Pipelines

Economic Impact | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Kinder Morgan | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

Half of UTOPIA Pipeline Jobs in OH May Go to “Foreigners”
August 25, 2016August 25, 2016

UTOPIA Pipeline map – click for larger version

Now that Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s grandiose delusion of becoming the next president of the U.S. has been shattered and he’s had time to lick his wounds, it’s time to drag old “foreigner hunter” out for a new round of tracking down out-of-state workers. We have a mission for him: UTOPIA. As in Kinder Morgan’s UTOPIA ethane pipeline, planned to run 240 miles across Ohio. As pipelines go, it’s pretty small at only 12 inches in diameter. But ethane (a natural gas liquid) doesn’t need a huge pipeline to cart it across the Buckeye State. UTOPIA (named for Utica To Ontario Pipeline Access) will cross the state and connect to another pipeline that will carry Utica/Marcellus ethane to Michigan and on from there to Canada to feed the NOVA ethane cracker in Sarnia (see UTOPIA is Coming! The UTOPIA Pipeline, that is…). Kinder has just released a new study conducted by Kent State University researchers that outlines the huge economic benefits for Ohio in building UTOPIA. One of the interesting factoids: The pipeline will create over 2,000 temporary jobs–900 of them in construction. The report estimates that half of those construction jobs will go to out-of-state workers. Since Gov. Kasich is a jingoist with a problem employing out-of-state workers from exotic places like Texas and Louisiana (he calls them “foreigners,” see OH Gov. Kasich Continues Trash Talk Out-of-State Workers), we expect he’ll be prowling around to see if he can “fix” the situation…
Read More “Half of UTOPIA Pipeline Jobs in OH May Go to “Foreigners””
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

4 Pipelines Critical to Future of PA’s Marcellus Industry
August 25, 2016August 25, 2016

Gene Barr is the president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry. The PA Chamber is a big supporter of the Marcellus industry. Writing a column that appears in a recent edition of the York Dispatch, Barr gives full-throated support to three pipelines “critical” to PA’s future: Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise; Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner East 2; and UGI Energy Services’ PennEast. We really liked Barr’s column (read it below). However, we would add a fourth pipeline to his list of critically important pipelines for PA drillers: the Williams Constitution Pipeline. While the three projects Barr names will be mostly built in PA, the Constitution Pipeline will be mostly built in New York State. We suppose that’s all we have to say for you to know why that project is in trouble. At any rate, here’s the reasons Barr offers for supporting the three pipelines he mentions in his column, reasons that equally apply to the much-needed Constitution Pipeline too…
Read More “4 Pipelines Critical to Future of PA’s Marcellus Industry”
Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | UGI Energy Services

UGI Breaks Ground on Sunbury Pipeline for NEPA Electric Plant
August 25, 2016August 25, 2016

Sunbury Pipeline – click for larger version

In December 2014 Pennsylvania utility company UGI pre-filed an application to build a new 35-mile pipeline to feed a natgas-powered electric generating plant in Snyder County, PA (see UGI Pre-Files with FERC for New Marcellus Pipeline in Central PA and UGI Building 35-Mile Pipeline for Panda Power Electric Plant). The project is estimated to cost $150 million. It took long enough, but in May the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finally approved the project, with the seemingly impossible prospect it would be built by this November (see UGI Sunbury Pipeline Gets FERC Approval, Built by November?). The 20-inch Sunbury Pipeline will start in Lycoming County and travel through Montour, Union, and Northumberland counties, cross the Susquehanna River and ending up at Hummel Station Plant in Shamokin Dam in Synder County. On Wednesday, UGI broke ground on the new pipeline. The impossible just became possible!…
Read More “UGI Breaks Ground on Sunbury Pipeline for NEPA Electric Plant”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | TC Energy/TransCanada

TransCanada Pipe Drops Price 42% to Compete with Marcellus/Utica
August 22, 2016August 22, 2016

How low can you go, and still make money? That’s the question TransCanada is testing in a bid to compete with cheap Marcellus/Utica natural gas that is heading to Canada via new pipelines, including Energy Transfer’s Rover and Spectra Energy’s NEXUS pipelines. Last month MDN reported that TransCanada has a plan to use existing pipelines from Western Canada to Eastern Canada–from Alberta to Toronto–to ship more natural gas from west to east (see TransCanada’s Plan to Undercut/Displace Gas from the Marcellus). The aim is to make it less expensive to get gas from Western Canada, some 2,400 miles away, than from the Marcellus, just 400 miles away. As an interesting aside, even though TransCanada wants to compete with gas coming from the Marcellus/Utica, they recently bought a big piece of Marcellus/Utica infrastructure by buying Columbia Pipeline (see TransCanada and Columbia Pipeline Tie the Knot Today). If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em. Here’s the latest on TransCanada’s low low low pipeline rates (42% less) to ship gas from Western Canada…
Read More “TransCanada Pipe Drops Price 42% to Compete with Marcellus/Utica”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Iroquois Gas Transmission | Pipelines | Regulation

