Industrywide Issues

Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Pipelines | TC Energy/TransCanada

TransCanada Makes Play to Buy Columbia Pipeline for $10B
March 11, 2016March 11, 2016

It was only in mid-2015 that Columbia Pipeline Group broke away from parent NiSource to become it’s own company (see NiSource/Columbia Pipeline Divorce is Final). And lookie here… TransCanada, the company that Obama screwed out of building the Keystone XL Pipeline, is in serious talks to buy out/merge with Columbia. The deal being rumored is on the order of $10 billion. TransCanada confirms they’re talking with someone, but won’t specifically name Columbia. But everyone knows its Columbia. Such a combination would create a powerhouse midstream company in North America…
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Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Canadian Prime Minister Joins Obama’s War on Natural Gas
March 11, 2016March 11, 2016

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Yesterday, looking like a pimply teenager engaged in hero worship, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined President Obama in Washington, D.C. to declare he’s willing to strangle the Canadian economy as much as Obama is willing to strangle our own economy. The DC confab was to announce new rules in Canada and here at home by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that supposedly will cut down on fugitive methane leaking from oil and gas wells. The EPA, under the clueless and arrogant Gina McCarthy, will soon release new regulations (unlegislated laws) that require drillers and others in the industry to jump through new hoops to prove they’re capturing every last molecule of methane, i.e. natural gas–and not letting any escape into the atmosphere where they claim it contributes to man-made global warming. Which is simply a ruse. They know global warming doesn’t exist. This is a political ploy to grab more control over the governed, all in the name of saving them. God save us from politicians who want to save us! Below is the news of this latest bit of Kabuki theater, with reaction from radical environmentalists and from the drilling industry…
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Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | NGLs | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

Sunoco LP Takes a Bow for Mariner East 1, Looks Ahead to ME2
March 11, 2016March 11, 2016

Sunoco Logistics Partners issued an update yesterday to discuss the success they’re having with the Mariner East 1 pipeline–and to talk about what’s coming for the Mariner East 2 pipeline. Mariner East 1 began carrying propane in December 2014. Ethane shipments went online just last month, and the very first shipload of exported ethane left port two days ago (see Bon Voyage! First Ethane Export Ship Leaves Marcus Hook in Philly). The Mariner East 2 pipeline is on track to be completed by mid-2017, which will bring online another 275,000 barrels per day of natural gas liquids shipping capacity from western PA and eastern OH. What’s funny is that Sunoco got a bunch of politicians to say nice things about the Mariner East project. Why is that funny? Because two of them–PA Gov. Tom Wolf and US Senator Robert Casey (both Democrats)–hate pipelines and hate fossil fuels! But they said nice things about Sunoco and Mariner East likely as a future chit to raise money from Sunoco for their campaigns. Hypocrites…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Auditor General Commits to Half-an-Audit of Shale Impact Fee $
March 11, 2016March 11, 2016

Coming soon to a Pennsylvania township near you: the jackbooted thugs from the office of the PA Auditor General, Eugene DePasquale. You may recall that since he assumed office, DePasquale has had a chip on his shoulder when it comes to the Marcellus Shale (see Newly Elected PA Auditor General Targets DEP First Day on Job). He put together a sham report on the DEP, calling attention to “problems” fixed years earlier, before he assumed office (see DEP to DePasquale: Problems Fixed Years Ago, Where Have You Been?). He couldn’t discredit the Marcellus industry via the DEP, so recently he started on a new track–the millions of dollars raised in a severance tax-like fee called the impact fee (see PA Auditor General to Investigate “Lost” $30M Marcellus Impact Fee). On Thursday DePasquale announced he will conduct a thorough anal exam, er, a, audit of all Act 13 impact fee money distributed to towns and municipalities. Just to be sure they aren’t blowing it on trips and new cars, but actually spending it as intended under the law. Ah, Mr. Auditor General sir? Some 60% of the impact fee revenue raised goes to local towns and municipalities where drilling occurs. The other 40% goes into the black hole of politicians’ sticky fingers in Harrisburg. Are you also going to audit the 40% that stays in Harrisburg and gets redistributed as political favors? If he doesn’t also audit the 40%, we’d call his audit “half-an-audit”…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Transco | Williams

Dela. Riverkeeper Sues FERC Again – Over Leidy Pipeline Expansion
March 11, 2016March 11, 2016

It’s another week, so it must be time for another lawsuit from THE Delaware Riverkeeper against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Literally. Last week THE Delaware Riverkeeper, aka Maya van Rossum, filed a lawsuit against FERC to try and shut the agency down (see THE Delaware Riverkeeper Sues FERC, Tries to Close it Down). Not trusting their frivolous lawsuit will actually go anywhere, this week Riverkeeper filed another lawsuit (in a string of many)–this one aimed at making FERC reverse a decision to allow an expansion of Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co.’s (Transco’s) Leidy Southeast pipeline. A year ago Riverkeeper filed a lawsuit against the same project in an attempt to stop tree clearing–a tactic that ultimately failed (see Dela. Riverkeeper Loses Bid to Stop Transco Expansion in PA). When will a judge slap Riverkeeper with a fine for its continued practice of filing frivolous lawsuits? Here’s the latest…
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Housing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

