Industrywide Issues

Dominion Energy | Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Virginia

Virginia’s Biggest NatGas-Fired Power Station Goes Online
December 11, 2018December 11, 2018

Greensville County Power Station (click for larger version)

In March 2015, Dominion announced plans to build the State of Virginia’s largest natural gas powered electric generating plant, in Greensville County, VA (see Virginia’s Largest Electric Plant to be Powered by Marcellus Gas). The $1.3 billion state-of-the-art natural gas-fired electric generating station generates 1,588 megawatts of electricity. Construction began in June 2016 (see Dominion Begins Building Virginia’s Biggest NatGas Power Station). And finally on Saturday, Dec. 8, the plant went online. Dominion’s own 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (when completed) will provide cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus/Utica Shale gas to power it. Until Atlantic Coast is up and running, where will the gas come from to power it? We couldn’t find confirmation on the source of gas that feeds it now–but we’re guessing it’s Marcellus gas, making this a hugely important new market for our gas.
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CNG/LNG | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan

Elba Island LNG Won’t be Fully Online Until “End of 2019”
December 11, 2018December 11, 2018

Elba Island LNG

Elba Island LNG, situated along the Georgia coastline near Savannah, was originally due to begin operations now, in the fourth quarter of 2018 (see Elba Island, Ga. LNG Export Startup Delayed to 4Q18). But in October Kinder Morgan, the builder and owner of the project, delayed the startup until first quarter of next year (see Elba Island, Ga. LNG Export Startup Delayed (Again) – Now 1Q19). Elba Island will be the second LNG export facility along the East Coast, after Cove Point in Maryland. As we previously noted, Elba is quite a bit smaller than Cove Point. Whereas Cove Point, which has been up and running since March, can take in and liquefy up to 3.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas, Elba Island will be able to liquefy up to 350 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d)–just 10% of Cove Point’s capacity. In a post on the U.S. Energy Information Administration website yesterday, we learned that Elba will *begin* operation in early 2019, but it won’t be *fully* up to speed until the end of 2019.
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Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

4th Circus Blocks Permit, Stops All Work on Atlantic Coast Pipe
December 10, 2018December 10, 2018

The judges at the Fourth Circuit (i.e. Circus) Federal Court of Appeals are at it again, micromanaging and making life miserable for Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The clowns of the Fourth Circus on Friday put a hold on a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that allows the pipeline to get built through areas with so-called endangered and threatened species. FWS determined the impacts to such species would be minimal. Big Green groups, including the radical Sierra Club, filed a lawsuit and in response to that lawsuit, to give the lawsuit time to play out, the clown judges suspended the FWS permit–effectively shutting down all work along the 600-mile project, even though the so-called “sensitive” species (four of them) are found along just 100 miles of the project. It’s not the first time the clowns have interfered (see 4th Circus Court Blocks Some Atlantic Coast Pipe Work in WV).
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Energy Companies | Energy Services | EQT Corp | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Indiana County | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines

Contractor Sues EQT $1.9M for Refusing to Pay for Spill Cleanup
December 10, 2018December 13, 2018

Yet more intra-industry snipping to report (o&g companies suing o&g companies), this time between EQT and a contractor the company hired to clean up a spill (for $1.9 million) who says EQT never paid. EQT Gathering hired InterCon Construction to drill and install replacement pipeline in Indiana County, PA. InterCon did the work. During construction, InterCon experienced an “inadvertent return” (drilling mud leaking out on the surface where it’s not supposed to). InterCon fixed the issue, finished their work, and left. Triad Engineering was also involved in the project. The leak later returned. EQT asked InterCon to return and clean it up, which they did (for a price). According to court documents, EQT sued Triad for not properly sealing a bore hole, leading to the “new” leak. Yet EQT is refusing to pay InterCon for the cleanup, inferring they were to blame.
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Columbiana County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Stark County | Summit County | Wayne County (OH)

12 Landowner Lawsuits Filed Against NEXUS, Contractor in Ohio
December 10, 2018December 10, 2018

A lawyer representing 12 Ohio landowners has filed separate lawsuits on behalf of each landowner against NEXUS Pipeline and a contractor NEXUS used to build the pipleline–Michels Corp. The lawyer says he plans to file more lawsuits in the coming weeks. According to the attorney, the lawsuits aim to hold NEXUS and Michels “accountable for specific damages they’ve caused,” and to prevent future pipeline builders from “trampling on the rights of property owners.” The charges vary, but include allegations of pumping water and silt onto farms without permission from the owners, destroying topsoil and crops (without compensation), failure to repair damaged drain tiles, and more.
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Bucks County | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics

