Pipelines

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    Dominion CEO Asks Senators to Fix Broken Permitting Process

    Dominion CEO Diane Leopold

    On Tuesday, just as winter storm Stella was beginning to hit along the East Coast, a group of executives testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources. The session was billed as a “Hearing to receive testimony on opportunities to improve American energy infrastructure.” One of the speakers to address the Senators was Dominion CEO Diane Leopold. The thrust of her lengthy testimony was to encourage (implore?) the Senators to (in our words) fix the very broken process of permitting important infrastructure projects in this country. Leopold shared Dominion’s experience in applying for permits to build the $4 billion Cove Point LNG export project in Maryland. As bad as it was with 55 federal, state and local permits and reviews required, Leopold said Cove Point was a relative walk in the park compared to what they’re now going through with the $5.5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. Something has got to change if anything is going to get built in this country…
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    THE Dela. Riverkeeper Issues Final Orders to Minions re DRBC Mtg

    Today is the day that (some of) Maya’s minions will show up at a meeting of the Delaware River Basin Commission to attempt to bully DRBC staff during the public comments period. As we’ve been reporting (from a well-placed mole on the DRBC email list) Maya has been issuing orders to her minions–people who apparently aren’t bright enough to form their own thoughts about matters like the PennEast Pipeline (see Mind-Numbed Antis Need Maya’s Instructions re DRBC Mar 15 Mtg). Maya has written out a treatise of objections to PennEast, to be read WORD FOR WORD by the minions–or else. We now have the script that Maya’s mind-numbed robots will read from (see it below). We also have her last-minute instructions to the dolts doing the reading…
    Read More “THE Dela. Riverkeeper Issues Final Orders to Minions re DRBC Mtg”

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    Trinidad LNG Exports Keep Falling – When Will it Affect New England?

    Last June, MDN quasi-predicted that natural gas prices may spike during the 2016-2017 winter season in New England, due to a coming shortage of LNG from Tinidad (see Is New England Heading for Huge NatGas Price Spike this Winter?). With a warmer than normal winter, and with newfound natural gas supplies making their way to New England, prices did not spike. However, New England continues to pay prices 3-4 times higher than the rest of the country for their natgas–due to lack of supply. That hasn’t (and won’t) change, until more supplies make it to New England–either by pipeline or ship. Opponents of new pipelines to New England have included LNG importers in the region. Specifically, GDF Suez imports Trinidad gas at the Everett, MA LNG import terminal, near Boston (see New England Importer Received 59% of All LNG Ship Imports 1H15). LNG imports are one of the primary sources of natgas for New England. Antis holler and scream, “Forget the pipelines. If you must use gas, use LNG. There’s more than enough LNG to supply New England.” In a macro sense that may be true–the world is awash in LNG. But arranging shipments and sources for it takes months, even years. Right now most of the LNG GDF Suez imports comes from Trinidad. As we pointed out in our article last year, Trinidad’s natural gas sources are drying up. The country is exporting less and less. We spotted yet another article about how Trinidad’s natural gas exports are rapidly declining. Sooner or later Trinidad’s falling exports will affect GDF Suez’s imports of LNG to New England. Once again, like that famous New Englander Paul Revere, we’re issuing a warning that New England needs new sources of natgas (via pipelines), and they need it sooner rather than later…
    Read More “Trinidad LNG Exports Keep Falling – When Will it Affect New England?”

