Pipelines

  • | | | | |

    PA Dems & RINOs Intro Bill Creating Commission to Stop New Pipes

    On Friday, a small group of anti-drilling Democrats and RINOs introduced a “bi-partisan” resolution that would create yet another black hole to dump taxpayer money into–a so-called Commission to Study Pipeline Construction and Operations that would “recommend improvements for the safe transport of oil, natural gas and other hazardous liquids through pipelines.” The “bi-partisan” (meaning TOTALLY partisan and anti-pipeline) members include Republicans in Name Only from the Philadelphia area coupled with virulent antis from the Democrat party. They do their best, with the help of sycophantic supporters in the media, to make it sound like an unbiased, impartial look at how to make pipelines safer and better. It’s nothing of the sort. It’s a commission aimed at shutting down any more pipeline development in the Keystone State. The good news, if there can be said to be good news, is that resolutions and in this case the commission it would create have zero ability to impose laws or regulations. It is an exercise in bloviating, giving a bunch of windbags a forum from which to bash fossil fuels and the methods used to extract and transport them. We predict this resolution is going nowhere fast…
    Read More “PA Dems & RINOs Intro Bill Creating Commission to Stop New Pipes”

  • | | | | | | | |

    M-U Gas Now Travels to Dawn Hub in Canada via Rover Pipeline

    Click map for larger version

    Last Thursday, May 24, Energy Transfer Partners requested (frankly, begged) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to approve final startup for the rest of Rover Pipeline not yet flowing–by June 1st. ET has contracts to honor and they promised shippers the full pipeline would be up and running by June 1st. ET requested permission to start up the “Majorsville Lateral, Supply Connector Line B, and Mainline B between CS1 and CS2 and between CS3 and the terminus,” along with a request to begin flowing on the “Burgettstown Lateral.” Note that some of the project has two pipelines, side by side (the Mainline and Supply Connector). ET asked that the second pipes in both cases be allowed to start up, along with the Majorsville and Burgettstown Laterals (see the map). ET got some of what it wanted–everything but permission to start up the laterals–yesterday from FERC. With the startup of Mainline B and Supply Connector B, ET says the Rover Pipeline project is now capable of flowing the full 3.25 billion cubic feet per day of natgas all the way to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. The only “problem” remaining is to find enough gas to flow the full 3.25 Bcf/d. They won’t be flowing the full 3.25 Bcf/d until all of the laterals are brought online…
    Read More “M-U Gas Now Travels to Dawn Hub in Canada via Rover Pipeline”

  • | |

    Nightmare: Appeals Court Upholds Right to Cancel Pipeline Deals

    Drillers may have a new “get out of (pipeline) jail free” card. If you don’t like your 10-20 year pipeline contract, just file for bankruptcy and cancel the contract during the “reorganization” process, emerging from bankruptcy without the responsibility to fulfill the long-term contract you signed. That’s the option just upheld by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals (unsurprisingly located in New York). MDN has covered this issue for more than two years. In March 2016, MDN brought you the news that a NY bankrutpcy court judge had allowed Sabine Oil & Gas, going through bankruptcy, to cancel a pipeline gathering contract with Cheniere’s Nordheim Eagle Ford Gathering in Texas (see Midstream Nightmare Comes True: Judge Lets Driller Cancel Contracts). Nordheim spent $84 million building a pipeline system to Sabine’s wells. In return for laying out that kind of money, Sabine, as is almost always the case, signed a multi-year contract with Nordheim (10 years in this case), ensuring Nordheim would make a profit on its up-front investment. The judge allowed Sabine to unilaterally cancel the deal several years into the contract as part of the bankruptcy process. We asked at the time: If a driller signs a contract and that signature is no longer any good, will anyone build pipeline systems anymore? We later brought you insight from a pair of lawyers who said: “If other judges follow the analysis and conclusions reached in the Sabine Oil case, the expectations of midstream service providers in the oil and gas extraction process might be turned on their heads” (see Lawyers Warn Pipeline Case May Turn Midstreamers “On Their Heads”). Indeed. Now that the Second Circuit has upheld this disastrous lower court decision, with the only appeal option left being the U.S. Supreme Court (which likely won’t take the case), we’re holding our breath to see what happens next. It seems this is the nightmare we can’t wake up from. Will midstream companies quit building gathering systems?…
    Read More “Nightmare: Appeals Court Upholds Right to Cancel Pipeline Deals”

