Corrupt NY DEC Denies Water Permit for 7.8 Mile Power Plant Pipeline
Environmental radicalism has now fully metastasized at the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The organization is nothing more than a political tool of the environmental far-left (and corrupt Gov. Cuomo), as evidenced in the DEC’s latest outrageous decision to deny federal water crossing permits to a 7.8 mile pipeline to feed an electric power generating plant in Orange County, NY–a plant currently under construction. The reason for the rejection? NOT because of any so-called harms to the environment due to crossing streams–the reason for the permits. No. But because, says the DEC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which evaluated the power plant project, didn’t take into consideration the plant’s potential contribution to mythical man-made global warming. In other words, the DEC just admitted they have denied a WATER permit based on other (political) criteria–not the criteria on which they were legally bound to decide. We predict the DEC will get crushed when this is all over and done. But the problem is, it will take years to litigate. Meanwhile, the Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) Valley Energy Center will complete its construction and go online in early 2018–powered by much-dirtier fuel oil instead of clean-burning natural gas. Congratulations to all of the antis, and the DEC, who oppose the power plant project. You’ll now have even MORE so-called global warming (and air pollution in the region) because of your lunacy…
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When a driller sinks a hole in the ground looking for one hydrocarbon–like natural gas–other hydrocarbons also come out of the ground. Sometimes its oil. Sometimes condensate. Sometimes natural gas liquids (NGLs), including ethane, propane, butane, pentane, etc. In northeast and central Pennsylvania where the Marcellus Shale is prolific, most of what comes out of the ground is just methane–or natural gas. However, in the southwestern portion of PA, and in the northern panhandle of WV and on into eastern OH, it’s a different story. They are considered “wet gas” areas because (depending on the county) the wells are prolific NGL producers. Most NGLs, like propane, fetch much higher prices than plain old methane. Typically ethane is the NGL that mostly comes out of the ground, but for many drillers ethane can’t (yet) be sold, so it’s considered a “waste” product, mixed into the methane stream to get rid of it. But that’s changing. There are now pipelines to carry ethane to facilities in both Philadelphia and to a cracker plant in Canada. There’s even a pipeline for ethane (and other NGLs) that goes all the way to the Gulf Coast (ATEX, Appalachia to Texas). Some of the largest Marcellus/Utica drillers now have markets for their NGLs, so they are ramping up production and selling more NGLs. In fact, six of the eight largest M-U drillers increased their NGL production in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 2Q16. Which six increased, and which two decreased NGL production last quarter?…
We’re always on the lookout for news about a final investment decision by PTT Global Chemical to build a $5 billion ethane cracker in Belmont County, OH. Recently PTT spent $13.8 million to buy 168 acres at the proposed cracker plant site (see 
It looks like Pennsylvania’s conventional (non-shale) oil and gas drillers will get a reprieve from onerous new drilling rules–at least until next year. PA Gov. Tom Wolf has been obstinate in demanding onerous new drilling rules for the conventional, as well as unconventional (shale) drilling industry since he took office. Reworked drilling rules for both conventional and shale drillers were done and ready to go under previous Gov. Tom Corbett. Then Corbett lost to Wolf, and Wolf demanded changes to the common sense rules everyone had already agreed to (see 
Earlier this week MDN reported that Shell had settled an action brought by Big Green groups against an air permit issued for their now under construction ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA (see 
Yesterday MDN brought you the news that Range Resources and the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) have officially “settled” something we thought was already settled–alleged methane migration from a well Range drilled in 2011 (see 
An effort by Fayette County, WV to ban injection wells in the county has gone down to a final defeat. In January 2016, three liberal Democrat county commissioners from Fayette County, with the backing and help of the radical WV Mountain Party, voted to ban injection wells in the county (see 
Last week MDN brought you the news that THE Delaware Riverkeeper had lost a federal lawsuit against Kinder Morgan’s Orion Project to expand the Tennessee Gas Pipeline in northeast Pennsylvania (see 
We don’t often highlight news from the Amazon-owned Washington Post, since much of its reporting is fake news (outright lies, many times), but this time we couldn’t resist. A Washington Post article published yesterday appears to contain at least some truth–about a group of Lancaster nuns. We’ve previously written about a group we call Sisters of the Corn. They stuck a few wooden park benches in the middle of a corn field that they own (leased to a local farmer), and called it a “chapel” so they can claim the planned Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline that will go through that field violates their so-called religious freedom. It’s a sham–backed by local radicals calling themselves Lancaster Against Pipelines. As we reported on Monday, a PA judge, in an eminent domain case, ruled against the Adorers of the Blood of Christ (see 
Yet more drama and intrigue in National Fuel Gas Company’s (NFG) lawsuit against the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Three years ago NFG proposed and filed to build the Northern Access Pipeline project–a $455 million project includes building 97 miles of new pipeline along a power line corridor from northwestern Pennsylvania up to Erie County, NY. The project also calls for 3 miles of new pipeline further up, in Niagara County, along with a new compressor station in the Town of Pendleton. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted final approval for the project in February of this year (see 
Two New Jersey towns have sued in federal court, seeking to overturn a decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to approve Williams’ Transco Garden State Expansion pipeline project. MDN brought you the happy news in April 2016 that three Obama-appointed FERC commissioners had approved the $116 million project (see