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    TransCanada Says Plan to Lowball M-U Gas Worked, Shippers Sign Up

    TransCanada, one of Canada’s leading midstream/pipeline companies, cooked up a deal last year to pipe natural gas from Canada’s West Coast to the East Coast in order to fend off cheap supplies of Marcellus/Utica gas that will flow into Canada when/if the NEXUS and Rover pipelines get built (see TransCanada Pipe Drops Price 42% to Compete with Marcellus/Utica). TransCanada dropped their pipeline price to lure drillers by (theoretically) making it less expensive to get gas from Western Canada, some 2,400 miles away, than from the Marcellus, just 400 miles away. In October, TransCanada launched an open season to lock up customers for the new, lower-priced option. The open season was a bust because TransCanada insists on a 10-year commitment (see TransCanada Plan to Lowball M-U Gas Using Canada Pipeline a Bust). TransCanada revived their plan in February. The original deal required a 10-year term with a long-term tolling rate between C$0.75/GJ to C$0.82/GJ. In February, the advertised deal was for a 10-year term and a simplified single rate of C$0.77/GJ (see TransCanada Revives Plan to Lowball M-U Gas Using Canada Pipeline). Although it looked almost like the same deal all over again with the same 10-year term and about the same price, TransCanada dropped a minimum amount to be shipped and is letting shippers opt out after five years under certain conditions. The changes worked…
    Read More “TransCanada Says Plan to Lowball M-U Gas Worked, Shippers Sign Up”

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    Spectra Energy Buys PSE&G’s Stake in PennEast Pipeline

    That was fast. Last Friday MDN reported that New Jersey’s largest utility, Public Service Enterprise Group (PSE&G), is shopping its ownership stake in the $1 billion PennEast Pipeline project (see PennEast Pipeline Investor Looks to Sell its 10% Ownership Share). PSE&G owns a 10% stake in the project primarily because it will be one of the biggest customers for the pipeline when (not if) it gets built. PSE&G wants to sell its share not because it has lost confidence in the project, but because of a change in corporate strategy. The bigwigs running PSE&G want to put their money into more power generating plants, rather than the pipelines that feed those plants. Fair enough. Yesterday Spectra Energy (now a part of Enbridge), another investor/partner in PennEast, said it will buy out PSE&G’s share. Spectra currently owns a 10% stake in the project, as does PSE&G, so it will double its ownership share…
    Read More “Spectra Energy Buys PSE&G’s Stake in PennEast Pipeline”

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    Report by Philly Antis Proves Mariner East 2 Pipeline is Safe

    A group of anti-fossil fuel nutters from the Philadelphia suburb of Middletown, PA (Delaware County) spent good money to buy themselves a report from an “independent” consultant that they say proves the Mariner East 2 Pipeline is too dangerous to build through their township. We don’t know how much the Middletown Coalition for Community Safety blew on the study, but we do know that Middletown Township is blowing $45,000 of taxpayer’s hard-earned money for a similar study (see Middletown PA Decides to Blow $45K (not $100K) on Mariner 2 Study). The Middletown Coalition was antsy, they didn’t want to wait for the town study to be completed, and they couldn’t risk a truly independent study finding the pipeline will be safe. So the Coalition moved ahead, no doubt using money from Big Green organizations to produce a report titled “Hazard Calculations for the Mariner East II Pipeline” (full copy below). The Coalition asked Quest Consultants, an Oklahoma-based firm, to evaluate what would happen IF a bunch of unlikely events were to happen. The report concludes: “IF the pipe were to rupture in Middletown Township, and IF the pipeline were operating at 1,500 psi while transporting ethane, and IF the release were oriented near to horizontal in the direction of the wind, and IF there are few obstructions to vapor cloud dispersion, and IF the weather conditions were 5 mph winds and stable atmosphere, the flammable vapor cloud could extend up to 1,800 feet from the pipeline.” The huge, gaping omission, the question the report does not address, is this: How likely is it that any or all of those things would actually happen? Our answer: near zero percent. In other words, the report just released by the Middletown Coalition proves that ME2 is safe!…
    Read More “Report by Philly Antis Proves Mariner East 2 Pipeline is Safe”

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    WV Residents Sound Off on Mountain Valley Pipeline

    The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The project, which filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October 2015, is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners. The project has faced stiff opposition from landowners in West Virginia (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Sues 103 WV Landowners for Survey Access). Last week the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection held three public hearings on the project. As usual, the root of opposition against the pipeline is based on an irrational hatred of fossil fuels. One of the speakers at the Clarksburg hearing, a retired liberal Democrat school teacher, believes man-made global warming is a disaster in the making and this pipeline will contribute to the problem. There’s just no reasoning with people like that…
    Read More “WV Residents Sound Off on Mountain Valley Pipeline”

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    Has the Clock Run Out for NEXUS Pipeline?