  • | | | | | |

    Franklin County, VA Turns Down $200K to Store MV Pipe Equipment

    Talk about cutting off a $200,000 nose to spite your face! One of the counties through which the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) will travel is Franklin County, VA. MVP is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. For more than a year residents in Franklin County have opposed and hassled the MVP project (see Franklin County, VA Landowners Use Sheriff to Eject MVP Surveyors). Over the weekend the last tree-sitting protester, engaging in an illegal attempt to stop the pipeline from coming through Franklin, came down out of the trees (see Last MVP Tree Sitter in Franklin Co. Comes Down, Trees Cut). MVP was and is getting built through the county, but in a childish act of rebellion, three members of the Franklin Board of Supervisors voted to deny MVP the use of 10 acres of county land to temporarily store construction equipment. MVP was willing to pay the county a staggering $200,000–money the county desperately needs. Instead, to make a “statement” by thumbing its nose at MVP, the three supervisors turned down the MVP money and will now soak taxpayers for that revenue instead. We hope the voters of Franklin remember that at the ballot box in November…
    Read More “Franklin County, VA Turns Down $200K to Store MV Pipe Equipment”

  • | | | | | | |

    Two More $1M NatGas Pipeline Grants Coming Courtesy PA Taxpayers

    PA Gov. Tom Wolf

    It’s Christmas in Pennsylvania. Last week PA Gov. Tom Wolf and his Dept. of Community and Economic Development (DCED) announced the award of nine grants “to promote energy efficiency and spur economic development.” Among those nine grants are two grants for new natural gas pipelines. Two $1 million grants were awarded from the PA Pipeline Investment Program (PIPE), one to flow gas to a wax manufacturer in McKean County that wants to switch from using coal to natgas, and the other to serve over 500 new residential and business gas customers in Wayne County. Other grants in the list of nine include $965,000 for a 2000 kW CHP (combined heat and power) system for the Villanova University campus, and $1.2 million for a 2,000 kW CHP system for the Bayer Healthcare facility in Myerstown. In general we’re not in favor of corporate welfare, which is what this is (let’s just be honest). However, this is a pretty mild case of it. We can think of worse ways to blow taxpayer’s money. Essentially these relatively small investments keep more PA gas in PA by running pipelines to residents and businesses that will use it, and by helping fund power plants that will use it. Think of the grants as seed money to encourage more PA gas staying in PA, generating jobs at the same time…
    Read More “Two More $1M NatGas Pipeline Grants Coming Courtesy PA Taxpayers”

  • | | | | | |

    FERC Defends Atlantic Bridge Pipe Approval in DC Circuit Court

    In January 2017 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted final approval for the Atlantic Bridge expansion project (see FERC Approves Atlantic Bridge Project for New England/Canada). The Spectra Energy/Enbridge project beefs up capacity along the Algonquin Pipeline, along with more capacity for Spectra Energy’s Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline, to carry more Marcellus/Utica gas into New England and (eventually) all the way to Nova Scotia, Canada. Much of the project is now done–except in Massachusetts where a critical compressor station planned for Weymouth is stalled (see Massachusetts Blocking Atlantic Bridge Pipeline from Completion). Weymouth itself along with a smattering of radical environmentalist groups filed a lawsuit against FERC, claiming FERC did a “shoddy environmental review” before approving the project, arguing FERC’s approval should be overturned by the court. On Tuesday FERC fired back asking the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to toss the frivolous lawsuit and let them get on with finishing this critical project…
    Read More “FERC Defends Atlantic Bridge Pipe Approval in DC Circuit Court”

