Construction Update on CPV NatGas Power Plant Near Middletown, NY
MDN previously reported on a $900 million natural gas-fired electric generating plant coming to Orange County, NY (see Orange County, NY Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant OK’d by Judge). The CPV (Competitive Power Ventures) Valley Energy Center project is being opposed by local anti-drilling ninny nannies, including Hollywood star James Cromwell. No matter. The plant is now under construction. Currently the natural gas pipeline that will feed the plant is in court, trying to sidestep foot-dragging by the corrupt Cuomo Dept. of Environmental Conservation (see Millennium Pipeline Sues Cuomo’s Corrupt DEC Over Expansion Delay). We expect that will be resolved soon, with permission granted. In the meantime, the new news is that not only is the $900 million plant itself under construction, high-voltage electric lines and substation are also under construction to connect the plant to the power grid…
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The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), charged with overseeing potential impacts on the Delaware River and the various tributaries that feed it, has stepped outside of its legal bounds with plans to review the PennEast Pipeline, part of which will run through the Delaware River Basin area. In 2014 the DRBC tried to tell PennEast and its sponsors that the pipeline will need their approval before it can be built (see 
New Jersey’s largest utility, Public Service Enterprise Group (PSE&G), is shopping its ownership stake in the $1 billion PennEast Pipeline project. Which may sound bad, but isn’t. Is PSE&G losing confidence in the project? Not happy with progress (or lack thereof)? Afraid it won’t ever get built? No, no and no. According to a company spokesman, the $10 billion PSE&G wants to focus on power projects, not pipelines. A little background and context is helpful. PennEast is largely being driven by Pennsylvania-based UGI, a natural gas and electric utility serving 700,000 customers in 45 counties in Pennsylvania and one county in Maryland. UGI is managing the project, and has the largest ownership stake. Other investors/owners of the project include PSE&G, which has only invested $11 million and owns a 10% stake; NJR Pipeline Company, a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources, an NJ utility; SJI Midstream, a direct subsidiary of South Jersey Industries; Southern Company Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company, a midstreamer; and Spectra Energy, now a part of Enbridge, yet another pipeline company. Even though PSE&G wants to sell its share of the project for financial reasons, it will remain one of the customers for the PennEast Pipeline when (not if) it gets built…
Sometimes this regulatory stuff gives us a headache. Like today. A common practice by anti-fossil fuel nutters when opposing a pipeline project at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is to request a “re-hearing” on a decision FERC has made to authorize a project. It’s just standard operating procedure. If the antis can get FERC to agree to a re-hearing, it effectively slows, even stops, an active pipeline project. So in an effort to prevent important projects from being slowed or stopped, FERC developed something called a “tolling order”–which grants FERC more time to consider whether or not a full re-hearing is justified. During the time of the tolling order (which can last up to six months), work on a pipeline continues. Sometimes the work even gets completed! Which of course drives the antis bonkers. Antis claim FERC uses tolling orders to avoid lawsuits. You see, antis can’t take their frivolous cases to a court until FERC has officially denied a re-hearing request. So by using a tolling order, FERC can drag out the process of deciding to deny a re-hearing, avoiding the inevitable frivolous lawsuit that comes with it, and work on important projects gets done. This is how things must operate in our litigious society that tolerates the antics of anti-fossil fuelers (with seemingly bottomless pockets of money to litigate every project). New wrinkle: When FERC Commissioner Norman “cry baby” Bay resigned in a huff effective Feb. 3, it left FERC without enough Commissioners (without a quorum) to vote on tolling orders, re-hearing requests, etc. So on Feb. 3, before Bay left, the existing three Commissioners delegated their authority over re-hearings and tolling orders to FERC staffers–until a new Commissioner is appointed and sworn in. Antis against Atlantic Sunrise are using the delegated tolling order issue against FERC in their attempt to stop commencement of construction on Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project, claiming they are being deprived of their “due process”…
There are a few last, desperate gasps at attempting to stop Sunoco Logistics Partners’ Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline from being built. The pipeline is currently under construction (see 
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) says 2,400 staffers and $728 million (proposed for 2017-2018) isn’t enough. More! Feed me! I need more!! Appearing at a budget hearing yesterday with state legislators, Acting Secretary of the DEP Pat McDonnell cried the blues. The DEP is authorized, according to last year’s budget, to have 2,700 employees, but McDonnell says the agency currently has 2,400. Not sure what the 300 difference is about. But, whatever. He also says the federal EPA is about to whack the money it hands out to state agencies, including the DEP, and that has McDonnell concerned…
Jim Sewell, the Environmental Manager for the Shell ethane cracker project being built in Beaver County, PA, recently gave an update on the project to members of the Ohio Valley Oil and Gas Association. Sewell spoke about the reason Shell chose the Monaca site. He also gave an update on progress at the site. The biggest problem they’re trying to solve right now? Parking for workers…
Just as MDN was putting today’s list of stories to bed, news broke that President Trump plans to nominate Jones Day attorney Kevin McIntyre as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and nominate Neil Chatterjee, senior energy adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as a member. There are currently three vacancies. No word on a third nominee and (so far) The White House is mum on the leak about McIntyre and Chatterjee. Here’s the leak, from Bloomberg…
Not long after the Pennsylvania legislature passed the Act 13 Marcellus Shale drilling law in 2012, signed into law by then-Gov. Tom Corbett, seven selfish towns sued, claiming they should have the right (via zoning laws) to determine just where an oil and gas well can be located within their borders. The challenge was brought by rabid anti-drillers and appealed all the way to the PA Supreme Court, where unfortunately the antis won (see 
When was the last time you heard of someone indicted on criminal charges and instead of doing time in jail, they just paid money? While some crimes involve fines, they always involve jail, or probation, or some form confinement/punishment other than just paying money. At least that’s what we always thought. But if you’re part of the Gestapo, otherwise known as the Environmental Crimes Unit of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, apparently the rules don’t apply. People in the AG’s office can accuse you of a crime, then shake you down for money, and give that money away to anyone they want. That’s what just happened with Anadarko. As we recently reported (see 
On Feb. 3, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a long-delayed project–National Fuel Gas Company’s (NFG) Northern Access 2016 pipeline project (see 
