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NFG’s Northern Access Pipe Wins “Final” Court Case Against NY
The final hurdle for National Fuel Gas Company’s (NFG) Northern Access Pipeline as it travels through New York State has fallen. Yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that yes, New York (according to federal guidelines) waived its right to grant a Section 401 water crossing permit under the federal Clean Water Act when NY declined to rule on the permit application within one calendar year. That means NFG can now proceed with the project, although the company previously said they would not begin to build until 2022.
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Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf continues his efforts to force his state, without approval by its citizens (via the legislature) to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a glorified carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired power plants. What Wolf and his lackey Pat McDonnell at the Dept. of Environmental Protection refuse to tell PA citizens is just how high the RGGI carbon tax has climbed. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports the most recent RGGI quarterly auction, held on March 3, 2021, resulted in the highest price (tax) per ton of CO2 yet.
In a very gentle and diplomatic way, Pennsylvania State Senator John Yudichak (Independent from Wilkes-Barre) told Department of Community & Economic Development (DCED) Secretary Dennis Davin on Monday he’s not doing his job. Yudichak told Davin “site selectors” (people who work with companies to select sites for big manufacturing and other types of facilities across the U.S.) aren’t aware of the tax credits available as part of Act 66, a law passed last year aimed at building new petrochemical plants in PA.
Yet another attack on the oil and gas industry by the officially out-of-control Democrats in Congress. In years gone by a few fringe leftists from the Democrat Party have introduced several bills, including the FRAC Act, aimed at permanently ripping the U.S. Constitution apart by overriding states’ rights to regulate and control oil and gas drilling within their own borders. Using the faux excuse of man-made global warming, the FRAC Act overrides the individual states and grants broad/sweeping power to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate fracking. The Dems are at it again, reintroducing the FRAC Act and four other bills (called the “Frack Pack”), all aimed at restricting/eliminating fracking nationwide.
If you live in Pennsylvania, actually in just about any state, you couldn’t miss the big splash made yesterday when PA’s worst governor in the past 50 years, Tom Wolf, announced a massive taxpayer-funded initiative to build seven new solar energy facilities in six PA counties that will strip away some 2,000 acres of valuable PA farmland to produce enough electricity to power just half of PA’s state government. (Perhaps we can call it the half-baked solar project?) Leftists in mainstream media are falling over themselves to praise Wolf. We (as usual) have a different take.
When Equitrans’ 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline, which will connect West Virginia and bountiful supplies of Marcellus/Utica gas to southern Virginia (eventually beyond), is finally done, will Equitrans send a bill to the odious Sierra Club and other Big Green groups that have intentionally held up the project *for years* with a blizzard of frivolous lawsuits? Frivolous lawsuits holding up the MVP project have had very real costs. For example, Equitrans’ “all-in” cost to ship an Mcf of gas through the pipeline (when it finally is in-service) has doubled because of the delays. We think Equitrans should sue the litigious enviro groups to recover the escalating cost they will pay. Let’s put the Sierra Club out of business.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is finally making official what has, until now, been unofficial (but enforceable via court orders): State environmental agencies have exactly one year to either grant or reject issuing a Clean Water Act Section (CWA) 401 permit for pipelines (and other federal projects) to cross rivers and streams and wetlands. A final rule is now drafted and 90 days after it’s published in the Federal Register the rule will be in place and enforceable.
Make no mistake–Big Oil companies like Exxon, Chevron, and Shell are not friends of the shale industry. Indeed, these so-called supermajors despise smaller competitors called independents. Which explains why these three companies, along with seven other major oil and gas companies, acted like sycophants in a meeting yesterday, obsequiously bowing before dementia Joe’s attack dog Gina McCarthy in pledging their undying support of a carbon tax that they foolishly believe won’t somehow end up shutting down their own companies. For big, important people, the CEOs of these companies sure can be stupid.
All the wheels have officially come off the cart for a proposed $346 million pipeline project in northeastern Virginia called the Header Improvement Project. Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) filed a plan last December to build the Header Improvement Project, 24 miles of new pipeline and two new compressor stations (expanding a third compressor) connecting to the mighty Transco pipeline system to flow Marcellus/Utica gas to the northeast Virginia region (see 
In February West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced a plan to eliminate the state’s personal income tax. Who wouldn’t love that idea? But in order to replace the $2.1 billion received annually from the personal income tax, Justice would raise other taxes, including a tiered system that potentially raises the state’s oil and gas severance tax (see 
In February we told you about a group of radicalized anti-fossil fuelers who raised a stink with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) over the DEP’s routine, nothing-to-see-here renewal of permits for already-running (with no operational problems) shale wastewater recycling facilities scattered around the state (see 
Democrats in Congress continue a vendetta against the fossil fuel (and shale) industry. Their latest attack? House of Representatives (HR) Bill 1512, the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s Future Act (or CLEAN Future) Act. The bill gives vast powers to the unelected bureaucrats at the EPA to set new regulatory demands before permits can be approved for facilities that produce plastics or the raw materials used to produce plastics, such as ethylene or propylene. A better name would be BANCP (Block All New Cracker Plants) Act.
Two radical left Democrat FERC commissioners and one backstabbing RINO FERC commissioner voted last week to approve an 87-mile natural gas pipeline project in South Dakota and Nebraska. So a natural gas pipeline was approved by two Dems and a RINO (this is not a joke setup). The approval is a good thing, right? No, it’s not. The criteria they used in approving the project establishes a new precedent, new guidelines, that will be used for all pipeline projects going forward. The precedent is to consider how much man-made global warming a new pipeline will generate, which is (of course) nonsensical and can’t actually be measured. In other words, these three will now use made-up, pretend nonsense numbers of their own choosing to decide whether or not to approve any and all pipeline projects moving forward.
Some good news to share as we exit yet another work week. The Enverus U.S. rig count pushed to a fresh 11-month high in the week ended March 17, passing by the 500-mark (502 active rigs). Oil rigs climbed by 4 to 375 (although the Permian lost 2 rigs). Gas rigs were up 6 at 127 active rigs. The Marcellus dropped 2 rigs but gained 1 for a net +1 addition. The Utica stayed even. The M-U collectively had 44 active rigs operating over the past week. The M-U’s primary competitor for rigs, the gassy Haynesville, gained a rig and operated 47 rigs over the past week.