IECA Comes Out Swinging: Urges FERC to Approve 10 M-U Pipes NOW
Industrial Energy Consumers of America
(IECA) is the only national cross industry trade association dedicated to a broad array of energy/environment related issues. IECA is a 501(C)(6) nonprofit, member-led organization created to promote the interests of manufacturing companies for which the availability, use and cost of energy, power or feedstock play a significant role in their ability to compete in domestic and world markets. The IECA is using its considerable heft and going to bat for ten pipeline projects critical to manufacturers–projects that move Marcellus/Utica gas out of the northeast to other parts of the country. IECA’s “aggressive lobbying” is chiding FERC for moving too slowly in approving NEXUS Pipeline (DTE Energy & Spectra Energy), Mountaineer Xpress Pipeline (Columbia Gas Transmission), Leach Xpress Project (Columbia Gas Transmission), Eastern System Upgrade (Millennium Pipeline), Atlantic Coast Pipeline (Dominion), Atlantic Bridge Pipeline (Spectra Energy), Mountain Valley Pipeline (EQT & NextEra Energy), Susquehanna West Project (Kinder Morgan), Transco to Charleston Pipeline (Dominion), and VEPCO – Warren County Project (Columbia Gas Transmission). In each filing with FERC, the IECA asks FERC to ignore the shrill voices of “keep it in the ground” nincompoops. IECA says, “Manufacturing companies do not have an alternative for natural gas. Major manufacturing production processes and equipment are designed to specifically use natural gas. Nothing else can be substituted for natural gas. We cannot operate manufacturing facilities on electricity, especially solar or wind power. Coal and oil are also not an alternative for a variety of reasons, including EPA air regulations that limit their use.” Here is a brief description for each project, along with the IECA brief filed with FERC for each of those six projects…
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Inspired by the criminal actions of eco-terrorists in North Dakota (see 
Rabidly anti-drilling organizations like the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council (CAC) have been using the deep pockets of their contributors to stir up dissent against Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline, particularly in towns in the Philly orbit (see 
A special offer to MDN readers from the Appalachian Pipeliners Association (APA). MDN readers are invited to the January 2017 APA Dinner Meeting and Presentation: Oil & Gas Journal’s Forecast and Review–2017. Presented by Oil & Gas Journal Editor, Bob Tippee, the presentation (on Jan. 17) is sure to benefit industry operators and suppliers interested in learning more about what’s in store for the year ahead. MDN readers get a special discount to attend…
As MDN reported last week, on the last business day of 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a favorable final environmental impact statement (EIS) for one of the major pipeline projects in the Marcellus/Utica: the $3 billion Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project (see 
In July 2016 MDN told you about a smallish, but important pipeline project in the Delmarva Peninsula area, which includes most of Delaware and portions of Maryland and Virginia. Eastern Shore Natural Gas’ 2017 System Expansion project will bring new sources of natgas from an interconnection Eastern Shore has with the mighty TETCo (Texas Eastern Company) pipeline near Philadelphia (see 
As MDN reported last week, area residents packed a small meeting hall in Buckingham County, VA for a five-hour marathon session to express their concerns about building a new compressor station in the county for the upcoming Atlantic Coast Pipeline (see 
Several townships in the Philadelphia orbit appear to be colluding with each other and with the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council in passing nearly identical resolutions opposing the Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipeline. Eight townships or boroughs along or “close to” (meaning not along) the route in Delaware and Chester counties have published resolutions or proclamations badmouthing the project. The municipalities include: Edgmont, West Goshen, Thornbury, Middletown, Westtown, Rose Valley, Swarthmore and Media. Some of the self-incriminating evidence for collusion comes from an admission by one of them: “The community statements are similar to each other because of consultation between their leaders.” And this, from the odious Clean Air Council: “Alex Bomstein, a lawyer with the environmental group Clean Air Council, said that while there are other local campaign such as those in Lebanon and Huntingdon Counties, the efforts in Delaware and Chester Counties are more ‘developed’ in the Philadelphia suburbs. ‘There are more people organizing than elsewhere,’ he said, probably because of a greater population density closer to Philadelphia.” Why would the StateImpact Pennsylvania propagandist quote the CAC in the same article as the colluding towns, unless they were somehow tied together?…
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 
As MDN reported earlier this week, on the last business day of 2016 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a favorable draft (not final, but draft) environmental impact statement (EIS) for the $5 billion, 594-mile Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline project (see 
To say that it was a roller coaster ride for Williams in 2016 doesn’t even come close to reality. The company received no less than two takeover/merger attempts. Energy Transfer Equity’s (ETE) billionaire CEO Kelsy Warren propositioned Williams for over six months before going public with his overtures last year (see 
In August of 2016 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finally granted a certificate to Dominion to build its Leidy South Project, a $210 million to build and/or upgrade six compressor stations along the DTI pipeline system in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia (see 