Dealing with Pipeline Cos. – Lessons re Rover’s Eminent Domain
Two weeks ago MDN ran a story about the fact that time has run out on recalcitrant landowners in Ohio who have refused to negotiate with Rover Pipeline–and are now being sued using eminent domain (see Time’s Up – Rover Pipe Uses Eminent Domain on Holdout OH Landowners). Because of our nutty (or should we say batty) environmental regulations that require pipeline companies to clear trees only from Oct. 1 to Mar. 31 due to U.S. Fish and Wildlife regulations against disturbing nesting bats, and because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) was slow off the mark in approving the Rover project, the company must now clear trees in double time. There is no time left to negotiate–even though landowners have had two years to do so. As a last resort, Rover is using eminent domain procedures in court to (yes) force their way onto property and get it ready for construction this summer. Perhaps a little-known fact: Rover also runs through portions of Washington County, PA. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found a couple of landowners with sad stories about the big bully Rover using eminent domain against them. Look, we’re not unsympathetic. If we owned a farm (as one of the interviewees does) and they want to run the pipeline through a prized hay field, we’d likely be opposed too. However, the story highlights the fact that others in similar circumstances worked hard early on with Rover to reroute the pipeline through their property–and were successful. The moral of the story is this: the pipeline WILL come, your best chance of influencing WHERE it comes happens EARLY in the process…
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We appear to be in the final death throes of radical environmental efforts to block the construction of Mariner East 2–a $2.5 billion, 306-mile natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will run from eastern Ohio through the state of Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. Last week the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) gave its final approval for the project (see 
As we reported last week, a small group of anti-fossil fuelers were planning on grabbing their sleeping bags and heading to Amish country for a sleepover at the Magic Tree House (see 
On Friday midstream (pipeline) company Spectra Energy issued its fourth quarter and full year 2016 update. At the end of update, Spectra provides details on projects it will complete in 2017, those in development to be completed in 2018, and the final category of projects “in development.” It is that last one that caught our eye, because there is one project listed: Access Northeast, the pipeline project Spectra wants to build to bring more Marcellus/Utica shale gas to New England. Our quick take of what Spectra said: When the New England states get their heads out of their…lobster brisket…and pass laws and regulations getting on the same page, we’ll be here ready to build the project and make it happen. That is, Spectra has not given up on Access Northeast–and neither should we. Here’s the expansion projects update section, which includes not only the update for Access Northeast, but details for other projects located in the Marcellus/Utica region…
PennEast Pipeline, to their credit, is done being silent when it comes to the lies and distortions of groups like the radical (and lying) New Jersey Sierra Club. Recently PennEast called out the Sierra Club (and THE Delaware Riverkeeper) for their lying ways, without using the word “liar” (see 
You beg and plead and beg and plead. You come with your hat in your hand. You try to explain that no, the pipeline isn’t going to avoid your property, Mr. or Ms. Landowner. But some landowners refuse to negotiate. So the last resort option must be exercised. That’s the situation with Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline in several counties in Pennsylvania–including Lancaster, Lebanon, Columbia, Northumberland and Schuylkill. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final certificate for Atlantic Sunrise, allowing construction to begin, just two weeks ago today (see 
The Rockies Express Pipeline (REX), originally built from Colorado and Wyoming to Monroe County, OH to bring natural gas from west to east, last year reversed the flow for a large and important section of the pipeline. On August 1, 2015 the section of REX from Monroe County, OH to Mexico, MO reversed the flow and began to carry 1.8 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of Utica and Marcellus Shale gas to the Midwest, including to the greater Chicago area. REX has been hard at work on plans to expand capacity even more by beefing up compressor stations along portions of the pipeline. REX filed a plan with FERC to add another 800 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of capacity along the same portion of the reversed pipeline–for a grand total of 2.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). In mid-December, the first 200 MMcf/d of capacity came online (see 
We have, for some months, reported on the so-called protesters in North Dakota protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. They are in actuality paid thugs and criminals (see 
Here’s a story fake news outlets like the Washington Post refuse to cover. The bought-and-paid-for protesters in North Dakota, supposedly protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline over concerns it may pollute local water supplies, have themselves created a dire situation with their illegal protest camp that now threatens the same local water supply (used by Indian tribes) that they supposedly are protesting to protect! The situation perfectly encapsulates the brain-dead philosophy and motivation of this group of environmental anarchists. Forbes contributor David Blackmon has written a brilliant article that should be on the front page of every news outlet in the country. But you won’t find this story in any of the fake “mainstream” news outlets–because the story doesn’t support the fake narrative they’re trying to get you to believe. Read the following and try not to let your blood boil…
A California company that manufactures small electric-generating plants that run on natural gas, has just sold three more of their “microturbines” to midstreamers in the Marcellus Shale play. This is not the first time Capstone Turbine Corporation has sold their devices to pipeline companies in the Marcellus (see 
Anti-pipeline insanity has metastasized in Tompkins County, NY (i.e. Ithaca). Members of the Tompkins County Energy and Economic Development Task Force object to building seven miles of 10-inch natural gas pipeline in the Lansing area (suburb of Ithaca)–because the pipeline flows a fossil fuel. They have objected to the point that the local utility company wanting to build it, NYSEG (New York State Electric & Gas), has floated an alternative plan: Build a compressor station for existing customers, and no new customers are allowed to receive natgas service. Ever. Period. Talk about nuts! The tinfoil hat folks on the Task Force instead want NYSEG (or someone else) to invest in so-called alternative energy projects to meet the energy demand for new customers. That is, the Task Force is prejudiced against the type of energy residents prefer to use–to the point of forcing another choice on them. Only in the Communist Paradise of Ithaca…
We have a concern about the kind of education being offered by the very high-priced University of Pittsburgh. What are the professors actually teaching to those young skulls full of mush? Judging by the kinds of editorials coming from the student-run Pitt News newspaper, we’d have a big concern about the education (or rather, miseducation) coming from Pitt, especially if we were parents of students at Pitt. In today’s editorial, titled “No Mariner East II pipeline, period.”, the writers actually, fantastically say this: “But as our levels of dependency on oil combined with estimates of what’s left in the earth come to a head in the next few decades, investing in infrastructure to increase our fossil fuel consumption is both unwise and irresponsible.” Are these young people just really stupid? Or have they been miseducated? Do they not know that the same flawed, “We’re going to run out of fossil fuels any decade now” thinking has been around for the past 40+ years? And that we have MORE supplies of fossil fuels today than we thought possible just a decade ago? The entire editorial is a rail against Mariner East 2, and against all pipelines, because they flow fossil fuels. This is nuttery. And frankly, it’s not acceptable from so-called “educated” students at a reputable university. We think an investigation should be launched into how this sort of obviously flawed thinking can happen at a place like Pitt…