    Is there still a market need for the NEXUS Pipeline project? That is the $2 billion question. Last December, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a positive final Environmental Impact Statement (see FERC Approves NEXUS Pipeline, Project on Track for 2017). The remaining obstacle for NEXUS is to obtain a certificate of public convenience and necessity from FERC, to begin construction. NEXUS had hoped to have that approval in hand on Feb. 3rd, when FERC issued a flurry of such certificates. However, NEXUS didn’t get one (see In FERC’s Game of Musical Chairs, NEXUS Pipeline Left Standing). Here’s the facts. The main competitor to NEXUS, Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline, DID get a certificate from FERC and is now under construction (see FERC Green Lights Rover Pipeline Construction). In addition, TransCanada is trying, hard, to entice western Canadian drillers to ship their gas east to Ontario in order to undercut both Rover and (if it gets built) NEXUS (see TransCanada Revives Plan to Lowball M-U Gas Using Canada Pipeline). While Rover’s pipeline capacity is 95% sold, only 59% of the NEXUS project is sold. So when a full FERC quorum is once again in place and willing to consider NEXUS, the question becomes, is the need still there?…
    Read More “Has the Clock Run Out for NEXUS Pipeline?”

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    Mind-Numbed Antis Need Maya’s Instructions re DRBC Mar 15 Mtg

    The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), charged with overseeing potential impacts on the Delaware River and the various tributaries that feed it, has stepped outside of its legal bounds with plans to review the PennEast Pipeline, part of which will run through the Delaware River Basin area. In 2014 the DRBC tried to tell PennEast and its sponsors that the pipeline will need their approval before it can be built (see DRBC Tells PennEast They Need DRBC (Not Just FERC) Approval). There’s just one teeny tiny problem with the DRBC’s plan. It’s called the U.S. Constitution. PennEast is permitted solely by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), not any other agency including the quasi-governmental DRBC. No matter, the DRBC is plowing ahead with its plan and will hold a public hearing this Wednesday, March 15. We previously shared with you the secret marching orders from anti-pipeline Nazis called THE Delaware Riverkeeper (see THE Delaware Riverkeeper Plans to Pack DRBC Hearing to Oppose PennEast). Our insider has sent us two more communications from Riverkeeper to the apparently mind-numbed robots they call supporters. The first email went out last Wednesday with instructions for the protesters who will attend the meeting. Riverkeeper is providing comments for them to read at the hearing. All of it 100% scripted. The follow-up email on Friday had to re-instruct the faithful. Apparently there was confusion and Riverkeeper had to tell them, once again, that they are to read from what THE Delaware Riverkeeper herself (Maya van Rossum) has written. Listen up stupids: you read what Maya wrote–you don’t depart from the script–or you risk her considerable wrath. Apparently Riverkeeper’s protesting followers are not bright enough to form their own arguments against PennEast…
    Read More “Mind-Numbed Antis Need Maya’s Instructions re DRBC Mar 15 Mtg”

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    PennEast Pipeline Investor Looks to Sell its 10% Ownership Share

    New Jersey’s largest utility, Public Service Enterprise Group (PSE&G), is shopping its ownership stake in the $1 billion PennEast Pipeline project. Which may sound bad, but isn’t. Is PSE&G losing confidence in the project? Not happy with progress (or lack thereof)? Afraid it won’t ever get built? No, no and no. According to a company spokesman, the $10 billion PSE&G wants to focus on power projects, not pipelines. A little background and context is helpful. PennEast is largely being driven by Pennsylvania-based UGI, a natural gas and electric utility serving 700,000 customers in 45 counties in Pennsylvania and one county in Maryland. UGI is managing the project, and has the largest ownership stake. Other investors/owners of the project include PSE&G, which has only invested $11 million and owns a 10% stake; NJR Pipeline Company, a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources, an NJ utility; SJI Midstream, a direct subsidiary of South Jersey Industries; Southern Company Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company, a midstreamer; and Spectra Energy, now a part of Enbridge, yet another pipeline company. Even though PSE&G wants to sell its share of the project for financial reasons, it will remain one of the customers for the PennEast Pipeline when (not if) it gets built…
    Read More “PennEast Pipeline Investor Looks to Sell its 10% Ownership Share”

