Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA
Antis Ramp Up Form Letter Machine to Oppose PennEast Pipe Plan
In early August the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finally issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) for an amended request by PennEast Pipeline to break the project into two phases–building the pipeline through Pennsylvania in Phase One, and through New Jersey in Phase Two (see FERC Finally Approves PennEast Pipe Split into 2 Phases).
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There’s potential trouble brewing for pipeline companies that own and operate big interstate pipelines that flow Marcellus/Utica Shale molecules to other regions. (Trouble for gas pipelines in other regions, too.) Some of the contracts for the earliest pipelines built or repurposed to flow M-U molecules out of the northeast are expiring. The customers, in many cases, were the drillers themselves (instead of utility companies and other gas customers). Drillers are pulling back and not likely to renew those contracts, at least not at the prices they signed originally.
Last December Columbia Gas of Ohio (NiSource) announced a new $135 million pipeline project to bring new supplies of Utica-sourced natural gas to homes and businesses located north and west of Columbus, in central Ohio (see 
What will happen with major natural gas (and oil) pipeline projects after the November Presidential election? You might guess if Biden wins (God perish the thought) there will be no new pipeline projects anywhere, and if Trump wins (our lips to God’s ears) new projects will appear out of the blue. But it’s not quite that simple according to S&P Global Platts.
In early June an Obamadroid federal judge vacated a permit for the Weymouth compressor station, the last piece of Spectra Energy/Enbridge’s Atlantic Bridge pipeline project–a project which took years to build (see 
Sunoco Logistics Partners (i.e. Energy Transfer) was drilling horizontally underneath Snitz Creek in Lebanon County, PA for its Mariner East 2 Pipeline project when it experienced yet another “inadvertent return”–nontoxic drilling mud leaking out of a place where it shouldn’t. In 2018 the same thing happened and antis blew a gasket over a “spill” of five gallons (see 
Pipeline builder Otis Eastern, headquartered in Wellsville, NY (western part of Upstate) has built a lot of pipelines throughout the northeast since its founding in 1936. In recent years the company has worked on a number of Marcellus/Utica projects, including Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2 project and National Fuel Gas Company’s Marcellus Gas to Market project. Otis is selling itself for an undisclosed amount to a much larger company, Artera Services, LLC, based in Atlanta, Georgia.
It’s been an uphill battle to complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile Marcellus/Utica gas pipeline from Wetzel County, WV to Pittsylvania County, VA. The project has been vigorously opposed by radical environmentalists from the beginning. Frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit has been filed by Big Green groups bankrolled by billionaires. Finally in June Equitrans, the builder, said they should be able to complete the 92% done pipeline by next spring (see 
Democrats are nothing if not creative. A leftist Democrat in the Virginia legislature, Del. Chris Hurst (Montgomery County) has introduced a bill to try and kill the remaining construction of the 92% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Dems couldn’t stop the project in the courts. They couldn’t stop it with nutjobs living in the tops of trees for months on end. They couldn’t get lefty Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam to stop it. So now they’re trying this: A bill that would require *any* company hiring a crew of 50 or more “temporary” workers during the COVID-19 pandemic to receive prior approval from the Democrat Commissioner of Dept. of Labor and Industry first.
On August 24, 31 radicalized Big Green groups from across Pennsylvania sent a letter to the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Pat McDonnell demanding (they always demand) the DEP immediately and permanently revoke all Mariner East construction permits and prohibit the issuance of any future permits. Yeah, just stop the pipeline, which is about 98% done, from ever getting completed. What else can you say except it’s demented? Nobody in their right mind would reasonably request or expect the DEP to simply stop the project permanently.
Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), maintains a list of pipeline projects going back to 1996. Based on that list EIA recently published an article on their Today in Energy site pointing out during the first half of 2020 some 5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of new natgas pipeline capacity (across the entire country) came online. They also point out some 8.7 Bcf/d of previously planned new pipe capacity was canceled in 2020, including Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Constitution Pipeline, both here in the M-U region. We grabbed the spreadsheet of the 145 active and/or canceled pipelines in 2020 and trimmed it down to show the list of pipelines active or canceled that have the potential to flow M-U molecules. Our list (below) shows 41 active pipe projects and 4 canceled projects.
While drilling in Chester County in the Marsh Creek State Park two weeks ago, Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2X pipeline experienced an “inadvertent return”–nontoxic drilling mud coming up out of the ground where it’s not supposed to (see 
Last December both Rover Pipeline and NEXUS Pipeline, two large Utica-gas pipelines traversing Ohio, appealed their property tax valuations to the Ohio Dept. of Taxation, looking to trim their tax bills in Stark County by up to 50% (see