NYSEG Tells Lansing, NY Turn Down Thermostat to Avoid Gas Shortage
This would be funny if it weren’t so darned sad. In Lansing, NY, just outside of Planet Ithaca in Tompkins County, the local utility (NYSEG) wanted to build a short pipeline in 2017 to supply new customers with natural gas, but was blocked by crazies who irrationally hate fossil fuels (see Lansing NY Officials Fight Back Against Tinfoil Hat Fossil Fuel Haters). The pipeline was never built and since that time businesses and homeowners who wanted to build in the town have gone elsewhere. There’s the unmistakable stench of economic death in the air around Lansing (see Natgas Customer Moratorium Killing Ithaca Suburb of Lansing, NY). NYSEG now has an alternative to building the pipeline–turn down the thermostat.
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A lawsuit against Pennsylvania driller EdgeMarc Energy that began in 2018 is finally settled. In Sept. 2018 MDN told you about a single former employee of EdgeMarc launching what turned into a class action lawsuit against the company alleging some employees were misclassified as independent contractors and denied overtime pay (see 
There is a reason why President Trump and sleepy/creepy Uncle Joe Biden are visiting Pennsylvania so much. It is one of the “battleground” states, likely THE state, that will determine who wins the presidential race next week. The key issue both candidates talk about is fracking. Joe Biden (says Donald Trump) will take away the right to frack in PA, and along with it thousands of jobs. Biden insists he won’t ban fracking, but in the next breath says he will “transition” the country away from using oil (and gas, all fossil fuels) over the next 15 years. Which is, in essence, a ban on fracking.
In June MDN told you that the East Pittsburgh Borough Zoning Board, bullied by anti-fossil fuel radicals, had revoked a permit allowing a series of Marcellus Shale wells to be drilled on the property of U.S. Steel Corp.’s Edgar Thomson steel mill, the oldest still-operating steel mill in the country (see 
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finally, after months of dithering, granted approval to TC Energy to begin construction of its Louisiana XPress project to beef up flows along the existing Columbia pipeline system by an additional 850 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) by adding three new compressor stations and expanding a fourth compressor in Louisiana.
Once again the Mariner East 2 pipeline project is up Snitz Creek…without a paddle? There have been a number of “inadvertent returns” or mud spills in Snitz Creek, place where drilling mud is used to grease a drill bit for drilling holes under the creek. Mud has popped up where it’s not supposed to. Some of the mud spills have been, literally, just a couple of gallons. NOTHING. A recent spill on Oct. 19 was for 200 gallons.
Radicalized leftists from environmental groups like the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) are no longer content to try and prevent the construction of new natural gas pipelines, they now seek to shut down already-built and flowing pipelines. Case in point: A year ago the Spire STL pipeline came online flowing Marcellus/Utica molecules to the St. Louis area (see 
Back in March, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to enter the public consciousness, some 500 people from labor unions and industry met in Pittsburgh to launch an organization called Pittsburgh Works Together (PWT), dedicated to fighting back against those who want to end southwest PA industries including steel, natural gas, and petrochemicals (see 
Bloomberg is reporting insider sources say EQT, already the biggest natural gas producer in the country (and pureplay driller in the Marcellus/Utica), has sent a takeover proposal to CNX Resources, another major Marcellus/Utica driller. Friendly? Hostile? Who knows. In September inside sources told Reuters that EQT had made a bid on Chevron’s extensive M-U acreage (see 
Patterson-UTI Energy released its third-quarter 2020 update yesterday. The company operates a number of rigs in the Marcellus/Utica region. According to its website, Patterson has 12 active rigs in the M-U (which is more than one-third of all active M-U rigs). CEO Andy Hendricks said yesterday that fracking activity across a number of shale plays is coming back and will continue to grow in 2021.
The Enverus U.S. rig count rose by 11 to 347 over the past week, after having going up by 13 the week before (see 
Petulant anti-fossil fuel nutters in New Jersey have succeeded in bullying NJ Transit into dropping a plan to build a backup (to be used in emergencies only) gas-fired power plant in Kearny, NJ. Score another victory for green bullies.
What more can we say? For those who mistakenly (stubbornly) insist that Biden couldn’t “really ban fracking,” last night sleepy/creepy Uncle Joe pledged to end the use of oil and fossil fuels and “transition away from the oil industry,” calling oil a “significant” polluter. Yes, he’s off his rocker. WAKE UP! If you work for or depend on the oil and gas industry, a vote for Joe Biden is a vote to end your job. It really is that simple. He is telling us he is coming for oil and gas jobs. PLEASE believe him.
Anti-fossil fuelers are predictable and their motives transparent. A movement anti in Chester County (liberal, far-left Democrat) wanted to expose confidential safety information about the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline public. Specifically, he wanted to reveal “blast radius” information in hopes of inflaming opposition against the pipeline in his near-religious effort to get the pipeline permanently shut down. It’s a holy war for these people. Zealotry.
The price of natural gas trading at the Henry Hub terminal in southern Louisiana, the national benchmark price used for NYMEX futures contracts, has been on a rocket ship ride up over the past two days. Two days ago the price added $0.12 in a single day (see