Dominion Bid to Buy SCANA in Trouble Following Passage of SC Bill
In January Dominion Energy announced a deal to buy out and merge in South Carolina-based SCANA Corporation (see Dominion Buys SCANA, Mulls Atlantic Coast Pipe Expansion into SC). SCANA is an energy-based holding company principally engaged, through subsidiaries, in electric and natural gas utility operations and other energy-related businesses. In other words, the local electric and gas company for much of South Carolina. Dominion is a big company with many operations–they are a pipeline company, an electric generating company, and a utility company (like SCANA). The merger makes sense. Dominion gets to grow and add more customers to its utility business. We didn’t think there was any tie-in with the Marcellus/Utica, but turns out there is. We brought you news in early December that Dominion and their partner in the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project, Duke Energy, are considering expanding the original ACP to more locations in North Carolina, AND expanding the pipeline into South Carolina (see Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s Future Plans: Expand in NC & SC). Dominion openly says that the SCANA purchase makes it more likely they will push to expand ACP into SC–meaning even more Marcellus/Utica gas could be flowing to Dixie. But now there’s a big, fat wrinkle. SCANA is in trouble because they began to build, and later abandoned, a nuclear plant project–costing ratepayers millions of dollars. SC politicians want to rebate some of the money that was paid for the project back to ratepayers. They passed a bill on Wednesday (now on the governor’s desk) that will slash rates for customers by 15%. Dominion reacted strongly, implying they may pull out of the deal if the bill is signed by the governor…
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The World Gas Conference, held every three years in different locations around the globe, was held this week in Washington, D.C.–the first time back in the U.S. in 30 years. We’ve reported various stories from that event. Here’s another such story that caught our interest. Pipeline companies, specifically TransCanada and Enbridge (both based in Canada but with huge pipeline networks in the U.S.) told conference attendees that the pipeline industry needs help from Washington–from either the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or Congress, or both to fight back against the increasing efforts of Big Green groups opposed to fossil fuels. Fight back how? By adopting new regulations (FERC) or new laws (Congress) that favor pipeline infrastructure. Our interpretation of what they said: It’s time to stop allowing a small group of wacko radicals block energy progress in this country…
Yesterday, Dept. of Energy Secretary Rick Perry leveled a warning to Andrew Cuomo and the leaders of other states blocking natural gas pipelines: You will face a “real reckoning” of high energy costs and vulnerabilities (i.e. blackouts) because of your actions. Perry stopped short of saying Washington and the Trump Administration would use Executive Orders to unblock some of the blocked pipeline projects (which is a disappointment). But Perry alluded to that possibility when he said, “We have to have conversation as a country, is that a national security issue that outweighs the political concerns in Albany, N.Y.?” Cuomo should be concerned. We’re holding out hope that Trump will issue an Executive Order for both the Constitution Pipeline and Northern Access Pipeline projects, overruling Cuomo. It’s refreshing to see our side take the fight to the irrational radicals who oppose fossil fuel energy…
Spectra Energy’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) pipeline project is an $876 million expansion of the existing Algonquin pipeline system designed to carry 342 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to New England states that badly need the gas. On March 3, 2015 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued their final approval for the project, allowing it to go forward. Construction began in 2015 and, following extreme opposition from New York State over a small portion of the project, it finally went online in in 2016. New York’s radical, anti-drilling governor, Andy Cuomo, tried to stop the Algonquin using the flimsy excuse that some of the drilling for the pipeline would happen a half mile from a nuclear power plant–a plant that’s shutting down anyway (see 
The radicals of Food & Water Watch (FWW), a disgusting organization, have done us all a huge favor! FWW is composed of some of the worst of the worst when it comes to anti-fossil fuel nuttery. They oppose everything, including low-carbon natural gas, if it’s called a fossil fuel. FWW issued a new “report” last week taking aim at the growing number of Marcellus gas-fired electric plants sprouting up around the state, replacing dirtier coal-fired plants. Only in the mind of a demented liberal is coal better for the environment than natgas. But we digress. FWW’s report is called “Pernicious Placement of Pennsylvania Power Plants: Natural Gas-Fired Power Plant Boom Reinforces Environmental Injustice.” Those alliterations are just ingenious, aren’t they? As part of the report, FWW published a comprehensive list of 48 planned, under construction, or recently commissioned gas-fired power plant projects in the Keystone State. Wow! What a great list! We’ve extracted the list itself and shared it below (so you don’t have to endure the full report). The focus of the report is the baseless charge FWW (and others) make that new power plant projects are built in poor, black areas–where the downtrodden can’t fight back against the machine that is Big Oil/Gas. FWW includes a map (see it below) that charts where “communities of color” (meaning concentrations of black people) live in the state, along with dots that show where existing and planned gas-fired plants are located. Take a look at the dots for planned plants. Almost none of them are near “communities of color!” Whoops. Some intern wasn’t paying attention when she drafted the report…