  • | | | | |

    When Neighbors Go Bad: NY Forcing New England into Blackouts

    Last winter, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 9, the northeast and New England experienced an extreme cold snap. New England essentially ran out of natural gas needed to feed electric generating plants. The entire region came razor close to succumbing to rolling blackouts. The only thing that prevented the blackouts was the restart of 1960s oil-burning electric plants. During that two week period, New England burned through 2 million barrels of oil to keep the lights on. Scary. Although a number of circumstances conspired to produce this “perfect storm” that almost tripped over into blackouts, there is one main, towering, primary reason why it happened: lack of natural gas pipelines. And there is one main, towering, primary reason why there aren’t more pipelines to flow more natgas into New England: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Andy has admitted, on camera, that his policy is to block any/every/all new natural gas pipelines (see NY Gov. Cuomo Says He’ll Block All New Gas-Fired Elec Plants). It is breathtaking hubris and arrogance. As we’ve pointed out, keep an eye on what’s happening in Canada with the Trans Mountain Pipeline project–where one province (British Columbia) refuses to allow a pipeline from a neighboring oil-producing province (Alberta) to cross through. It’s turned into a nasty civil war, complete with everything but bullets flying. The whole mess is enough to make Kinder Morgan, owner of the Trans Mountain system, sell it to the Canadian government (see Kinder Morgan Says No Thx to Canadian Civil War, Selling Pipeline). Sooner or later Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont (on the demand side) and Pennsylvania (on the supply side) are going to take aim at New York for blocking important interstate pipeline projects like the Constitution and Northern Access. Retribution is coming, you can bank on it…
    Read More “When Neighbors Go Bad: NY Forcing New England into Blackouts”

  • | | | | | |

    Towns Compete in PA DEP Hunger Games to Grab $12.6M of ME2 Cash

    Que the music with dramatic drums, cymbals and trumpets. Camera A, zoom in on Secretary McDonnell. The whole state is watching. It’s time for the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Hunger Games to begin! In February Sunoco Logistics Partners agreed to pay a massive (historically high) $12.6 million fine to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for “permit violations related to the construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project” (see Sunoco LP Pays PA DEP $12.6M to Resume ME2 Pipeline Construction). Sunoco’s ME2 construction activities caused a few erosion issues here and some drilling mud leaks there–so-called “harms” to the environment. Surely some of the massive, historically high $12.6 million fine will be used to “fix” those problems, right? Wrong. Sunoco had to pay twice–pay to clean up the problems AND pay the fine. The fine was essentially a shakedown, Sunoco had to pay it or they would not be allowed to resume construction work on ME2. In April the DEP announced a new program to distribute the $12.6 million of fine money (see PA DEP Hunger Games Competition to Distribute $12.6M in ME2 Money). In Hunger Games tradition, the DEP is conducting a lottery for the 85 municipalities along ME2’s path, allowing those “districts” to submit begging proposals to request some of the money for programs in their district. The contestants have 45 days, from May 7 to June 20, to make a grab for the cash (i.e. submit a grant application). Here’s how one town in Lebanon County is preparing what they hope is a winning entry–their chance to grab some of ME2’s money…
    Read More “Towns Compete in PA DEP Hunger Games to Grab $12.6M of ME2 Cash”

  • | | |

    Kinder Morgan Says No Thx to Canadian Civil War, Selling Pipeline

    An interesting development in the pipeline wars. Kinder Morgan has just agreed to sell its Trans Mountain Pipeline system to the Canadian government for C$4.5 billion ($3.5 billion U.S.). Why? Kinder is tired of the ongoing civil war in Canada over extending Trans Mountain from the oil sands of Alberta through British Columbia to the coast for exporting to Asia. As we reported last week, British Columbia is blocking the project and Alberta is now fighting back–and it’s nasty, a civil war in every way except armed conflict (see Canadian Civil War Previews What’s Coming in NY re Pipelines). The federal Canadian government wants this pipeline project to happen. Kinder lost its appetite to make it happen, so Canada is buying the entire project from Kinder, to ensure it gets built. What does an oil pipeline in western Canada have to do with the Marcellus/Utica? It’s a preview of things to come in U.S., where NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo is blocking pipeline projects that PA and other states critically need. We’re watching what happens with the Trans Mountain project as a proxy for what may happen here at home…
    Read More “Kinder Morgan Says No Thx to Canadian Civil War, Selling Pipeline”

  • | | | | | | |

    Sunoco Appealing ME1 Shutdown to Full PUC to Overturn Lib Judge

    As MDN reported last Friday, fossil fuel opponents finally located a liberal judge that they could persuade to abuse her judicial power to shut down not only construction on the 98% complete Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project, but also shut down Mariner East 1 (ME1), a pipeline that has been working with no issues or problems for over a year (see Antis Get Lib Judge to Shut Down All Mariner East Pipes, Dems Rejoice). It is an outrage that a single judge can inflict such economic damage. Sunoco responded by saying they are pursuing “all legal remedies to overturn this Order, including our right to request PUC review of the Order, which will be filed within the next seven days.” If/when Sunoco appeals to the Public Utility Commission (PUC), the full commission can and likely will meet right away, in a non-public hearing, and could restore ME1’s right to flow NGLs immediately, overruling the judge’s overtly political order. It could happen as fast as this week, although it’s more likely to happen next week. In the meantime, every day ME1 is down, great economic harm comes to companies like Sunoco and their customers that use ME1, primarily Range Resources…
    Read More “Sunoco Appealing ME1 Shutdown to Full PUC to Overturn Lib Judge”

