PA Antis Pack Virtual Hearing on Wolf’s Onerous New Methane Regs
Last December the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Environmental Quality Board (EQB) approved onerous new regulations that supposedly will capture every last molecule of stray methane that leaks from shale drilling operations (see PA DEP Goes WAY Too Far in Approving New Methane Regulations). The new regs are unnecessary and will shut down even more shale drilling operations in the state. As part of the EQB’s final steps to ratify the onerous new regs, they are conducting three virtual public hearings this month. Yesterday’s hearing (the second hearing) was packed with 32 anti-fossil fuel radicals who support Wolf’s plan. Gee, color us surprised.
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Columbia Gas of Massachusetts (NiSource) never quite recovered (reputationally) from a series of explosions in September 2018 that occurred with its local delivery pipelines north of Boston (see 
In March 2019 natural gas utility Consolidated Edison, which supplies Manhattan, the Bronx and most of Westchester County, slapped a moratorium on new natural gas customers from hooking up to the grid in Westchester due to lack of gas supplies (see 
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held a virtual hearing on Gov. Wolf’s plan to bypass the state legislature and force the state to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a group of northeastern states attempting to assassinate coal and gas-fired power generation by taxing it to death with an insane carbon tax (see 
As we have been saying for some time, LNG exports from the U.S. are low and staying low for at least a few more months (see 
Last October PA Gov. Tom Wolf, in a naked power-grab, said he would try to force PA to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a group of northeastern states attempting to assassinate coal and gas-fired power generation by taxing it to death with an insane carbon tax (see 
Coincidentally we have a second story today about pipe welding inspectors. In another post, we tell you about a pipeline welding inspector who falsified records (see ME2 Pipe Worker in SWPA Admits Falsifying Welding Records 77 Times), which is very much the exception and not the rule. In this second story, an inspector who worked for Equitrans Midstream has filed what he hopes will become a class action lawsuit against the Equitrans, claiming he and others were jilted out of overtime pay.
The received wisdom has been that with the oil markets getting whacked by the Saudis, the Russians, and the virus, and with new drilling scaled back and oil wells in the Permian, Bakken, Eagle Ford and other oil plays being shut-in, far less “associated gas” would be produced, leading to tighter natgas supplies further leading to higher prices for natgas (benefitting the Marcellus/Utica). But the price of natgas has remained at a 25-year low. What the heck is going on?
Equitrans Midstream’s 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project is now 92% complete and will be done and online in early 2021 (see 
New Fortress Energy, which likes to build and own as much of the LNG supply chain as possible, has built and recently finished an LNG import terminal in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Just one teeny, tiny problem: New Fortress didn’t get permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) before building it. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and subject to U.S. laws and regulations, including the regulation that requires FERC approval *before* building such a facility. Luuuucy, you have some ‘splainin to do!
In April 2019 President Trump issued an Executive Order directing the Secretary of Transportation to write a new rule allowing specially constructed tanker cars for railroads (DOT-113 tank cars) to ship LNG, i.e., liquefied natural gas (see 
In the American system of justice, when someone is accused of committing a crime, they are presumed innocent under the law until it is proven, in a court of law, they have committed said crime. But when a defendant, someone accused of committing a crime, is a fossil fuel company, that defendant is automatically presumed to be guilty. There is no presumption of innocence. That’s what is happening to Cabot Oil & Gas.
Not even Andrew Cuomo, as grossly corrupt as he is, has thought up something this vile and evil–using the currently toxic environment of race relations across our country as a means to block all new fossil fuel energy projects–specifically pipelines, compressor stations and power generating plants–by declaring such projects racist by definition. That’s what will happen in New Jersey if a new bill, Senate Bill 232, becomes law.
In Ohio, it costs drillers $5,500 to file for and receive a permit to drill a new shale well. In West Virginia, the cost is $10,150. In Pennsylvania, it has cost drillers $5,000 for a new shale well permit. Following a meeting yesterday of the PA Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC), PA’s permit fee is about to zoom to the top of the M-U list: $12,500 (2 1/2 times the previous fee). In fact, the cost of a shale permit in PA will become the highest in the country.