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    Antis Attempt to Stop Atlantic Sunrise Pipe by Attacking FERC Order

    Sometimes this regulatory stuff gives us a headache. Like today. A common practice by anti-fossil fuel nutters when opposing a pipeline project at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is to request a “re-hearing” on a decision FERC has made to authorize a project. It’s just standard operating procedure. If the antis can get FERC to agree to a re-hearing, it effectively slows, even stops, an active pipeline project. So in an effort to prevent important projects from being slowed or stopped, FERC developed something called a “tolling order”–which grants FERC more time to consider whether or not a full re-hearing is justified. During the time of the tolling order (which can last up to six months), work on a pipeline continues. Sometimes the work even gets completed! Which of course drives the antis bonkers. Antis claim FERC uses tolling orders to avoid lawsuits. You see, antis can’t take their frivolous cases to a court until FERC has officially denied a re-hearing request. So by using a tolling order, FERC can drag out the process of deciding to deny a re-hearing, avoiding the inevitable frivolous lawsuit that comes with it, and work on important projects gets done. This is how things must operate in our litigious society that tolerates the antics of anti-fossil fuelers (with seemingly bottomless pockets of money to litigate every project). New wrinkle: When FERC Commissioner Norman “cry baby” Bay resigned in a huff effective Feb. 3, it left FERC without enough Commissioners (without a quorum) to vote on tolling orders, re-hearing requests, etc. So on Feb. 3, before Bay left, the existing three Commissioners delegated their authority over re-hearings and tolling orders to FERC staffers–until a new Commissioner is appointed and sworn in. Antis against Atlantic Sunrise are using the delegated tolling order issue against FERC in their attempt to stop commencement of construction on Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project, claiming they are being deprived of their “due process”…
    Read More “Antis Attempt to Stop Atlantic Sunrise Pipe by Attacking FERC Order”

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    West Goshen’s Last Stand to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipeline

    There are a few last, desperate gasps at attempting to stop Sunoco Logistics Partners’ Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline from being built. The pipeline is currently under construction (see Mariner East 2 Pipeline Constructions Begins Across PA). Even though trees are getting cut and pipeline is being laid, that doesn’t stop libs in places like West Goshen Township (Chester County, near Philadelphia) from attempting to deny Sunoco a zoning permit for a valve on the pipeline. Sunoco has politely, but firmly, told West Goshen the pipeline doesn’t need a permit from the town to install a valve because it’s a state-permitted project. In other words, go pound sand. Sunoco plans to move forward, at the appropriate time, with installation and wants assurances from West Goshen the town won’t send in a local cop to stop them. It could get messy…
    Read More “West Goshen’s Last Stand to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipeline”

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    PA State Senator Introduces Bill to Regulate Gathering Pipelines

    PA Senator Lisa Baker

    We’re not quite sure what to think about this one. A Republican PA State Senator, Lisa Baker, on Monday introduced a bill in the PA Senate (SB 488, see a copy below) to regulate low-pressure natural gas gathering pipelines. Currently those lines, over 3,600 miles of them, are not regulated by any state or federal agency. Baker’s bill would put them under the oversight of the PA Public Utility Commission. Hey, we’re not against regulation in general. It’s an important part of the puzzle that makes energy possible. We are, however, against unnecessary and onerous regulation. We are against barriers that would slow, to a crawl, the installation of new gathering lines–what are by all accounts very safe pipelines. When was the last time you heard about a local gathering line that sprung a gas leak, blew up, etc.? Yeah, us too. Never. So the real question here is: Is regulating these lines even necessary? We suspect not, but we’ll keep an open mind while this plays out…
    Read More “PA State Senator Introduces Bill to Regulate Gathering Pipelines”

