Please don’t come to Boston. If you do, you may experience blackouts from an unreliable electricity grid powered by so-called (very unreliable) renewables. That’s our takeaway on the obtuse attitudes that pervade New England and the Communist politicians that run that section of the country.
Read More “New England Rejects NatGas, Prefers Unreliable Renewables Instead”
Why is the Chester County, PA District Attorney hell-bent on persecuting (i.e. prosecuting) security guards who have done nothing more than protect nutty environmentalists from hurting themselves at Mariner East 2 pipeline construction sites? Former Chester County, PA District Attorney Tom Hogan (RINO), and his successor Deb Ryan (Democrat) were 100% humiliated after a Chester County Magisterial District Judge in June dismissed the entire case against the local head of security for Energy Transfer in what the DA’s office lyingly calls a “buy a badge scheme” (see Chester DA Charges Against ME Pipe Security Chief Tossed by Judge). Yet the DA’s office is back harassing/charging the owner and an employee of a private security firm for the same thing.
Read More “Chester DA Persecution of Off-Duty Constables Guarding ME2 Pipe”
Last week 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–in Chester County, PA (see Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill). The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) immediately suspended all drilling at the site until further notice (see PA DEP Suspends ME2 Pipe Drilling at Marsh Creek State Park). The Upper Uwchlan Township Board of Supervisors sent a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf last week requesting he simply pull all of the remaining permits for the ME2 project, effectively shutting it down and preventing it from finishing–even though it’s nearly done.
Read More “Upper Uwchlan Twp Begs Gov. Wolf to Pull ME2 Pipe Permits”
While drilling in Chester County earlier this week in the Marsh Creek State Park, 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 Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill). In this case the mud came up in a small section of the 535-acre Marsh Creek Lake. Under withering criticism and pressure from anti-fossil fuel groups, the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a press release yesterday to say that all pipeline drilling at the site has been “suspended indefinitely.”
Read More “PA DEP Suspends ME2 Pipe Drilling at Marsh Creek State Park”
Anti-fossil fuelers are on a holy mission to stop a 3.37-mile, 8-inch pipeline from being built under the Potomac River by Columbia Gas (see Maryland Antis Oppose 13th Pipeline Under Potomac as “Dangerous”). 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. Mountaineer Gas is getting desperate for more gas to feed growing customer demand.
Read More “Mountaineer Gas Seeks Truck Alternative to Blocked Maryland Pipe”
Yesterday MDN told you about a new “inadvertent return” or drilling mud spill that occurred at Marsh Creek Lake in Chester County, PA, near Philadelphia (see Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill). The reaction by the climate crazies, as predicted, was shrill and loud. Those who oppose the Mariner East 2 pipeline oppose it because it flows natural gas and they irrationally hate natural gas. Antis staged a “protest” of the “dangerous” mud spill at Marsh Creek Lake yesterday. After mouthing off for the cameras, the crazies launched dozens of kayaks and paddled through the drilling mud water that’s supposedly dangerous for the environment. Go figure.
Read More “Antis Protest Dangerous ME2 Drilling Mud Spill by Kayaking in It”
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has nominated the wrong person to replace Andrew Place as one of the commissioners on the very powerful Public Utility Commission (PUC). Wolf has nominated Hayley Book, currently a senior adviser on energy and climate to PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Pat McDonnell. Book’s job at the DEP has been to try and force through Wolf’s illegal attempt to force the state into joining the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax scheme cooked up by a collection of liberal northeastern states (see Gov. Wolf Goes Bonkers: EO Destroying Gas-Fired Elec, Carbon Tax).
Read More “PA Gov. Wolf Nominates Carbon Tax Warrior for PUC”
Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company (ESNG), a subsidiary company of Chesapeake Utilities Corporation (a company fascinated with chicken poop), filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Sept. 2018 to build 19+ miles of new pipeline and new meter and delivery stations in Kent and Sussex counties in Delaware, and Wicomico and Somerset counties in Maryland, to carry more natural gas to locations in Delaware and Maryland. FERC approved the project last December (see FERC Approves Del-Mar Energy Pathway Pipe Project). You would not believe the irrational opposition to this (frankly) insignificant project.