Liens Against ME2 Pipeline Landowners Near Philly Dismissed
December 10, 2018December 10, 2018

That was fast. Last week we reported that lawyers for a Mariner East 2 (ME2) subcontractor, United Piping Inc., had filed liens against the property of three landowners near Philadelphia because the ME2 contractor they worked for, Welded Construction, had declared bankruptcy and couldn’t pay them. And since ME2 builder Sunoco Logistics (along with Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline builder Williams) withheld payments from Welded, forcing it into bankruptcy, United figured they would extract their pound of flesh from landowners. Which, as we said, is outrageous and wrong (see Bankrupt Pipeline Contractor Leads to Liens Against PA Landowners). A day after that story broke, the companies involved (namely Energy Transfer, on behalf of Sunoco Logistics) got it resolved.
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Bucks County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Public Opinion

PA Residents Sound Off Against Adelphia Pipe at DEP Hearing
December 10, 2018December 10, 2018

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection held a public hearing last week for the Adelphia Gateway project, a plan to convert an old oil pipeline stretching from Northampton County, PA through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook, to instead pump natural gas (see Oil Pipeline Near Philly to be Converted to Flow Fracked NatGas). It was pretty easy to predict that the hearing would elicit negative feedback, based on previous stories of residents unhappy with the location of a planned compressor station (see Update on Adelphia Gateway – Converting Oil Pipeline to Flow NatGas). And sure enough, many who spoke at the hearing were not happy.
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Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Monroe County | Pennsylvania | Sand/Proppant | Supply Chain

Northeast PA Railroad Traffic Surges Due to Marcellus Shale
December 10, 2018December 10, 2018

We love a good railroad story–always have, always will. And here’s a great railroad story. The freight trains in northeastern Pennsylvania will this year, once again, set a new record. Last year the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad, which operates 85 miles of track in Lackawanna and Monroe counties, hauled 8,572 carloads. This year they will fly by that number, to a new record. Why? Mainly due to frack sand used by Linde Corp, which supplies sand to drillers in the region. Translation: Drilling picked up again in 2018 in northeastern PA.
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics | Williams

Bankrupt Pipeline Contractor Leads to Liens Against PA Landowners
December 7, 2018December 7, 2018

Ambulance-chasing lawyers for a Minnesota-based subcontractor (United Piping Inc.) have filed a lien against some of the landowners where Mariner East 2 (ME2) crosses, claiming the landowners may have to pay them because the contractor, Welded Construction, can’t. The lawyers are using a little-known law in Pennsylvania that dates to 1901 to make their claim. This is seriously screwed up. You may recall we previously told you that Williams, disputing work Welded Construction had done for them in building the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline, refused to pay $23.5 million, causing Welded to declare bankruptcy (see Williams Withholds Payment Forcing Pipeline Builder into Bankruptcy). What we didn’t know, until now, is that Sunoco Logistics Partners, builder of the ME2 pipeline, also withheld payments to Welded. United Pipeline says because of Welded’s bankruptcy and failure to pay them (because Williams and Sunoco withheld payments), they (United) now have the right to go after landowners for that money. This is nuts! Read More “Bankrupt Pipeline Contractor Leads to Liens Against PA Landowners”
CNG/LNG | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NG Advantage | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Virtual Pipeline Says Goodbye to NY, Sets Up Across Border in PA
December 7, 2018December 7, 2018

New York State is the biggest loser. In every sense. NG Advantage, which once tried to set up a virtual pipeline operation in the Town of Fenton (suburb of Binghamton, NY), has shaken the dust of New York off its shoes and has, instead, decided to build the facility (with millions in tax revenues and over 100 jobs) 25 miles across the border in Springville Township, Susquehanna County, PA–in the heart of Marcellus country. Good for NG! Nice people, and they deserved much better treatment than they got here in NY. We personally hoped and lobbied for NG to locate in the Town of Windsor, NY, where MDN is located. But alas, the experience they had with the Town of Fenton was so nasty, they decided to abandon any plans of locating a business in NY. Can’t say that we blame them. NY is about the most business unfriendly state in the Union.
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Industrywide Issues | Regulation

U.S. Senate Confirms McNamee to FERC with 50-49 Vote
December 7, 2018December 7, 2018

We once again have a majority, three Republicans, as voting members at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Yesterday along a party line vote, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Bernard McNamee as the fifth Commissioner at FERC. McNamee is the former head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Policy–the guy who helped roll out a plan favored by Trump and DOE Secretary Rick Perry to artificially favor and boost nuclear and coal energy sources, at the expense of other sources like natural gas. Stupid idea, but there you go. By all accounts McNamee will be a friend to natural gas, regardless of his recent past in promoting coal and nukes.
Read More “U.S. Senate Confirms McNamee to FERC with 50-49 Vote”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

