Construction Begins on 122-Mile East Tennessee Pipeline Project
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the U.S. TVA’s service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. TVA is the country’s sixth-largest power supplier and the largest public utility company. In May 2023, TVA announced that it would convert the Kingston Fossil Plant (coal-fired) in East Tennessee to become a natural gas-fired plant capable of generating 1,500 megawatts of electricity (see TVA Proposes NatGas Power Plant, 122-Mile Pipeline for East Tenn.). The project includes a contract with Enbridge subsidiary East Tennessee Natural Gas Pipeline to build a new 122-mile pipeline, called the Ridgeline Expansion Project, to feed the plant. Great news! The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the beginning of construction for the pipeline, and, as of Oct. 20, construction has begun. Read More “Construction Begins on 122-Mile East Tennessee Pipeline Project”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proposed new permitting processes in West Virginia and Ohio that would allow certain fossil fuel projects to be built through wetlands and streams without a public comment opportunity. The proposals would allow mines, natural gas pipelines, hydropower dams, and other energy infrastructure projects in WV and OH to proceed using two simplified permits: “letters of permission” and “regional general permits.” For these projects, water pollution impacts must be limited to 2 acres or less for a letter of permission and 1 acre or less for a regional general permit. This action has the potential to speed up new natural gas pipeline projects in the Marcellus/Utica region. 
In April, MDN told you about a new greenfield expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Elba Express pipeline into South Carolina to serve growing demand for natural gas in the state (see 
In 2022, then-Massachusetts Attorney General (now Governor) Maura Healey bragged she had “stopped two gas pipelines from coming into this state” and that she opposes new natgas infrastructure in the state. 
We’re not big fans of the American Petroleum Institute (API), which tends to do the bidding of the Big Oil companies that fund it. Big Oil’s aims are sometimes at odds with those of smaller, independent oil and gas producers—the innovators who discovered shale drilling. Yet there are state chapters of the API that do a good job. One of them is the Pennsylvania API chapter. The executive director of PA API, Stephanie Catarino Wissman, recently published an excellent article in Broad+Liberty that calls for fast-tracking the effort to pass federal permit reform so Pennsylvania can get back to building. 
In August, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reissued a certificate for the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project, a billion-dollar-plus project designed to increase Transco pipeline capacity and flows of Marcellus gas heading into New York City and other northeastern markets by an extra 400 MMcf/d (see 
Radical environmentalists once again have their knickers in a twist. When don’t they? In August, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reissued a certificate for the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project, a billion-dollar-plus project designed to increase Transco pipeline capacity and flows of Marcellus gas heading into New York City and other northeastern markets by an extra 400 MMcf/d (see 
One of the environmental left’s favorite tactics to defeat fossil fuel projects is to challenge every single infrastructure project (pipeline or otherwise) connected to fossil energy at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). As soon as a company files an application to build a new project, and FERC approves it, Big Green will challenge it, first at FERC, and eventually via the courts. FERC has an internal rule, called Order No. 871, that states a company cannot begin construction (even though FERC has approved the certificate) until all such legal challenges are resolved, which can take YEARS. Which is the point—delay, and eventually, some of the projects will give up and won’t build. Run out the clock. Two days ago, FERC issued a new rule eliminating Order No. 871 rule, meaning construction can now begin months and years sooner, even while appeals continue. The enviro-left just lost one of its most potent weapons. 
We finally have all five members in place for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Yesterday, the U.S. Senate, despite the best efforts of Democrats to further delay confirmation votes for *any* Trump appointments, voted to confirm a slate of over 100 new appointments, including two new members of FERC, on a party-line vote of 51-47. In June, President Trump nominated Laura Swett of Vison & Elkins to replace Republican Mark Christie, who had been elevated to Chairman under Trump (see 
In April, MDN told you about a new greenfield expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Elba Express pipeline into South Carolina to serve growing demand for natural gas in the state (see 
Energy companies are set to invest nearly $50?billion over the next five years in building or expanding 8,800 miles of U.S. natural gas pipelines to meet soaring domestic consumption, record LNG exports, and growing data center demand, greatly aided by regulatory changes under President Trump. Surging gas production, particularly in the Permian Basin as a byproduct of crude oil output, has outpaced pipeline and processing capacity, resulting in occasional negative Waha prices and production slowdowns. Major operators, such as Kinder Morgan and Enbridge, face record backlogs but continue to expand, especially in Texas and the Gulf Coast, with future gas growth tied to sustained oil prices. 
DT Midstream, Inc. announced yesterday that it has closed a successful binding open season (signup period) to award expansion capacity on its Guardian Pipeline. DT awarded capacity to five shippers totaling 328 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day, equivalent to 328,000 dekatherms per day) with a targeted in-service date of November 1, 2028. Guardian is an approximately 260-mile interstate pipeline with a current capacity of approximately 1.3 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) serving key Wisconsin demand centers. And yes, Guardian flows at least some Marcellus/Utica molecules. 