Read More “Maryland Antis Oppose Tiny New Pipeline in Eastern Shore”
Democrat governors across the country are now mimicking the example set by the dictator of New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo abuses state power to reject fossil fuel projects (unconstitutional in our opinion), telling NY’s state environmental agency to reject all new pipelines. Roy Cooper, governor of North Carolina, is the latest Cuomo wannabe. Cooper instructed his state’s environmental agency, the Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ), to reject permits for Equitrans’ proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Southgate project. Which the DEQ did yesterday. The agency tried to disguise the rejection using lame excuses, but the reason for the rejection was politics, plain and simple.
Read More “Politics: North Carolina Rejects MVP Southgate Pipe Permits”
Underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD) for the Mariner East 2 pipelines (two of them, 2 and 2X) have a history of springing leaks. They’re called “inadvertent returns”–when you drill horizontally underground for a pipeline and the drilling mud you put down the hole pops up in a place it’s not supposed to. The good news is that the drilling mud is non-toxic, the same stuff used in toothpaste. The bad news is that it can overwhelm little fishies and other aquatic life and kill (suffocate) them. ME2X drilling had another such incident earlier this week–in Chester County, PA.
Read More “Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill”
Late last week National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the parent company of Marcellus/Utica driller Seneca Resources and midstream company Empire Pipeline, issued its third-quarter (everyone else’s second quarter) financial and operational update. Among the things we learned: Seneca dropped to using a single drilling rig in June and shut-in some of its Marcellus/Utica production. That strategy remains in place for the foreseeable future, according to NFG’s top brass.
Read More “NFG: More PA Fracked Gas to NY Coming Online Next Few Months”
In March 2019 MDN brought you the news that Wood Group had been awarded a $34 million contract to build 28 miles of the 60-mile Risberg Pipeline from Crawford County, PA to Ashtabula County, OH (see Wood Wins $34M Contract to Build PA to OH Risberg Pipeline). The portion Wood built was new “greenfield” pipeline. The rest of the pipeline (32 miles) already existed and was repurposed.
Read More “Contractor Sues Risberg PA-to-OH Pipeline for Nonpayment $35M”
The false narrative that somehow Donald Trump and/or those in his administration “colluded” with Russia to affect the 2016 election is flat-out, 100% horse manure. It has been proven to be completely false–a narrative concocted by former FBI director James Comey and others tied to the Hillary Clinton campaign. Yet to this day so-called news outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, and the joke-of-a-network CNN still push that false narrative. They lie. They don’t reveal the REAL Russian collusion story…
Read More “Collusion Exposed! Between Russia and U.S. Congress re Gas Pipe”
Summit Midstream Partners, formed in 2009 and headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, operates natural gas, crude oil and produced water gathering (pipeline) systems in six unconventional resource basins, including the Marcellus and Utica. The company concentrates its time and money on four “core focus areas” including the Utica, the Williston (i.e. Bakken), the DJ Basin and the Permian. The Marcellus is part of the company’s “legacy” systems that doesn’t get as much love (and money). Last week the company issued its 2Q update. The company’s Utica operation was the star performer in 2Q, increasing flows through Summit’s system by 60%.
Read More “Summit Midstream – Ohio Utica Shines in 2Q”
It’s been a loooong road getting the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline system, which includes building two pipelines side-by-side from eastern Ohio across Pennsylvania to the Philadelphia area, done. From what we can tell, ME2 is now done–with the possible exception of a few miles where smaller pipeline is being used until a bigger replacement is done. For all intents, ME2 is done. However, ME2X, a second pipeline being built next to the first, is not yet done. But it’s getting close! According to comments from Energy Transfer (ET) made during a quarterly conference call yesterday, ME2X will be in service by the end of this year, and the entire project will be done-done sometime in 2Q21. Finally!
Read More “Energy Transfer Says Mariner East 2X Online by End of 2020”
We have some significant news coming out of yesterday’s 2Q update from Equitrans about the company’s Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. Equitrans is seriously considering expanding compression along MVP to flow an extra 500 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas along the pipeline after it’s up and running.
Read More “Equitrans Looks to Expand Capacity on MVP by Extra 0.5 Bcf/d”