The lawyers that infest the Sierra Club are still celebrating a temporary court victory last week that essentially stops construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in West Virginia (see 
Appalachian Mountain Advocates, a far-left, radical anti-drilling organization that some media outlets refer to as a simple “nonprofit law firm,” has filed a lawsuit against West Virginia University to force the university to hand over privileged and secret communications concerning the deal WV struck with China to invest $83.7 billion in the state, in the shale and petrochemical industries. As you may recall, that deal was announced last November (see 
Last December the Trump Dept. of Energy published a 45-page report called, “Natural Gas Liquids Primer: With a Focus on the Appalachian Region” (see 
We have long thought (and written) that to concede the argument that renewable energy–wind and solar–is some sort of nirvana, a magical destination, that renewables are our inevitable energy future–is a mistake. To box ourselves in by buying into the argument that natural gas is a “bridge” to get us lower carbon emissions until renewable heaven arrives is faulty thinking. And now, none other than the CEO of BP is saying the same thing. Not in quite the same words we’ve used, but certainly the same sentiment. BP still bows to the alter of man-made global warming nonsense. But at least they have the guts to say, out loud, that natural gas itself is good enough–the “destination” as a fuel, and not simply a “bridge” to renewables. BP CEO Bob Dudley said that this week on a panel at the World Gas Conference in Washington, D.C. On the same panel, French oil giant Total CEO, Patrick Pouyanne, said, “This idea of natural gas as a transition fuel to renewables is strange.” Yes! Finally some clear thinkers willing to stand up for fossil fuels! We need more people to stand up and shout, “The renewables Emperor has no clothes!”…
Shell delivered some good news at last week’s Northeast U.S. Petrochemical conference in Pittsburgh: The Falcon ethane pipeline will get built next year (see 
A recent article in the left-leaning Roll Call (official publication for Washington, D.C. swamp dwellers) attempts to paint the Trump Administration as out of step with the people he wants to help in West Virginia. The article says Trump’s strategy to prop up failing coal and nuclear plants is an attempt to boost coal mining jobs in WV, but is running counter to the state’s strategy of embracing the natural gas industry. Perhaps they have a point. However, what’s most interesting about the article is not the ginned up conflict between Trump and WV, but how the article spotlights WV’s two U.S. Senators–Republican Shelley Moore Capito and Democrat Joe Manchin–and their continuing role in trying to make a $10 billion NGL (mostly ethane) storage hub facility become a reality. The storage hub will be a jobs magnet with some estimates that it will create more than 100,000 new jobs in the state. The storage hub will also draw manufacturers looking to locate near ethane crackers, as a source for plastics used in their manufacturing process. Capito, in her comments, attempts to gloss over the rivalry between coal and natural gas, saying “all those rivalries have gone by the wayside.” Er, a, we beg to differ. But leaving aside the coal v. natgas focus of the article, we found two very interesting items. (1) The Dept. of Energy loan guarantee that would cover $1.9 billion of the estimated $10 billion cost to build it is a much bigger deal that we had realized. Why? Because any project that wins such a guarantee has gone through a rigorous review process. Winning such a guarantee is like conferring a triple A rating on the project for others who will consider investing in the project. It gives them confidence that the project has been thoroughly vetted and is low risk. (2) Manchin, in speaking with DOE Sec. Rick Perry, is using an interesting and novel argument to convince Perry the storage hub is a good thing to do. Manchin said when hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast, it knocks out petrochemical industry there, with a cascading effect across the U.S. Cracker plants (fed by the storage hub) in the northeast, are not susceptible to hurricanes. So Manchin’s pitch to Perry is this: Keep the Gulf Coast crackers cooking for products to export to other countries, but let’s build the storage hub (and crackers) in the northeast, so our country’s petchem industry isn’t adversely affected by a major hurricane…
Many (most?) electric generating companies in the U.S. are regulated–highly regulated. They’re guaranteed a certain, predictable level of (low) profits. But in return for guaranteed profitability, every single thing they do is monitored and authorized in triplicate, with one or another government agency reviewing anything and everything that happens. It’s the deal they’ve struck with the regulatory devil. Vectren is one such regulated utility in the great state of Indiana. Vectren operates the F. B. Culley Generating Station, a 369 megawatt (MW) coal power plant located in Warrick County, Indiana. They plan to close the coal-fired plant in 2023. In its place, they want to build a 900 MW natgas-fired plant and a 50-acre solar farm. Building the gas plant and solar farm would cost Vectren (meaning ratepayers) $940 million. The cost is passed on to ratepayers because Vectren is regulated. That’s the way it works. The bargain struck with the devil. The gas-fired plant will be cleaner than coal, more efficient, cheaper to operate, and better for the environment. We suspect Utica/Marcellus gas would help feed the plant. And yet, anti-fossil fuel wackos oppose the plan to switch to cleaner-burning natgas. Would they prefer no electricity?…
Perhaps the proposed legislation by PA Rep. Dan Moul (Republican from Gettysburg) to gut not only the DRBC (Delaware River Basin Commission) of its power to regulate groundwater, but also to gut the SRBC (Susquehanna River Basin Commission), is not so far off the mark after all (see 
In March, MDN brought you the news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had taken “significant action” to address the Trump tax cut legislation enacted last December (see