Atlantic Coast Pipe Officially Asks US Supreme Court to Hear Case
In February MDN told you that Dominion Energy planned to appeal a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit blocking an important permit for Atlantic Coast Pipeline to drill under the Appalachian Trail directly to the U.S. Supreme Court (see Dominion Appealing Atlantic Coast Pipe Case to U.S. Supreme Court). Dominion was waiting on the U.S. Solicitor General to prepare an appeal as well, which would strengthen the likelihood that the Supremes will accept the case. On Tuesday both Dominion and the Solicitor General filed their requests.
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The Manhattan Institute, a leading free-market think tank based in the Big Apple, has just published a new report (full copy below) that shows by blocking new natural gas pipeline projects, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo is actually causing MORE harm to the environment. How? Blocking natural gas means building owners and power producers will continue to rely on oil, which emits 27% more carbon dioxide than natural gas. The report also shows lack of pipelines is forcing energy prices in the northeast to rocket skyward, which in some cases already exceed the national average by more than 90%.
We caught a helpful update on PennEnergy Resources from a report on last week’s Hart Energy DUG East Conference in Pittsburgh. PennEnergy CEO Richard Weber told the DUG audience that his company is currently producing an average half a billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, with plans to increase that by 10% this year. One thing holding the company back is the ongoing outage of Energy Transfer’s Revolution Pipeline gathering system.
The Falcon ethane pipeline being built by Shell in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio is unique in many ways. Falcon is a 97-mile, two-legged pipeline system to carry ethane to the mighty Shell cracker plant now under construction in Beaver County, PA (near Pittsburgh). We spotted an article about the pipeline and its construction. According to a local conservation office in Beaver County, pipeline construction “hasn’t even affected us [wildlife] a bit,” thanks to careful planning by Shell. A pipeline everybody loves? Is that even possible?!
In May, MDN told you that U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected an appeal by the rich snobs from Cooperstown who call themselves Otsego 2000, challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of Dominion Energy’s New Market Project to build two new compressor stations in Upstate NY (see 
RBN Energy is running an excellent series chronicling how natural gas in the Marcellus/Utica makes its way out of our region to other regions. We previously brought you portions of a post covering pipelines that carry our gas to the Midwest and Canada (see 
A number of Marcellus/Utica pipeline projects are stuck at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Projects that builders are waiting on for a final go-ahead from FERC. What’s the holdup? Leftist Democrat members of FERC insist that unless FERC considers mythical man-made global warming when approving pipeline projects, those projects should not be approved. It almost appears as if Democrat FERC members, including Dick Glick and Cheryl LaFleur are colluding with Big Green groups who have filed a flood of lawsuits insisting on the same thing. The end result is to slow, sometimes stop, progress on approving new projects.
Slowly but surely, more and more union members are beginning to vote Republican. They see their own Democrat Party denying them jobs by rejecting important, big construction projects (pipelines) because of an irrational fear of fossil fuels. This week union members have been picketing a NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) office in Buffalo (exclusive pictures below) to protest the DEC’s rejection of National Fuel Gas Company’s proposed Northern Access Pipeline project.
Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile pipeline from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA (now 80% built), may have just found a way to eliminate one of the last remaining obstacles to completing the project. Although MVP’s solution will delay completion and cost more money. In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission made Monday, Equitrans (builder of MVP) announced a deal with the U.S. Department of the Interior to swap ownership of land over which some of the Appalachian Trail travels in return for the right to drill under the Trail.
Several analysts at last week’s LDC Gas Forum Northeast conference in Boston offered their opinion that further growth in production for the Marcellus/Utica region is on the cusp of stalling. Why? Because they don’t see any new major pipeline projects on the horizon beyond the final “big 3” (Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Mountain Valley Pipeline, and PennEast Pipeline), and because major LNG export plants along the Gulf Coast will receive most of their gas from bountiful associated gas that comes from plays much closer to the Gulf, including the Permian and Midcontinent regions.
It’s time to smoke out irrational fossil fuel haters and use their own science against them. National Grid has just released a study (full copy below) commissioned with researchers from M.J. Bradley & Associates that shows there are FEWER so-called greenhouse gas emissions from using the proposed Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline to New York City than by using alternatives being pushed by New York State–alternatives like heat pumps. You read that right. LESS emissions by using a pipeline than the so-called “green” alternatives. If that doesn’t beat all.
Pennsylvania antis from the Philadelphia area who don’t want pipelines running through their neighborhoods (NIMBY types) have beat the drums of war so loud and for so long, they’ve finally begun to intimidate the non-partisan, shouldn’t-be-intimated PA Public Utility Commission (PUC). The PUC last Thursday launched a “major review of its safety regulations for hazardous liquids pipelines” in response to pressure from Mariner East 2 pipeline foes. It’s sad to see a government body cowed by a few loudmouthed troublemakers.
So-called environmentalists in the Albany, NY area are fine with a 333-mile underground electric cable that will pass through the area to bring hydro power from Quebec to New York City, but they object to a 7-mile underground natural gas pipeline that will increase supplies of natgas to the region–because natgas is vile and filthy “fracked gas” and these so-called environmentalists have an irrational (certifiably nuts) aversion to using fossil fuels as an energy source. It truly boggles the mind. Will anyone be left in New York State in another 20 years?