Trailer Park Company Credits Marcellus/Utica for Record Profits
March 11, 2016March 11, 2016

A company we’ve written about for the past few years is UMH Properties–a real estate company that keeps snapping up trailer parks in the Marcellus/Utica region (see our UMH Properties stories here). UMH is a public company with shares of stock. Therefore, it files quarterly and annual reports, and hosts analyst conference calls. MDN picked through the latest from UMH to find some interesting quotes. In essence, UMH still loves the Marcellus/Utica and will continue to look for new acquisitions in our neck of the woods. The company made $14 million last year (in the black). So you see, not everyone in the Marcellus/Utica is going through tough times. Here’s a few select quotes from the annual report and from the UMH earnings phone call with analysts…
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Energy Services | Ethane | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

Bon Voyage! First Ethane Export Ship Leaves Marcus Hook in Philly
March 10, 2016March 10, 2016

An Ineos tanker ship carrying 173,000 barrels of Marcellus ethane set sail yesterday from the Marcus Hook terminal near Philadelphia. On Feb. 24 we brought you the story that the ship would set sail “within a week” (see Marcellus Ethane Export Sets Sail “Within a Week” from Philly). One week turned into two weeks–perhaps that’s to be expected. But finally! Our Marcellus ethane is now on the high seas heading for Norway…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Dimock Trial Update: Jury Deliberates, Asks Judge for $$ Guidance
March 10, 2016March 10, 2016

Now that the trial against Cabot Oil & Gas–a trial in which the two families from Dimock, PA allege Cabot caused the water wells of two families to become contaminated with methane–has gone to the jury for deliberation, the Democrat-controlled Scranton Times-Tribune and local TV station WNEP have all sudden woken up and started to cover the trial again. They simply ignored the trial for nearly two weeks as witness after witness for the plantiffs was exposed on the witness stand as lying or shading the truth. It was so bad, the Times-Tribune and WNEP simply stopped reporting the news. Now that the jury has taken more than six hours to deliberate and have asked the judge about monetary compensation–indicating they may actually find for the plantiffs–the anti-drilling Times-Tribune and WNEP is all atwitter. They’ve decided to begin covering the story again…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Anti-Driller Vera Scroggins Assaults Phelim McAleer at Dimock Trial
March 10, 2016March 10, 2016

Vera Scroggins is a little-known anti-driller from Susquehanna County, PA who sometimes pops up in the news for trespassing on Cabot Oil & Gas drill sites (see PA Fracktivist Permanently Banned from Cabot Property). We know she has a potty mouth–just witness her abusive treatment of Phelim McAleer (creator of the FrackNation documentary) a few years ago, insulting him and swearing at him (watch this video). It seems Vera has a violent streak too. Yesterday outside the courthouse in Scranton, PA where two Dimock families suing Cabot have a trial under way, Phelim tried to interview and ask questions of a Dimock family not part of the court case, Craig and Julie Sautner. Phelim is persistent, like any good reporter, and he had his camera rolling as he repeatedly asked them to respond to the plaintiffs’ lawyer’s admission that no chemicals contaminated the water in Dimock–as they (the Sautners) have claimed. Vera was with the Sautners and tried to keep McAleer away from them. At one point she physically struck him, several times, all caught on tape. The police were called but no charges have been filed (yet). Here’s the video to show what happened…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania | Regulation

Jessup Borough Final Approval for PA’s Largest NatGas Power Plant
March 10, 2016March 10, 2016

Kudos to the members of the Jessup Borough Council (Lackawanna County, PA) who approved several measures that have now cleared the way for Invenergy to begin building Pennsylvania’s largest (to date) natural gas-powered electric generating plant. We’ve tracked this story for years. Invenergy wants to build a 1,480 megawatt electric generating plant in Jessup using cheap, abundant Marcellus Shale gas. They’re going to spend something like $500 million on the project–a big investment in Jessup and the greater Scranton, PA area. Previously the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved the project (see PA DEP Approves Jessup, PA Marcellus Gas Electric Plant). But there has been some serious local opposition, based on fears of air pollution (see Public Hearing on NEPA Proposed Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant). All of the debating and toing and froing are now done. With Monday’s votes, it’s now time for the bulldozers to begin moving dirt at the site…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Obama DOJ Considers Prosecuting Global Warming Deniers
March 10, 2016March 10, 2016

