PA Senate Tweaks, Passes Bill Attracting Cracker-Type Investment
Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 1100, aimed at attracting new petrochemical investment to the state, was voted on and passed by the full PA Senate yesterday–with some key changes. Gov. Tom Wolf (liberal Democrat) says he will veto the bill anyway–denying the state billions of private economic stimulus it could receive (see Gov Wolf to Veto Bill Attracting Cracker-Type Investment to NEPA). The bill was passed by a large bipartisan majority in both the House and Senate. House Speaker Mike Turzai issued an announcement calling on Wolf to sign the bill, for the benefit of all Pennsylvanians. Don’t hold your breath.
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The Ohio Supreme Court, on Christmas Eve, threw a lifeline to an effort to overturn an Ohio law that provides corporate welfare in the form of $1 billion of ratepayer (taxpayer) money to FirstEnergy, which recently changed its name to Energy Harbor (see 
Listen up those interested in a new job working for the shale industry: JobNewsUSA.com is conducting an 
Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 1100, aimed at attracting NEW petrochemical investment to the state, is due to be voted on (and passed) by the PA Senate this week. Gov. Tom Wolf (liberal Democrat) has vowed to veto the bill–denying the state billions of economic stimulus it could receive. Why the veto? Your guess is as good as ours. Likely because it will encourage more use of PA’s abundant natural gas supplies, and that doesn’t sit well with radicalized enviro types.
Yesterday we received a somewhat strange note from the Delaware River Basin Commission. We’re subscribed to receive communications from the DRBC relating to the PennEast Pipeline project. The DRBC note says that PennEast has withdrawn their application seeking permission from the DRBC to use or discharge water from the basin during the construction of the pipeline project. DRBC doesn’t quite know what to make of the request and says they are “currently reviewing the letter” and have “no additional comment at this time.” Oooo…chilly.
In January the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) finally, after more than a year, allowed Energy Transfer to restart the final bits of construction needed to complete the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project (see 
According to our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the price of natural gas will, on average, remain below $4 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) for (gasp)–the next 30 years. You read that right. Lower for longer is, according to EIA, the reality for the next full generation. EIA recently released its “Annual Energy Outlook 2020” (full copy below). In addition to low gas prices, EIA predicts that so-called renewables will eclipse natural gas in electricity production by 2050. We say: When pigs fly.
Last November MDN told you that Range Resources was testing an all-electric fracking fleet at the Ziolkowski Pad in Allegheny County (see 
Opposition from green extremists continues against a tiny 16-inch, 7.3-mile natural gas transmission pipeline in the Albany, NY area. The purpose of the new pipeline is to beef up supplies of natural gas in the Capitol region of the state. The thing is, the people protesting the pipeline (those who live in the area) heat their homes with natural gas. Will they be the first to give up their gas, as a demonstration of their own sacrifice to Save the Planet? Not on your life!
Jimmy Cramer was one of the last Democrats of national prominence we actually respected. No more. Cramer has succumbed to the Dark Side of the Force. In a recent CNBC interview Cramer blurted out: “I’m done with fossil fuels. They’re done. They’re just done.” Later in the interview he called fossil fuels, “tobacco.”
Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) handed the PennEast Pipeline project a huge victory in its fight to overturn a poor decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. FERC said the judges of the Third Circuit were wrong in their ruling that PennEast cannot use FERC’s delegated power of eminent domain to cross property owned or managed by the State of New Jersey. The FERC ruling bolsters PennEast’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, making it far more likely the high court will now hear the case.
With the big news about Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) support of the PennEast Pipeline project, FERC ruling the pipeline CAN cross New Jersey state-controlled lands using eminent domain (see today’s lead story), another important bit of PennEast news from yesterday seems to have gotten lost in the sauce. PennEast filed a request yesterday with FERC to build the pipeline project in two phases. Break the project in two.