Radicalized Sierra Club Files Cove Point Appeal in DC Court
The Sierra Club, which may have been founded for good reasons, long ago left the realm of sanity. Sierra Clubbers, as we call them, now live in an alternative universe where clean-burning natural gas and all fossil fuels are from the devil himself. The Clubbers have tried to get multiple LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facilities blocked on the theory that if you cut off the demand you can cut off the supply (i.e. end fracking of new wells). Yeah, crazy. But that’s what they’re trying. Lately they’ve tried to attack and bully both the Dept. of Energy and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. With legions of lawyers, they file frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit, hoping if they throw enough legal (ahem) feces against the wall, some it will stick. So far it hasn’t. One of the facilities the Sierra Club continues to fight against is Cove Point LNG in Maryland. They filed an appeal of a Dept. of Energy approval to allow Cove Point to export LNG to non-free trade agreement countries–namely Japan and India. Yep, the Sierra Club doesn’t want us to help out Japan or India. They’d rather have us help Saudi Arabia and Qatar, apparently. After the appeal went nowhere, the Clubbers have no sued in the uber-liberal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Thing is, that very same court recently handed the Sierra Club a defeat in a similar case…
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In May 2015 the Obama rogue Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) along with the Obama U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) released a finalized rule clarifying what “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) means vis a vis what can be regulated under the federal Clean Water Act (see 
MDN first told you about IMG Midstream in August 2014 (see 
While the worldwide Baker Hughes rig count slide back a bit in October, from 934 in September to 920 in October, the rig count in the U.S. once again, for the fourth month in a row, went up. The average U.S. rig count for October was 544, up 35 from the 509 counted in September. However, the rig count was down 247 from the 791 counted in October 2015–so we still have a long ways to go. The Marcellus/Utica rig count was up for the third month running. In October the M/U rig count went up by 4 with 3 additions in PA (now 25 rigs) and 1 in WV (now 10 rigs). OH stayed even running with an average of 14 rigs…
IHS Markit, an information and analytics company that keeps a close eye on the energy industry, says its analysis shows natural gas production in the U.S. went down “nearly 2%” in October from September. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a big deal. Production levels in South Texas and the Northeast, according to VP Jack Weixel, “fell off a combined 1.3 Bcf/d from September to October.” That is the largest regional month over month decline IHS Markit has seen since it began tracking these numbers. What does it mean? Typically it means higher prices are coming–less supply, the same or increasing demand equals higher prices (classic economics 101 stuff). However, there are so many complex and contributing factors, it’s not as simple as less supply = higher prices. Not anymore! Here’s what IHS Markit is saying…
Don’t say we didn’t warn you. On Oct. 20 MDN reported on the link between so-called protesters (i.e. criminals) who have gathered in North Dakota to protest a federally-approved oil pipeline called the Dakota Access Pipeline (see 
In May MDN told you about a group of brave landowners in Wayne County, PA who have had their property rights stolen by the Delaware River Basin Commission (see 
The energy industry in our country is complicated and takes a while to wrap your brain around just how it works. Especially the utility industry. Companies that produce and then distribute electricity (and natural gas) are in some cases regulated by the government–meaning what they charge is strictly controlled–and in some cases not regulated. Some local utilities produce the electricity, via a nuclear plant, or coal-fired generating plant, or natural gas-fired plant, as well as distribute that electricity to customers. Other utilities just distribute the electricity. And still others just produce the electricity. Sometimes producing electricity is regulated by the government (i.e. price controlled) and other times it is not. Is your head spinning yet? FirstEnergy, based in Akron, OH, is one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. FirstEnergy owns a variety of regulated and non-regulated power generation plants. Last Friday the company announced it will sell six power generating plants in PA, four of them natural gas-fired plants. The plants being sold are non-regulated. This is part of FirstEnergy’s strategy to become a 100% “regulated” utility in the next 18 months. Which plants are going on the auction block?…
Hi-Crush Partners, headquartered in Houston, TX, is a frac sand company. Even though the company is based in TX and has sand mines in Wisconsin, it owns and operates the largest frac sand distribution network in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. Last week Hi-Crush announced the first successful test and roll out of something they call PropStream–a new and better way to get sand to the well site and into the well itself. Hi-Crush has also formed (with investors) a new subsidiary company called PropX to manufacture the equipment used by the PropStream system…
We’ve written about various pipelines either planned or under construction that will, by joining with other pipelines, haul Marcellus/Utica natural gas (and/or natural gas liquids) all the way to the Gulf Coast. However, the pipes hauling our gas to the Louisiana/Texas borders are one thing. But then the gas has to go the final leg of the journey through Texas (or Louisiana) to the Gulf Coast area where it gets used in petrochemical plants, like crackers or liquefied and exported as LNG. A recent RBN Energy blog post points out the big pipes hauling our gas to Texas and Louisiana are, in many ways, the easier projects to build. Getting it “the last mile of the way” to the Gulf Coast is the more difficult task. It involves reversing pipelines and tieing systems together. Here are six projects in the works to accomplish the mission of getting our gas all the way to the Gulf Coast…
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently launched a “What If…?” series to counter the radical “keep it in the ground” movement–a movement that irrationally hates the use of fossil fuels. In August the Chamber released their first such report, titled “What If…Energy Production was Banned on Federal Lands and Waters?” (see 
We laugh every time we read about peak oil and peak natural gas theorists, and mainstream “reporters” from places like the New York Times trumpeting that any day now natural gas is going to peter out. It’s just a flash in the pan. “Everybody” knows that shale wells are weak, pathetic performers than run out of juice almost as fast as their drilled. We’ve read stories about how shale drilling is a ponzi scheme. We’ve read stories that very soon we’ll run out of new places to drill, and then it’s all over. Except…except it’s all not true. None other than the U.S. Energy Information Administration has just posted a brief article that details, using real research, that horizontally drilled shale wells are MORE productive over the long-term than conventional wells. That is, they are more productive for longer than a conventional well. But that won’t stop the peakers and ponzi schemers from pedaling their pap…
This is an important story for both drillers and rig workers, potentially answering the question of who can and can’t be sued if something goes wrong when drilling a well. In 2006 Atlas Resources leased land in Greene County, PA to drill shale wells. In 2007 Atlas hired Gene D. Yost & Son, Inc. to drill wells for Atlas, including on the land leased in Greene County. Yost was the subcontractor, employing people to do the work using Yost’s equipment. As workers were removing drill pipe, preparing to shut in the well, there was an accident which appears to be operator error. One man, Rock A. Doman, was killed. The Doman family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Atlas Energy for negligence. After years of litigation and court findings, an appeals court ruled last week that Atlas is, in fact, a “statutory employer” under PA law, meaning they are immune from such lawsuits. That is, because Atlas hired another company for that company’s services, they (Atlas) cannot be held responsible for what the company they hired theoretically did or did not do. In this case, Yost’s “negligence” (if indeed there was any negligence) is not transferable to Atlas…