Is this what our once-great country has come to under Barack Hussein Obama? The criminalization of free speech? If you simply say, as MDN does, that extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere–caused by mankind’s activity in burning fossil fuels–is NOT causing Mother Earth to catastrophically warm up, the Obama Justice Department is considering prosecuting you and throwing you in jail. So says the head of the DOJ, Attorney General Loretta Lynch. It is the death of the First Amendment of our tattered Constitution–a Constitution daily shredded by Obama and his sycophants…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation

Radicalized Children Try to Force Climate Change Action in Court
March 10, 2016March 10, 2016

In August 2015 MDN told you about a lawsuit brought by a group of left coast radicalized children who want to force the federal government to become communist and “force action” on mythical climate change (see Group of Kids Sues U.S. Govt to Force Action on “Climate Change”). This past January the case proceeded with industry groups joining the government as defendants (see Climate Change Lawsuit by Radicalized Children Gets Interesting). What’s happening is that adults are using children to force a radical/Fascist agenda on the American public. The so-called children had their first day in court yesterday. The defendants–the government and groups like the American Petroleum Institute–asked the judge to throw out the case…
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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Processing Plants

Midstream Nightmare Comes True: Judge Lets Driller Cancel Contracts
March 9, 2016March 9, 2016

Two weeks ago MDN warned you of a court case that has the potential to upend the midstream (pipelines & processing plants) market–here in the Marcellus/Utica and across the country (see Shock: Judge May Allow Drillers to Cancel Gathering Pipeline Deals). That potential has now been realized. Judge Shelley Chapman, in a case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, has ruled that Sabine Oil & Gas may cancel a pipeline gathering contract with Cheniere’s Nordheim Eagle Ford Gathering in Texas. Nordheim spent $84 million building a pipeline system to Sabine’s wells. In return for laying out that kind of money, Sabine, as is always the case, signed a multi-year contract with Nordheim (10 years in this case), ensuring Nordheim would make make a profit on its up-front investment. The judge is allowing Sabine to cancel the deal several years into the contract. If a driller signs a contract and that signature is no longer any good, will anyone build pipeline systems anymore?…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Dimock Trial Update: Judge Says Plaintiffs Didn’t Suffer Damage
March 9, 2016March 9, 2016

The judge in the famous Dimock water contamination case has ruled that the plaintiffs have not proven any kind of damages, so he tossed out the negligence claim against Cabot Oil & Gas. That is, he just tossed out most of the remaining case! The only claim left now for the jury to decide, beginning today, is whether or not Cabot created a “nuisance” with their drilling activities. Translation: Cabot Oil & Gas did not, in any way, contaminate water wells in Dimock with their drilling activities. That is now proven in a court of law. Once again MDN friend Tom Shepstone, who has done a superb job of covering the trial, files this report about the judge tossing the last major charge against Cabot, and about more expert testimony that demolishes the plantiffs’ so-called expert witness Tony Ingraffea…
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Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Statewide VA | Virginia

Mountain Valley Pipeline Wins Right to Survey in VA w/o Permission
March 9, 2016March 9, 2016

Mountain Valley Pipeline is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The project, which filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last October, is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Files FERC Appl, Now Just Matter of Time). The project has faced stiff opposition from landowners in West Virginia (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Sues 103 WV Landowners for Survey Access). The project has also faced opposition from landowners in Virginia. However, things just got a lot easier for Mountain Valley when it comes to surveying a potential route through the Old Dominion state. The Virginia Supreme Court on Monday decided NOT to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that allows pipeline surveyors to access a property WITHOUT the landowner’s permission. That decision means the lower court ruling, which allows surveyors unpermissioned access, to stand…
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Antero Resources | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV “Help Out Antero” Bill (re Nuisance Lawsuits) is Dead for 2016
March 9, 2016March 9, 2016

We’ve told you about a bill winding its way through the legislative process in West Virginia that would stop a rash of so-called nuisance lawsuits–primarily against Antero Resources (see WV Senate Bill Stops Frivolous Nuisance Lawsuits Against Drillers). Hundreds of nuisance lawsuits (“they’re too loud, “they leave the lights on too late,” “I don’t like the truck traffic”) have been filed against Antero and other drillers. The lawsuits against Antero have been combined into a class action lawsuit (see More People Pile on Antero, Seek to Join Mass “Nuisance” Lawsuit). It’s a back door way to bring down a company–like a pack of hyenas attacking a giraffe. If the pack is big enough, it can kill its prey. Senate Bill (SB) 508 was meant to stop this insanity, and as of a few weeks ago it was advancing (see 2 Bills Favorable to Drillers Advance in WV Senate – SB 508 & 565). But that was then, this is now. SB 508 is now pretty much dead. A House committee is holding it up and the bill won’t make it to the floor for a vote before the end of WV’s brief 60-day legislative session…
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