Iroquois Gas Pipeline Offers to Cut Rates for Customers
August 22, 2016August 22, 2016

Click for larger version

This past January the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) launched five investigations into four pipelines, three of which operate in the northeast, to determine whether or not those pipelines have been “substantially” overcharging their customers with the excuse of “we have to recover our costs” (see FERC Investigates 3 Northeast Pipelines for Overcharging). Although you might think the free market would govern what pipelines charge, pipelines, like other utilities, don’t operate in a totally free market. You can’t just up and leave one pipeline and take your gas to another. The government grants permission to operate, and the government keeps an eye on the rates charged–just like they do with your local gas and electric company. One of the pipelines under investigation is the Iroquois Gas Transmission pipeline, which runs mostly through New York State. Iroquois has just filed an offer to lower rates for its shippers, to make the FERC investigation go away…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Spectra Energy | Statewide NY

Antis Ask NY Senators to Beseech Lord Obama to Stop AIM Pipeline
August 22, 2016August 22, 2016

Click for larger version

The irrational demands of radicals in New York State are getting out of hand. In March New York’s spineless Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to stop work on the Algonquin Incremental Marketing (AIM) pipeline project because it comes close to an existing nuclear power plant (see Gov. Cuomo Asks FERC to Halt Algonquin Pipeline Near Nuke Plant). A few days later the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) told Gov. Andy to stuff it (see FERC Denies NY Request to Stop Work on Pipeline Near Nuke Plant). Following FERC’s denial, some of the worst of the worst Big Green groups, including Riverkeeper Inc., Sierra Club and Food & Water Watch sued to stop it (see Radical Enviro Groups File Appeal to Stop AIM Pipeline in NY/CT). Apparently that effort is either taking too long, or the radicals believe it’s not going to work, because they are now calling it “an emergency” and demanding New York’s far-left U.S. Senators, Chuck “the schmuck” Schumer and Kirsten “nobody ever heard of her” Gillibrand “carry the message” to the White House to stop the AIM project. That is, they want High Lord Obama to issue another one of his illegal Executive Orders or lean on FERC to stop the AIM project…
Read More “Antis Ask NY Senators to Beseech Lord Obama to Stop AIM Pipeline”
Antero Resources | Doddridge County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Statewide WV | Wastewater | West Virginia

Update on Antero’s $275M Wastewater Facility in WV
August 22, 2016August 22, 2016

In August 2015, MDN told you that one of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, Antero Resources, floated the idea of building a $275 million state-of-the-art frack wastewater treatment plant in Doddridge County, WV (see Antero Building New 60K Bbl Wastewater Recycling Facility in WV). The new plant, which will process 60,000 barrels of wastewater per day, will save Antero $150,000 per well in completion costs once it’s up and running. In February 2016, Antero filed for a permit to build a landfill next to the wastewater plant (see Antero Plans Salt Landfill Next to Proposed Wastewater Recycling Plant). The wastewater plant will separate water, salt and radioactive particles. The salt can be sold to municipalities for use as road salt–but frankly there’s not enough of a market to sell it all. And not all of it will be of sufficient quality to be sold that way. So Antero needs a place to dispose of it, hence the $20 million landfill proposal. Predictably, there has been some resistance to the new facility and landfill. The good news is that the facility is on track for a 2017 opening. Below is an update on the wastewater facility and the salt landfill next to it…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Dominion Energy | Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Statewide VA | Virginia

Sierra Club Lawsuit Seeks to Block Power Plant, Atlantic Coast Pipe
August 19, 2016August 19, 2016

