AOC Tries to Block All New Pipelines by Amending Budget Bill

The silly childlike Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democrat from New York City), whom we refer to here on MDN as Alexandria Occasional-Cortex (for her lack of brainpower), is a Marxist committed to overthrowing the existing U.S. government by attacking and trying to end the use of all fossil fuels. Her latest antic is to introduce an amendment to a budget bill that will block the construction of all new pipelines. Once upon a time we’d just laugh and point and make fun of this silly child. In today’s upside-down world where good is evil and evil is good, we’re not laughing.
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PennEast Pipeline is a $1.2 billion, 118-mile brand new (greenfield) pipeline project planned between the Wilkes-Barre, PA area and the Trenton, NJ area. The project has faced stiff opposition from nutty Big Green groups and from the Democrats who have seized control of NJ. Because of NJ’s opposition (
CNX Midstream began life as a joint venture between CONSOL Energy (the forerunner to CNX Resources) and Noble Energy, and was called CONE Midstream (“CO” from CONSOL and “NE” from Noble Energy). Noble decided to completely exit the Marcellus/Utica and ended up selling their half of CONE to CNX for $305 million in early 2018 (see
Yesterday the White House announced its intent to nominate the final two members needed to comprise a full five-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. One of them, Mark Christie, is the Chairman of the Virginia State Corporation Commission. He is one of the country’s longest-serving state utility regulators, having served for 16 years. Great credentials. Smart guy. The other nominee, Allison Clements, spent 10 years as a rabid radical working for the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). She is uniquely UNQUALIFIED for the job. A lemon.
Earlier this week Kinder Morgan, one of (perhaps THE) largest pipeline company in the U.S., issued its second-quarter update. While most headlines blare that the company “lost” $637 million during 2Q, what they don’t say (until you read a few paragraphs in) is that it was a paper loss. Yes, revenue was down. But if you take the impairment (writedown) charge away, KM actually made $363 million in profit during 2Q. It was not, however, KM’s financial performance that caught our attention. It was the update on Marcellus/Utica projects like the Elba Island LNG export facility and a new project to expand Tennessee Gas Pipeline to provide more gas into New York City that caught our eye.
This absolutely must stop. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is completely out of control and abusing his power as AG. He has charged a third Marcellus/Utica company, National Fuel Gas Company, with crimes because of a few minor cases of erosion runoff during the installation of a pipeline in Washington County, PA. Since when is erosion a CRIME?
Montage Resources, the new name for the merger of Eclipse Resources with Blue Ridge Mountain Resources which happened more than a year ago, announced yesterday it is selling its “non-core” wellhead gathering infrastructure (pipelines) in the Ohio Utica condensate development area to an unnamed international buyer for $25 million. The transaction is expected to close by the end of this year.
TC Energy’s Columbia Gas Transmission subsidiary has not given up on building a 3.37-mile, 8-inch pipeline under the Potomac River. The pipeline, from Maryland on one side of the river to West Virginia on the other side, will be built to feed a larger pipeline project from Mountaineer Gas called the Eastern Panhandle Expansion. The crazy anti-fossil fuel loons who run Maryland are trying to block the project. Columbia is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for more time to get it built because of Maryland’s interference.
We’ve read a lot of stories in mainstream media about the cancelation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) by Dominion Energy announced earlier this month (see
In December 2018 Williams announced a new project to increase capacity along the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) in PA by an extra 582,400 dekatherms (582 million cubic feet) per day. Williams officially filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the “Leidy South Project” in August 2019 (see
Energy Transfer’s subsidiary Sunoco Logistics is trying to finish up final construction of the Mariner East 2X pipeline in southeast Pennsylvania. ME2 and ME2X flow natural gas liquids including ethane and propane from eastern Ohio and western PA all the way to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. As the pipe travels through Philly neighborhoods, some of the geography is limestone (porous) and when drilling to install pipes, it has led to sinkholes. Another seven such sinkholes have appeared since June and the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) is investigating.
The Philadelphia Inquirer published a story today that is (surprise!) totally one-sided and biased. The story has the provocative title of, “‘Dark money’ groups spent $517,000 against two Philly-area candidates who oppose the Mariner East pipeline.” Oooohhh. It’s dark money and sinister and it was used against two virtuous, pure-as-the-wind-driven-snow Democrat candidates in primaries. Completely absent from the story is any reference to Big Green dark money that was poured into those same races (see
NEXUS Pipeline, a $2.6 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that runs from Ohio into Michigan, has been fully online since October 2018 (see
Multi-billionaire Warren Buffett (with more money than God) is a darling of the Democrat left because he’s a Democrat and often $upports leftist causes. Buffett has even praised crazy Bernie Sanders for championing the little guy. Yet Buffett isn’t ready to give up capitalism the way most of the rest of his party advocates. When it comes to investing and making money, Buffett is betting big on fossil fuels. Less than two weeks ago Buffett finalized a deal to buy all of Dominion Energy’s natural gas pipeline business, including major assets in the Marcellus/Utica (see