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    Gutsy: NFG Asks FERC to Cut NY DEC Out of Pipeline Approval

    On Feb. 3, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a long-delayed project–National Fuel Gas Company’s (NFG) Northern Access 2016 pipeline project (see NFG’s Northern Access Pipe in NY/PA Gets FERC Approval). The $455 million project includes building 97 miles of new pipeline along a power line corridor from northwestern Pennsylvania up to Erie County, NY. The project also calls for 3 miles of new pipeline further up, in Niagara County, along with a new compressor station in the Town of Pendleton. Although FERC has now given permission to build it, the State of New York, specifically the state’s Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), must issue stream crossing permits. Sound familiar? The DEC faced a similar task with the FERC-approved Constitution Pipeline and ultimately, under political pressure from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, made the decision to refuse granting Williams the permits it needs to build the Constitution. Williams sued and sometime this spring NY will almost certainly lose the case (see Bloomberg Predicts Court Will Strip NY’s Right to Stop Constitution). With the approval arriving, the DEC decided maybe it was time to begin conducting circus public hearings about the project (see Battle Begins to Get NY DEC to Approve Northern Access Project). But NFG is in no mood to screw around with the Cuomo DEC, so they’ve asked FERC for a “reconsideration and clarification” on the role of the DEC in reviewing the project. Specifically, NFG wants FERC to rule that the DEC has NO role in reviewing the Northern Access 2016 project. Wouldn’t that be sweet?…
    Read More “Gutsy: NFG Asks FERC to Cut NY DEC Out of Pipeline Approval”

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    Standing Rock Wannabes in Lancaster Threatened with $1K/Day Fines

    Barn illegally hosting encampment

    Two days ago MDN brought you the news that anti-fossil fuelers opposed to the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project are using the same (losing) playbook to oppose Atlantic Sunrise as they used to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline (see Protesters Try to Resurrect Failed ND Pipeline Fight in Lancaster). What is that playbook? Establish a protest “camp” where hundreds or thousands of “protesters” (i.e. paid activists) can assemble to “fight” the pipeline. When you get a bunch of lazy hippies together, you need some logistics–a place to stash food, water, toilet paper, condoms (whoops, did we say that out loud?). You also need a meeting hall. The antis in Lancaster found a sympathetic local landowner who is loaning them his barn–as a place to store things and for meetings. The problem is, the barn isn’t zoned as an “encampment” and meeting hall, and the local municipality is threatening to slap the property owner with a $1,000 per day fine if the illegal protest meetings being held in the barn aren’t stopped. Now. The antis, who see evil methane monsters behind every tree, claim “Somebody’s out to get us, we don’t know who”…
    Read More “Standing Rock Wannabes in Lancaster Threatened with $1K/Day Fines”

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    Williams Keeps Pressure on PA DEP to Issue Atlantic Sunrise Permits

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Atlantic Sunrise in early February (see Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Gets Final Approval by FERC). Even though the project is approved, that’s not the end of the story. Regulatory work still remains, including approvals from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Construction of Atlantic Sunrise is scheduled to begin later this year, pending the receipt of these regulatory approvals. Williams is gently pressuring the DEP to hurry it up. Fortunately for Williams, the PA DEP is not like the corrupt New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). In NY, the DEC caved to political pressure from Gov. Cuomo and denied Williams stream-crossing permits (a matter now in court, see Constitution Pipeline Case Goes to Court in 2 Weeks, Briefs Filed). In PA, the DEP will no doubt do its job and grant the permits. The problem is, they’re taking waaaaaaay too long to do it…
    Read More “Williams Keeps Pressure on PA DEP to Issue Atlantic Sunrise Permits”