PA Regulator Criticizes NY Gov. Cuomo for Pipeline Obstructionism
Rob Powelson is a member of the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission (PUC). At one point, under then-Gov. Tom Corbett, Powelson was the PUC Chairman (see PA’s PUC Pro-Drilling Chairman Powelson Leads Mid-Atlantic Group). After Democrat Tom Wolf was elected as governor (tragic mistake by my PA friends), Wolf replaced Powelson with anti-drilling Gladys Brown as Chairwoman (see Anti-Drillers Cheer PA Gov Wolf’s New Appointment to Head PUC). However, Powelson remains on the PUC as a member. He’s one of the good guys–someone who supports shale energy. Powelson attended a natural gas conference in Washington, DC on Tuesday and had some sharp words of criticism for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on the topic of pipelines. Powelson said, in so many words, that Cuomo’s screwing around with pipeline delays (like the Constitution) threatens the reliability of the electrical grid in the entire northeast and New England. He even poked fun at Cuomo, saying it takes Andy two hours to watch 60 Minutes–a cut on Cuomo for his “overly cautious” approach to pipeline approvals. Love it!…
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In June Dominion began building Virginia’s largest natural gas-fired electric plant in Greensville County (see 
In October of last year, MDN shared the news that Duke Energy, the largest electric power holding company in the United States and a utility with 7.3 million customers in the southeast and Midwest, announced they are buying Piedmont Natural Gas (see 
MDN spotted an announcement that says PennAg and Sunoco Logistics (building the Mariner East 2 pipeline project) have collaborated to produce a “biosecurity education module.” What the heck is that?! It’s fancy language for “here’s how you keep farm animals safe when building a pipeline.” Building a pipeline is no easy thing. It starts with surveyors entering a property to map out a route–traipsing around the land, sticking markers in the ground. Eventually bulldozers, backhoes and truckloads of pipe show up. Then welders show up to stitch it together. Then it gets covered up, and later landscapers come along to replant, reseed, and re-whatever to restore the land to its former glory. With all of those people and equipment entering and exiting a property–particularly a farm–there’s an increased chance they will track something, or perhaps do something, that ends up being harmful to the livestock living on that land. So-called “biosecurity” is the name given to keeping the living things safe and free from harm from the people building (in this case) a pipeline. Sunoco has teamed up with PennAg Industries, a PA non-profit that promotes agriculture in the Keystone State, to make sure nothing bad happens when their workers show up at the farm. They’re creating an online course and making it available to anyone and everyone…
Last week MDN brought you the news that DTE Energy, a BIG utility and midstream company based in Detroit, MI, is buying 100% of M3 Midstream’s Appalachia Gathering System (AGS), located in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and 40% of M3’s Stonewall Gas Gathering (SGG), located in West Virginia (see 
At last week’s Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh, this this past Wednesday at Platts’ Benposium East conference in New York, there was one topic of conversation that pretty much dominated the discussion: pipelines. Without new “takeaway” capacity in the northeast, we’re in trouble. Many types of people watch the pipeline space for varying reasons. Investors keep an eye on it because they want to invest, or they’ve invested in producers who need to get their gas (and oil) to market. Upstream (drillers) are vitally interested. Midstream (pipeline) companies are interested, needless to say. But so too are the construction companies, much of whose livelihood depends on building the pipelines. So it makes perfect sense that an industry magazine like Construction Equipment Guide would run an article updating their readers on the status of various pipeline projects. Most of the projects in the list are in the northeast, or somehow connected to production coming from the northeast. Below is their helpful roundup listing important, major projects–with a description and the current status of the project…
Every now and again pipeline companies hand out grants to local worthy organizations, like fire departments and schools. PennEast Pipeline is one such organization. Christmas has come early to another group of non-profits. PennEast has just handed out $5,000 each to more than a dozen organizations (see the list below). All told, PennEast had distributed more than $400,000 to local organizations through its “Community Connector Grant” program…
Yet another desperate attempt by radical environmentalists to stop the much-needed PennEast Pipeline from getting built. Yesterday the New Jersey Conservation Foundation (NJCF) and Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association (SBMWA) asked (more liked begged) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to withdraw the PennEast application, something called a “no alternative” action, and just let it die a stillborn death. Their argument to FERC seems to rely on the old tactic of “if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull$#@!.” Because a few sympathetic rads exist within government agencies like the EPA and Fish & Wildlife Service, and because those agencies were co-opted into sending negative comments about the project to FERC, the radicals at NJ Conservation and Stony Brook Watershed tell FERC it’s best just to scrap the whole thing. No sense in continuing. Move along–nothing else to see here. A nice try at bamboozling FERC, but it’s an agency wise to such deceptions…