In March 2015, Dominion–a huge natural gas and electric utility as well as a midstream company–announced plans to build the State of Virginia’s largest natural gas powered electric generating plant, in Greensville County, VA (see Virginia’s Largest Electric Plant to be Powered by Marcellus Gas). The $1.3 billion state-of-the-art natural gas-fired electric generating station will generate 1,600 megawatts of electricity. Dominion’s own $5 billion, 554-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline will provide cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus/Utica Shale gas to power it (see Atlantic Coast Pipeline Makes Progress, FERC Timing Announced). The Virginia State Corporate Commission (SCC) approved the project in March of this year (see Virginia Approves State’s Largest NatGas-Powered Electric Plant). In June, Dominion began construction (see Dominion Begins Building Virginia’s Biggest NatGas Power Station). On Tuesday, environmental Nazis from the Sierra Club and Appalachian Mountain Advocates filed a federal lawsuit (in Virginia) to stop both the power plant and the pipeline, claiming the power plant won’t use the “best available emissions control technology” and that the pipeline will leak methane like a sieve…
Read More “Sierra Club Lawsuit Seeks to Block Power Plant, Atlantic Coast Pipe”
Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines

MA Supreme Court Ruling Endangers New England Gas Pipelines
August 18, 2016August 18, 2016

In September 2015, MDN told you that the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Utilities (DPU) approved long-term contracts for three utilities–Berkshire Gas, National Grid and Columbia Gas–to buy natural gas supplies from Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline, IF it gets built (see Mass. Approves Plan for Utilities to Buy Gas from New Pipeline). At the time we warned you that the global warming-mongers were not happy and threatening to sue the state. They did. The left-leaning Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) filed an appeal of the DPU’s decision with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in hopes that they can stop the project from being built if they can dry up demand from utility companies–i.e., prevent the utilities from buying NED gas (see Anti Group Sues to Stop Mass. Utilities from Buying Natural Gas). In the meantime, Kinder Morgan abandoned the NED project (see NED is Dead – Kinder Morgan Suspends $3.3B New England Pipeline). However, the lawsuit lives on. There are more pipelines that may be affected by such a decision, including Spectra Energy’s Access Northeast pipeline project–still very much alive. The worst has now happened. The MA Supreme Court has just ruled that utility companies, which are heavily regulated and the prices they can charge controlled, cannot pass along the cost of a pipeline to electric ratepayers…
Read More “MA Supreme Court Ruling Endangers New England Gas Pipelines”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA

More Bleating from Radical Anti Groups re FERC PennEast Hearings
August 18, 2016August 18, 2016

We’re sorry to beat a dead horse (or goat, in this case) to death, but we can’t help it. We have another shining example of far-left environmental radicals who are bleating about the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) change-up in the way they accepted public comments on the PennEast Pipeline project. We first reported the antis are up-in-arms two days ago (see FERC Alters PennEast Hearing Process to Reduce Antis’ Bleating). Yesterday we shared the spitting and sputtering done by THE Delaware Riverkeeper herself, Maya van Rossum (see THE Delaware Riverkeeper Mad – Can’t Bleat at FERC Hearings). Today it’s the radicals at the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association. Maaaaaaahhhh…
Read More “More Bleating from Radical Anti Groups re FERC PennEast Hearings”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

THE Delaware Riverkeeper Mad – Can’t Bleat at FERC Hearings
August 17, 2016August 17, 2016

As we reported yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has found a way to eliminate the histrionics practiced by anti-fossil fuel nutjobs who want to oppose the PennEast Pipeline at FERC hearings (see FERC Alters PennEast Hearing Process to Reduce Antis’ Bleating). FERC is denying antis an audience in front of which to engage in the circus-like freak show they love to perform. And that has THE Delaware Riverkeeper–Maya van Rossum–hopping mad. She calls the new procedure of delivering comments in a private room before a single FERC rep and stenographer “a faux public hearing.” You see, antis needs an audience, otherwise their pathetic lives have no meaning. Without hooting and hollering and making outrageously false claims (i.e. lies), where’s the fun? Without an audience, Maya’s minions will just stay home instead. Oh oh. That’s not good! Here’s how Riverkeeper stenographers at the Philly Inquirer are reporting it…
Read More “THE Delaware Riverkeeper Mad – Can’t Bleat at FERC Hearings”
Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Pipelines for America – New Campaign Counters Pipeline Lies
August 17, 2016August 17, 2016

With the low low price of natural gas and oil currently in place–and not letting up any time soon–the frenzy of shale drilling has slowed. So fossil fuel haters have turned their focus from fracking and stopping it, to pipelines and stopping them. Antis understand that pipelines are critical to getting natural gas to market–and without pipelines drilling will stop. So money and time and effort is being poured into the effort to stop pipeline projects. Enough! The Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), a national consumer advocacy group, has just launched a national campaign called “Pipelines for America” to counter the lies and smears coming from fossil fuel haters. The campaign is aimed at educating American consumers about the vital importance of our pipeline infrastructure–and that more pipelines are needed to keep energy prices low AND to protect the environment. Here’s the CEA announcement of this important new initiative…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Williams

