Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics
PA Gov Wolf Declares War on ET/Sunoco – No New Pipeline Permits
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has just declared full-on war with Energy Transfer and its Sunoco Logistics subsidiary by directing the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to suspend all reviews of clean water permit applications and other pending approvals for all of ET/Sunoco’s pipeline projects in the state, including Mariner East 2 (ME2) and the Revolution pipeline project.
Read More “PA Gov Wolf Declares War on ET/Sunoco – No New Pipeline Permits”
NEXUS Pipeline, a $2.6 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that runs from Ohio into Michigan, began a partial startup in October, and was fully online in November. Although there was early opposition to the project, and some complaints from landowners along the route of construction, the project is noteworthy for the just how little complaining there actually was.
We spotted a couple of op-eds yesterday commenting on the obtuse position taken by New York State (Andrew Cuomo) in blocking natural gas pipelines. One of the columns, by MDN friend Katie Klaber, makes a brilliant point. Want to know where New York is heading energy-wise? Just look at Venezuela.
Dominion Energy’s 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) is facing serious delays and cost overruns mainly due to lawsuits brought by Big Green groups (see 
Perhaps two unrelated cases of individual landowners challenging Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2 (ME2) Pipeline–one in court, the other with regulators–doesn’t make a trend, but it is worth noting. Our antennae are up.
The New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), thoroughly corrupted by, and a political tool of, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, continues to have a bad week. Monday we told you about a recent court decision that gives new hope for both the Constitution and Northern Access Pipeline projects (see 
Utility giant National Grid, which services Long Island (part of New York City) with natural gas service, is threatening New York State that if the state does not approve Williams’ Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project by May 15th, they will, as Consolidated Edison has just done in Westchester County, impose a no-new-natural gas customers moratorium for the New York City area. Which would block development of the new $1 billion Belmont Park Arena.
The pressure is mounting on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo with regard to blocking natural gas pipelines. Except now the pressure is coming from the adults in the room who see through Cuomo’s sleazy politics. None other than the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal has ripped into Cuomo, calling his blockade of new pipelines the equivalent of a “cold weather tax”–not only on New Yorkers, but also those living in New England.
A huge crack of sunshine has just shown through the court system with respect to pipeline projects. A case decided on Jan. 25 in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals which technically has nothing to do with either the Williams Constitution Pipeline project nor the National Fuel Gas Company Northern Access Pipeline project (both being blocked by New York State), may be the one court decision to break open the logjam and allow both projects to begin construction.
Speaking of National Fuel Gas Company’s Northern Access Pipeline project, NFG asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last November to extend the project timeline by an extra three years, to give them more time to fight with Cuomo in court and actually get the pipeline built once lawsuits from the state are exhausted (see 
In November, Dominion Energy said that their 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) would be delayed, with a partial startup in 2019 and full startup for everything else in mid-2020 (see 
Last week a pipeline at a single Michigan compressor station caught fire and exploded (see 
Tallgrass Energy, builder and operator of the mighty Rockies Express (REX) pipeline which is a critical link that flows Marcellus/Utica gas to Midwestern markets, dropped a bombshell announcement yesterday. The company said that investment firm Blackstone is buying a “controlling” interest in the company. Which raises the question, will Blackstone indeed “control” the company?