  • | | | | | | | |

    Last MVP Tree Sitter in Franklin Co. Comes Down, Trees Cut

    MVP protester

    We’ve run out of words to describe just how lunatic (and hypocritical) Big Green radicals are in their quest to stop fossil fuel projects. The last of the tree sitters opposing the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project in Franklin County, Va. who had taken to climbing and living in trees along the pipeline’s path have come down, after a judge charged them with contempt (in federal court, a very serious charge), and after MVP workers began cutting some of the trees close to where they were located. A tree sitter calling himself Ink (like the stuff used in pens) had been living in the trees in Franklin County for the past two weeks. He claims that when MVP workers began cutting branches and tops of trees nearby, some of which were connected to a spiderweb of ropes put there by the protesters, one of the branches hit Ink and scratched him, making him bleed. Poor baby. Here, let us grab a box of Kleenex to wipe away our tears. After Ink came down, another protester went up, calling herself Sprout. She stayed up there for four hours. After Sprout was ordered to appear in court on federal charges, she came down too, ending the tree sitting in Franklin. For now. We believe there may be two “sitters” (one up a tree, one up a pole) left in other locations. These “brave” people who refuse to use their real names and identify themselves go by names like Ink, Sprout, Red and Nutty. Need we say more? Our point: Fight for your cause in court or with regulatory agencies. Don’t take the law into your own hands. We live in a land with laws, not anarchy where everyone does what is right in his own sight. If the actions of these so-called protesters (i.e. illegal law breakers) are left unchallenged, it is the beginning of the end for our society built on the rule of law…
    Read More “Last MVP Tree Sitter in Franklin Co. Comes Down, Trees Cut”

  • | | | | | | | |

    Antis Get Lib Judge to Shut Down All Mariner East Pipes, Dems Rejoice

    Anti-fossil fuel nutters have finally, after months and years, scored a minor victory. They’ve been shopping to locate an ultra-liberal judge who would ignore the law and instead issue edicts from the bench–to shut down both the Mariner East 1 (ME1) and Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline projects. Yesterday Elizabeth Barnes, an administration law judge for the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), unilaterally ordered Sunoco Logistics Partners to “cease and desist all current operation, construction, including drilling activities on the Mariner East 1, 2 and Mariner East 2X pipeline” in West Whiteland Township (Chester County, PA). The judge also moved to shut down all operations of Mariner East 1 across the state, ruling that she is “enjoining Respondent from operating Mariner East 1.” It is a breathtaking display of arrogance and seizure of power that does not belong to her. The ruling runs counter to other decisions regarding these critical pipeline projects–projects that have been thoroughly vetted by numerous regulatory agencies. Construction of ME2 is 94% complete! ME1 has been flowing NGLs for over a year–with ZERO problems! And yet Barnes has shut it all down, with the stroke of a pen. We predict it won’t last long…
    Read More “Antis Get Lib Judge to Shut Down All Mariner East Pipes, Dems Rejoice”

  • | | | | | | |

    MVP “Nutty” Protester Drops Back to Earth – Out of Food

    Nutty up a pole in Jefferson National Forest

    The Nut has fallen to the ground–or more properly, gently helped to the ground by members of the U.S. Forest Service. On March 28 an off-her-rocker fossil fuel hater who refuses to give her real name, calling herself “Nutty,” climbed up a jury-rigged pole in the middle of a gravel road running through the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia. She’s trying to stop construction vehicles working on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from using the road to access their legally-permitted construction sites. Her criminal act of lunacy recently inspired another woman to do the same thing (see “Nutty” is as Nutty Does – 2nd MVP Protester Goes Up a Pole in VA). The Forest Service cut off Nutty’s food and water supply back in April by blocking other nuts from passing her supplies. With no food, she decided it was time to come back to earth. After coming down, Nutty was taken to a hospital to be checked out, and given a citation to appear in court to defend her criminal acts. No doubt the “monopod” (pole with ropes to nearby trees) she occupied is already on the ground, cut up into little pieces…
    Read More “MVP “Nutty” Protester Drops Back to Earth – Out of Food”