PA Supreme Court Upholds ME2 Right to Use Eminent Domain
December 7, 2018December 7, 2018

One of the ways anti-fossil fuel groups have tried to stop the Mariner East 2 Pipeline project is by tying it up in court. Various lawsuits have been filed going back years. One litigant, a Big Green group headquartered in Philadelphia, the so-called Clean Air Council, has tried repeatedly to get the courts to deny ME2 the right to use eminent domain in cases where landowners refuse to cooperate (see Clean Air Council’s Strange War Against Mariner East Pipeline). CAC argued that ME2 is not a “public utility” and therefore not entitled to the use of eminent domain. That argument flamed out. In May, PA’s Commonwealth Court ruled that yes, ME2 is a public utility entitled to use eminent domain if it needs to (see PA Court Rules ME2 Pipe has Power of Eminent Domain, Period). CAC had one last card to play, taking the case to the PA Supreme Court. They played it, and lost.
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Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV’s Speaker of the House is a Friend to Shale Gas
December 7, 2018December 7, 2018

Roger Hanshaw

The Charleston Gazette-Mail, working with the libs of Propublica, have written a snarky article that implies Roger Hanshaw, the Speaker of West Virginia House of Delegates (a part-time job), is in the hip pocket of the oil and gas industry, someone with major conflicts of interest. Hanshaw is an attorney who works for a law firm with clients from the oil and gas industry. That makes him toxic. Tainted goods. Unworthy. At least in the mind of Dem libs. We take the opposite view. Hanshaw is a smart lawyer who knows the industry well and can help guide public policy to benefit the industry while at the same time protect the residents (landowners, surface owners, taxpayers) of the great state of West Virginia. He’s the PERFECT guy for the job, able to balance industry interests with those of constituents. Only in the liberal mind is it a disqualification that someone who knows and has worked in an industry should actually get a job regulating that industry.
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CNX Resources | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Washington County

CNX Midstream Sues Contractor for Walking Away from Pipe Project
December 6, 2018December 5, 2018

On Monday, CNX Midstream sued West Virginia contractor Ronald Lane Inc. claiming the contractor “without warning or justification ceased work on the Project and abandoned the Project,” the Project being a package of water and gas pipelines in Greene and Washington counties in PA. And that, “Lane informed [CNX] that Lane intended to redirect all of its forces and efforts to other projects that Lane considered to be more profitable than the Project. Lane made it clear to [CNX] that Lane had no intention to perform any more work on the Project.” Lane was the winning bidder for the Project in late 2017 at a total cost of $7.1 million. According to the lawsuit, CNX claims Lane began construction in March and abandoned the Project in June.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Pipelines | Statewide NY

NY, Other Lib States Try to Block Dominion New Market Pipe Project
December 6, 2018December 5, 2018

New Market Project – click for larger version

Last July a small group of rich snobs from Cooperstown, NY calling themselves Otsego2000 sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in federal court to try and stop Dominion Energy’s New Market Project (currently under construction), a VERY modest upgrade to an existing pipeline that runs through Upstate (see Otsego2000 Snobs Appeal FERC Approval of New Market Pipe Project). The false premise of Otsego2000’s lawsuit is that FERC did not consider mythical man-made global warming when it decided to approve the New Market Project. Unfortunately, the wildly left/radical New York Attorney General’s office has just entered the case by filing a “friend of the court” brief, along with the wildly left/radical AGs in Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington State, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. But wait…the pipeline doesn’t run through any of those other states (other than NY) and has zero impact on those other states. Doesn’t matter. The point is they want to redefine how FERC does its job by bastardizing our laws, and this case conveniently provides them with a way to do it.
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Penn State Guide to Marrying Marcellus Gas with Renewables
December 6, 2018December 5, 2018

Penn State’s Dept. of Architectural Engineering recently released a guide for those interested in “conceiving, developing and financing ‘hybrid’ fossil fuel and renewable energy systems.” The guide, titled “CHP-Enabled Renewable Energy in Microgrids in Pennsylvania: A Guidance Document for Conceiving Feasible Systems” (full copy below) outlines systems to provide on-site, natural-gas-fueled electric and thermal (e.g. hot water or steam) energy generation (combined heat and power, or CHP) in combination with renewable energy resources such as solar photovoltaic arrays and battery storage systems. The target audience for such systems are owners of commercial and industrial buildings, multi-family buildings, hospitals, food processors and large users of steam or hot water; commercial, institutional and industrial parks and campuses; and municipalities and rural co-op organizations.
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