Cabot Issues Update on Atlantic Sunrise – Possible Route Change
We spotted a press release issued yesterday by Cabot Oil & Gas, providing an update for the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. Which kind of surprised us. Why would Cabot issue an update on someone else’s pipeline? Is Cabot an investor in the project? We asked–the answer is “no.” However, Cabot is the major shipper that will use the Central Penn Line portion of the Atlantic Sunrise project. And that’s what the announcement was about. Cabot said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has announced it is actively reviewing two alternative routes for the Central Penn Line, accepting public comment until Nov. 14. OK, so that sometimes happens. Is it worth a press release? Then we read that this development means yet another delay for the Atlantic Sunrise project–and investors immediately punished the stock for both Williams and Cabot. Ah, now we understand! The press release is to reassure investors that Cabot believes FERC, while slowing things down a little, won’t delay things too long. THAT’S what the press release is really all about…
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Dominion recently announced a new pipeline project called Eastern Market Access Project. The project will beef up two compressor stations in Virginia, build a new compressor station in Maryland, and add a couple of pipeline taps near Washington, D.C. The purpose of the $145 million project is to deliver more gas to Washington Gas, and to deliver gas to a new gas-fired electric power plant being built in Maryland. We suspect Marcellus/Utica gas will be the added gas flowing to both Washington Gas and the new electric plant in Maryland. [Note: A Dominion spokesman later confirmed to us that the gas will come from either the Marcellus or Utica plays.] You may recall that in May 2015 Washington Gas announced a plan to invest in Marcellus wells in Greene and Clearfield counties in PA (see 
You may recall that TransCanada, one of Canada’s leading midstream/pipeline companies, cooked up a deal 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 
We doubt many MDN readers buy Patagonia outdoor wear (appeals mainly to aging hippies). But just in case, we thought we’d pass along something we noticed. The store chain is making a push to sign up Democrat voters, which doesn’t surprise us. As part of their overt political activism, the Washington, D.C. Patagonia store also elected to bash the Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. We thing that deserves a call to boycott their stores and their brand…
This is so unusual, it qualifies as news: Supervisors in Buffalo Township (Butler County), PA have approved a new compressor station to be built by Mountain Gathering–a subsidiary of XTO Energy. The reason it’s news is for how the approval process was handled. Town residents who live near where the station will be built understandably had some concerns. Those concerns were aired. Town officials visited other compressor stations built by Mountain Gathering. They had XTO officials in to answer questions. There was no bleating and blatting, no parading in front of cameras and microphones, no “die-ins” and radical protests. Just deliberative, calm, adult discussions. And at the end of it, the supervisors voted to grant permission for the compressor station to get built. Unusual!…
We have, as long as we’ve been writing the MDN website, warned that the federal Environmental Protection Agency, particularly under B.H. Obama, is an out-of-control, lawless, aggressive cancer on the country. The EPA has repeatedly attempted to UNCONSTITUTIONALLY control oil and gas drilling–something only state governments have the right to regulate. The EPA has repeatedly sought to influence (i.e. control) o&g development via other means–like expanding the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and Waters of the United States (WOTUS). The latest evidence of EPA’s illegal overreach comes with EPA’s bullying of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). EPA is telling FERC to get its head screwed on straight with respect to an approval for two Marcellus/Utica projects–Leach Xpress and Rayne Xpress Expansion projects. EPA says FERC is ignoring mythological man-made global warming bullcrap in their review of the projects, and EPA is demanding a meeting with the top brass at FERC to bully them into submission…
We hate to say “I told you so,” but we’ll say it anyway. If you live in New England, prepare yourself. You’re about to experience more price shocks for natural gas and electricity (4x more than the rest of the country, or higher). Why? Because you’re blocking new pipeline projects that would bring cheap, abundant, clean-burning natural gas to the region. The Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale sits a few hundred miles away–yet very little Marcellus gas is flowing to New England at this point. New England, more than any other region in the country, relies on natgas to power electric generating plants. Without extra supplies, especially in the winter months when natgas gets used for heating, electric generators are forced to pay obscenely high rates to stay in operation. Those obscenely high rates get passed along to ratepayers–businesses AND residences. Yet anti-fossil fuel wackos continue to try and stop new pipelines, sometimes criminally (see 
Kinder Morgan’s UTOPIA (Utica To Ontario Pipeline Access) pipeline is a 12-inch ethane pipeline that will run ~240 miles and will only be built in Ohio–therefore the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) won’t be involved in permitting the project. In September we noted that Kinder Morgan is still facing opposition from some Ohio landowners (see 
The Obama Administration has once again made a naked power grab–violating the Constitution in the process. On Monday the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued an Interim Final Rule (“IFR”) to implement the agency’s “expanded authority to address unsafe pipeline conditions or practices that pose an imminent hazard to life, property, or the environment.” That is, if PHMSA bureaucrats decide something is important enough, or may imminently “harm the public”–they can just dispense with all other laws and regulations which require hearings and public notices, wave the regulatory wand and make a decision. No input. No consultation. No following the law. PHMSA is doing this as a result of a new law signed by President Obama in June, called the PIPES Act, which grants the DOT Secretary godlike powers to issue emergency orders when he/she thinks there’s a danger to the public…