest victim of FWW’s lies is Trenton, New Jersey.
Even amid the increasingly shrill and irrational ramblings of so-called scientists who predict gloom and doom if we don’t dump fossil fuel use immediately (while they ignore even bigger sources of carbon emissions), the world’s biggest banks and investment houses, while talking about dumping fossil fuel investments, haven’t actually done so. And according to Bloomberg, big banks don’t intend to deny their fossil fuel clients (oil, gas and coal companies) anytime soon. That’s really good news.
The NYMEX natural gas futures price plunged more than 10% on Monday, falling to the lowest level since August to close down 47.5 cents at $3.66 per MMBtu. And that comes after last week’s 24% loss, which was natural gas’ worst week since February 2014! What’s going on? The forecast is for warmer-than-expected winter temperatures across much of the country.
Once again Democrat politics rear their ugly head to pressure the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board, which voted last Friday to reject issuing an air permit for a compressor station in southern Virginia for the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline Southgate extension that will run 75 miles from Virginia into North Carolina. The permit would have allowed a compressor station to be built in the Virginia town of Chatham (Pittsylvania County). And according to critics of the pipeline, that’s just plain racist.
On Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a new temporary emergency certificate to the Spire STL pipeline, a 65-mile pipeline that connects to and flows Marcellus/Utica gas from the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline to residents and businesses in the St. Louis, MO area. The temporary certificate means the pipeline will not have to shut down just as winter sets in, endangering the lives and property of more than half a million residents in the St. Louis area. Whew.
Last Thursday CNX Resources reached a plea deal with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office over alleged violations of the Air Pollution Control Act and bad recordkeeping. Yeah, you read that right. State Attorney General Josh Shapiro (a real putz) leveled criminal charges against CNX over miscounting how many times the company used a pig (pipeline inspection gauge) to clean out a pipeline in Washington County, PA. An anti-fossil fuel zealot who lives near the pigging station complained about noise and emissions and ran squealing to the AG (pun intended).
So many lawsuits and appeals of actions have been filed against the Mariner East pipeline system (being built by Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Sunoco Logistics) we’ve lost count. Dozens? Hundreds? Who knows! We try to highlight some of them–the more important ones that have the potential to slow or stop work on the 99% done system. Here’s one not even on our radar that got completely dismissed last week: Wilmer Baker and Rolfe Blume vs. Sunoco Pipeline L.P.
A group of anti-fossil fuel zealots, with support from a clueless reporter at the Boston Globe, are targeting a tiny “peaker” gas-fired electric power generating plant in Peabody, Massachusetts (a suburb of Boston). The small 55-megawatt peaker would provide electricity only on the heaviest demand days for short periods of time. It would be powered by clean-burning natural gas. Yet the crazies are out in force protesting this $85 million project. Why? Because it will contribute, so say the crazies, to global warming. What dunces.