NY DEC Files Response re Constitution Pipe Case @ Supreme Court
There’s a number of threads to the ongoing saga of Constitution Pipeline, a $683 million, 124-mile pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY to move Marcellus gas into New York State and from there, into New England. The Andrew Cuomo-corrupted NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) refused to grant the pipeline necessary federal stream crossing permits, blocking construction, in April 2016 (see NY Gov. Cuomo Refuses to Grant Permits for Constitution Pipeline). Constitution filed an appeal of the DEC’s arbitrary and capricious decision with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, asking the court to overturn DEC’s decision. Unfortunately the Second Circuit refused (see Court Rejects Constitution Pipe’s Case Against NY DEC; Now What?). So Constitution appealed the Second Circuit’s rejection to the U.S. Supreme Court in January (see Constitution Pipeline Appeals NY Fight Directly to U.S. Supreme Court). The Supremes have not yet agreed to accept the case. Hoping to head off a decision to hear the case, the DEC filed a brief last week with the Supreme Court to say Constitution Pipeline has “misread” the Second Circuit’s decision, claiming the DEC was well within their rights to issue the rejection…
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When was the last time you read a news story about 50 people gathering to pray…*against* an infrastructure project? Ever see or read a news story about people gathered to pray against a new highway being built? What about people who pray against construction of a new bridge? Or maybe those who pray against a new high-tension electric line coming through the area? We’ve never heard of or read any of those kinds of stories. Ever. So why does Virginia Public Radio feel compelled to publish a story about 50 people gathering to pray against the Mountain Valley Pipeline? What about the 5,000 people who live in the same area who are just fine with the pipeline? Do you think they might deserve a story too?…
In January 2017 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted final approval for the $452 million Atlantic Bridge expansion project (see 
Last Thursday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) held an open meeting during which the commissioners “took significant action” to address the Trump tax cut legislation enacted last December. FERC wants to be sure the tax cuts coming to electric companies and pipeline companies are passed on to consumers and pipeline shippers. We are still trying to make sense of it all and frankly, we still don’t fully understand it. What we can tell you about what FERC did last week is this: The agency proposed new solutions to eliminate “tax loopholes” for natural gas pipelines. Closing these so-called loopholes will eliminate certain tax benefits for MLPs–master limited partnerships. A good many pipeline companies (most) are organized as MLPs, which allows tax advantages to flow to investors. With certain tax benefits for MLP unitholders on the chopping block, all of a sudden some (most?) MLPs don’t look like such a hot investment anymore, at least on paper. Which has caused pipeline companies, many of them with operations in the Marcellus/Utica, to issue a flurry of public announcements to say “FERC’s actions won’t impact us all that much.” The stock market certainly didn’t share that sentiment with shares (called “units”) in MLPs taking a hit since FERC’s announcement. Below is a collection of stories–bits of stories–that we’ve pieced together in an attempt to shed light on what is happening, and how it may change the pipeline business in the future…
In early March MDN reported that Sunoco Logistics’ underground horizontal drilling (HDD) work on its massive Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline near Philadelphia had resulted in several sinkholes developing (see 
We have to confess this story is a bit complex to understand. We will take a stab at making the complex understandable. Blue Racer Midstream has a subsidiary called Blue Racer NGL Pipelines LLC. The subsidiary operates the G-150 pipeline system, which provides batched propane and butane service. G-150 currently, located in West Virginia, connects a Natrium, WV processing plant to the TE Products Pipeline Co. (TEPPCO). The G-150 pipeline will also have a connection to the Mariner East 2 Pipeline when it goes into service, theoretically in June of this year. Currently the G-150 is flowing about 6,300 barrels per day of product through it–only 20% of its capacity. When the connection with ME2 is up and running, Blue Racer says it can handle 30,000 bbl/d through the G-150. However, Blue Racer itself signed up for most of the capacity (27,000 bbl/d). Blue Racer recently asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to allow it to have two different rate structures–a lower rate for “committed” shippers (Blue Racer itself with its 27,000 bbl/d) and a higher rate for uncommitted shippers. FERC rejected the request pointing out that existing shippers with contracts–namely Chesapeake Energy–would be left out in the cold in favor of Blue Racer moving its own volumes at lower prices. Yes, it’s complicated. Bottom line, Blue Racer can’t do what it wants and has to go back to the drawing board…
Dominion Energy’s $6.5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (running from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina) is supposed to get built this year. ACP began to cut trees along the pipeline’s path in late January (see 
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has just shut down further drilling for the Mariner East 2 Pipeline project at Snitz Creek in Lebanon County, PA because of a 50 gallon spill of non-toxic drilling mud. This isn’t the first time the DEP has stopped underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD) work at Snitz Creek. Last November they did the same thing for a piddly 1 gallon spill (see 
Anti-fossil fuel nutters have been on a holy mission to stop a 3.5-mile, 8-inch pipeline from being built under the Potomac River by Columbia Gas (see 
In April 2016, three Obama-appointed Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioners approved the $116 million Williams Transco Garden State Expansion pipeline project (see 
There’s a number of threads to the ongoing saga of Constitution Pipeline, a $683 million, 124-mile pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY to move Marcellus gas into New York State and from there, into New England. The Andrew Cuomo-corrupted NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) refused to grant the pipeline necessary federal stream crossing permits, blocking construction, in April 2016 (see 
Anti-fossil fuel nutters have been on a holy mission to stop a 3.5-mile, 8-inch pipeline from being installed under the Potomac River (see 
Last week MDN told you about two radical anti-fossil fuel activists who built tree houses in the Jefferson National Forest and are living in them (for now) in an attempt to prevent the trees and the trees around them from being cut to make way for the legally permitted Mountain Valley Pipeline (see 
We’re not quite sure what to make of this story. North Carolina has been, as we’ve long pointed out, nitpicking in an attempt to slow down (or stop) the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) from traversing the state (see