Sign Letter to PA Gov. Wolf re Support Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline
August 17, 2016August 17, 2016

Pennsylvania residents: It’s time to (once again) show your support for the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project, a $3 billion, 198-mile project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. It is a much-needed pipeline to move more Marcellus gas south, to new markets. In the past MDN has asked you to sign letters going to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). And you, our dear readers, have been the most responsive audience to get behind the effort to support this project. Thank you! We’re coming to you again with a new request. Please electronically sign a letter that will go to PA Gov. Tom Wolf, requesting his support for the project. Wolf’s active support of the project will go a long way toward ensuring it gets built. All you need to do is fill out your name and a few details and click the “Sign” button–it literally takes less than 60 seconds. Please take a moment and do it right now by clicking this button:
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lehigh County | Northampton County | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation

FERC Alters PennEast Hearing Process to Reduce Antis’ Bleating
August 16, 2016August 16, 2016

We’ve sat through our fair share of public hearings and open houses for pipelines–from Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) hearings to state agency hearings to open houses sponsored by midstream companies (see Vicariously Attend FERC Scoping Hearing on Constitution Pipeline). The script is always the same. Anti-fossil fuel freaks show up and perform before the cameras and microphones. That’s what they are there to do–engage in a circus act. When they are denied such an opportunity, they complain (see Williams’ Smart Open House in Lebanon County Confounds Antis). FERC hearings are always the same–show up and sign up to speak, with 3 or 4-minute allotments for each speaker. And speakers are taken in the order in which they signed in. Those in the audience who are for or against typically applaud or issue boos and insults. We have often said FERC personnel should get hazard pay for sitting through 4-hour marathons of this nonsense. FERC has wised up. They held a public hearing last night in the Bethlehem, PA area for the proposed PennEast Pipeline project. Instead of a public forum, FERC set two private rooms with a stenographer in each. FERC recorded comments two-at-a-time, in private. And they saved themselves all of the theatrics by anti-drilling trolls. And of course, that didn’t sit well with the antis. Most of the antis who spoke were reading from cue cards prepared for them by THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum. The antis are so dumb they can’t even form their own thoughts about why they are against the project! Too funny…
Read More “FERC Alters PennEast Hearing Process to Reduce Antis’ Bleating”
Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Shell | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Shell Working on 94-Mile Ethane Pipeline to Feed PA Cracker
August 16, 2016August 16, 2016

All the way back in February MDN brought you exclusive news that Shell had begun approaching landowners in Beaver County to get them to sign easements for two ethane pipelines to feed the mighty cracker plant they plan to build in the county (see Exclusive: Shell Leasing Land for 2 Pipelines to PA Cracker Plant). At that time Shell had still not fully committed to building the cracker–something they finally did in June (see Breaking: Shell Pulls the Trigger, PA Ethane Cracker is a Go!). NGI’s Shale Daily has broken a story that gives us new details. Shell is working on a 94-mile ethane “pipeline system” with two “legs” to feed the cracker, confirming the tip we received in February. The new ethane pipeline system has a name: the Falcon Ethane Pipeline System. Here’s brief details about the new ethane pipeline system…
Read More “Shell Working on 94-Mile Ethane Pipeline to Feed PA Cracker”
Chesapeake Utilities | Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

FERC Approves Plan to Deliver NatGas to Delaware Power Plant
August 15, 2016August 15, 2016

In July MDN reported that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved Eastern Shore Natural Gas’ (ESNG) System Reliability Project (see 600 Days & Counting to Build a 7-Mile NatGas Pipeline in PA-DE). ESNG is a local gas utility serving the Delmarva Peninsula, which includes most of Delaware and portions of Maryland and Virginia. Their System Reliability Project includes 10.1 miles of new looping pipeline and a compressor station upgrade. Part of that pipeline has taken nearly two years to get approved, thanks to the insane objections of anti-fossil fuelers. It is good news that the project is moving forward. On the heals of that approval comes another FERC approval for ESNG: FERC has approved ESNG’s plan to deliver an extra 45,000 dekatherms per day of natural gas via its pipeline to service Calpine’s 309 megawatt electric generation plant in Dover, Delaware…
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