  • |

    Liberty Utilities Floats Plan for 27-Mile Pipeline in Southern NH

    All New England states are in desperate need of more natural gas–for both consumers (residences and businesses that use it to heat and cool) and for power generating plants. Yet each New England state in one fashion or another has actively opposed any new interstate pipelines to bring in more gas. Two major pipeline projects were proposed to help alleviate the situation. Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) was canceled in April 2016 (see NED is Dead – Kinder Morgan Suspends $3.3B New England Pipeline). Spectra Energy’s Access Northeast project has been dormant, although as we reported earlier this week, it may once again have a pulse (see NH Supreme Court Decision Puts New England Pipe Back in Play). A New Hampshire utility company, Liberty Utilities, floated a new plan this week for a teeny tiny new pipeline, called Granite Bridge, that will run underground along Route 101 from Stratham to Manchester. In addition, Liberty proposes building a natgas storage facility in an empty quarry in Epping. We’re not exactly sure where the extra gas will come from that will get stored and then pumped along this new pipeline (Liberty says it’s coming from the “Seacoast”). Our reason for highlighting this story is this: Can ANY state in New England build ANY kind of natural gas pipeline? Even a pipeline project as small and modest as this one? That’s the gajillion dollar question…
    Read More “Liberty Utilities Floats Plan for 27-Mile Pipeline in Southern NH”

  • | | | | | |

    PA Senate Passes Bill Making Pipeline Trespass a Felony

    It’s about time! One of the favorite tactics of antis to fall back on when they don’t win in court is to simply take the law into their own hands (i.e. anarchy). If the courts or a regulatory body (like FERC, or the PA DEP) refuse to stop a critical energy infrastructure project, like a pipeline, antis take it upon themselves to trespass, illegally, in an attempt to block work on the project. They call it “free speech.” It’s nothing of the sort. To trespass is, by definition, breaking the law. Antis know this. However, such a violation of the law is currently only a misdemeanor–a lessor penalty. The PA Senate has just approved a bill that would make infrastructure trespass for pipelines and other key energy infrastructure a felony, giving antis more incentive to behave themselves. Most Republican Senators (except a few Philly RINOs) voted for the bill. Most Democrat Senators (who prefer to be lawless), voted against it. We can only hope the bill gets adopted–it now goes to the House–although with Wolf as governor, we’re not confident it will get signed into law…
    Read More “PA Senate Passes Bill Making Pipeline Trespass a Felony”

  • | | | | |

    NH Supreme Court Decision Puts New England Pipe Back in Play

    A recent New Hampshire Supreme Court decision may breathe new life into a natural gas pipeline project believed to be dead–or at least on life support. Spectra Energy (now owned by Enbridge) first announced an unnamed pipeline project to shuttle gas from the Marcellus/Utica to New England in July 2014 (see Spectra Energy to the Rescue! New England Pipeline Expansion). In September 2014 Spectra announced they had named the project Access Northeast and added Northeast Utilities–now called Eversource Energy–as a partner (see Spectra Energy New England Pipeline Gets a Name & a Partner). In December 2014, Spectra formed an alliance with a competitor, the Iroquois Gas Transmission pipeline, to further extend the reach of the project (see Spectra Energy Alliance with Iroquois to Sell Marcellus Gas to NE). The project is pegged to cost around $3 billion and would connect four different pipeline systems: Texas Eastern, Algonquin Gas Transmission, Iroquois and Maritimes & Northeast. But then Spectra/Eversource was dealt a body blow by Massachusetts in 2016 (see MA Supreme Court Ruling Endangers New England Gas Pipelines). The project was dealt a second body blow in 2016 by New Hampshire when regulators said Eversource could not pass along some of the costs of the pipeline to electric rate payers (see NH Regulators Veto Access Northeast Pipeline Contract). The NH Supreme Court has just overturned the ruling by NH regulators and has said yes, Eversource CAN pass along some of the costs, because electric customers will directly benefit from the pipeline project…
    Read More “NH Supreme Court Decision Puts New England Pipe Back in Play”