Pipelines

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Statewide NY

NY Antis Set to Protest Constitution Pipeline in Albany, NY Tomorrow
August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

New York’s anti-drillers are preparing yet another protest in Albany, NY–this time to oppose the already-permitted Constitution Pipeline. The Constitution, you may recall, is a 125-mile pipeline that will stretch from the gas fields of Susquehanna County, PA into New York, to Schoharie County. It is a critically needed pipeline to get Cabot’s natural gas in Susquehanna County to markets throughout the northeast and New England. Recently Cabot CEO Dan Dinges said he expects construction will begin this fall (see Cabot Says Constitution Pipeline Construction to Begin this Fall). That comment sent the nutters into orbit–because they are on the cusp of losing their first major battle. The only one thing that remains before Constitution’s bulldozers and backhoes start their work is for the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to issue 401 Water Quality Certificates to allow the Constitution to lay pipe through and under swamps, creeks and other bodies of water. Everything else is permitted and ready. So anti-drillers will hold a rally as a show of force against the Constitution–tomorrow, in Albany. We sincerely hope pro-drillers will turn out in a counter-rally…
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Accidents | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Tioga County (PA)

Sad Day: Pipeline Worker Killed in Tioga County, PA Accident
August 6, 2015August 6, 2015

It’s always a sad day when MDN has to report on the death of a worker related to the Marcellus/Utica Shale. On Tuesday, Ricky Dettman was operating a bulldozer on a steep grade in Tioga County, PA working on installing a pipeline for Energy Transfer Partners when the bulldozer rolled over, several times, killing Ricky. We’re not sure exactly which pipeline project it is Ricky was working on, but its a 36-inch pipeline (a big pipeline) that will flow Marcellus and Utica Shale gas, according to the PR agency working for ETP. Below are four news accounts of the accident. They all have slightly different accounts, including a discrepancy on Ricky’s age–he was either 54 or 55 years-old. Ricky hailed from Nebraska…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Spectra Energy

Spectra Energy Provides Important Update for NE Pipeline Projects
August 6, 2015August 6, 2015

Spectra Energy, a major pipeline company with major operations existing and planned for the northeast, issued its second quarter 2015 update yesterday. For this review we’re leaving behind the financial talk. The thing that caught our eye is an update on Spectra’s pipeline projects in the Marcellus/Utica. In the update they tell us about the Uniontown to Gas City project, the OPEN project, the AIM project in New England, the NEXUS project, the Lebanon Extension project, the $3 billion Access Northeast project and several others. Across all of their pipeline projects, both in the northeast and elsewhere, Spectra Energy has an astounding $20 billion worth of projects currently in the works. By the end of this decade (by 2020) they will have spent an eye-popping $35 billion on new pipeline projects. Let’s get right into the good stuff–updates on important northeast pipeline projects in the Spectra portfolio…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NGLs | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics

Sunoco Logistics has Best Quarter Ever, Thanks to Marcellus NGLs
August 6, 2015August 6, 2015

In contrast to the bad news we read in quarterly report after quarterly report for exploration and production (E&P) companies, i.e. “drillers”, it’s a starkly different story for some pipeline companies. Take Sunoco Logistics Partners, for example. Sunoco LP’s second quarter 2015 update boasts record earnings for 2Q15. That is, Sunoco LP made and distributed more profit to shareholders in 2Q15 than ever before. What was the “key contributor” to their growth, according to Sunoco LP’s CEO? The company’s three NGL (natural gas liquids) pipelines: Mariner West, Mariner South and Mariner East 1. Both the Mariner West & East pipelines are located in the Marcellus/Utica region. In addition to the rosy financial picture, we learn in the 2Q15 update that Sunoco LP has decided that the Mariner East II project will be two pipelines. We previously told you of Sunoco’s “tentative” plans to build two Mariner 2 pipelines (see Mariner East 2 Giving Birth to Twin Pipelines). Judging from the language in the Q215 update, tentative is sounding a lot more like definite…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Summit County

NEXUS Pipeline Sends Armed Guards with Surveyors to Protect Them
August 5, 2015August 5, 2015

The City of Green (Summit County), OH is proudly working to prevent a much-needed pipeline, the NEXUS pipeline, from crossing through any of its residents’ properties. Proudly ignorant, we’d day. It’s a shame, but these days workers doing their job–surveying for a pipeline–are sometimes threatened (see FBI Investigates Death Threats Against PennEast Pipeline Workers and Medina, OH Landowner Says He’ll Meet NEXUS Surveyors Packing Heat). So some pipeline companies, like NEXUS, now send armed security guards out with surveyors and pipeline workers–to protect them. City of Green officials seem to imply the armed guards are there to intimidate residents who don’t want to allow a survey of their property. Not true. The guards are there to protect the surveyors who feel threatened for simply taking measurements for a pipeline. What has this world come to?…
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CNG/LNG | Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | UGI Energy Services

UGI Provides Update on PennEast & Other New PA Pipeline Projects
August 5, 2015August 5, 2015

During the AmeriGas Partners quarterly analyst conference call yesterday, Pennsylvania utility giant UGI Corporation CEO John Walsh gave an update on several projects of interest for those in the PA Marcellus Shale. Oh! We should point out AmeriGas is the country’s largest propane company and a subsidiary of PA-based UGI, which is why Walsh was on the call. And what did he say? Walsh provided an update on UGI’s $60 million project to build a new LNG production plant in Wyoming County, PA (see UGI Building LNG Plant in NEPA, Local Marcellus Gas to Feed It). He also spoke in glowing terms about the PennEast Pipeline and how he sees that project unfolding (it should be operational by late 2017). Walsh also updated analysts on several pending pipeline projects that will feed electric plants being built in the Marcellus. Here’s what he said yesterday…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

Grimm’s Fairy Tales: Rural PA Pipelines Pose “Hidden Risks”
August 5, 2015August 5, 2015

Another anti-pipeline screed from PBS reporter Susan Phillips at the taxpayer-funded StateImpact Pennsylvania website. This is another propaganda piece in a series meant to smear the superb safety record of pipelines, which happen to be the safest form of transportation on earth (see StateImpact: PA Pipelines “Risky” & “Mystery” – Might Kill ‘Ya Too). The latest “pipelines will kill ‘ya” fairy tale begins this way…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Small Group Shows Up to Speak Against NED Pipeline in Dracut, MA
August 4, 2015August 4, 2015

If you were to glance at the headline and first graf (“paragraph” for those not in the publishing industry where we use a lot of lingo) of a story in the liberal Lowell (Massachusetts) Sun, you would think there is a huge, crushing, mammoth, tidal wave (!) of opposition to Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline project–certainly by people in the Dracut, MA area and possibly by almost every MA citizen in the commonwealth with the exception of a few freakish conservatives who may happen to still live in the state. The headline in yesterday’s issue blares: “In Dracut, public unloads on gas pipeline plan.” The first graf details all of the nightmares that will come true if the pipeline is built: “From the impact on crop yields and watersheds to diminishing property values and the demise of the eastern brook trout, elected officials and citizens from across the commonwealth aired their concerns about the proposed Kinder Morgan natural-gas pipeline before a state regulatory board Monday night.” It’s not til near the end of the second graf you discover there were maybe 100 people who showed up to the meeting–and since it’s a liberal rag with a tendency to inflate the numbers, that means there were actually 50-75 people who showed up to gripe and moan about the pipeline…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation | Transco

Antis Use Their Own Children as Cheap Props at FERC Hearing in NH
August 4, 2015August 5, 2015

A picture truly is worth a thousand words, as the old saying goes. So let’s show you a picture and see what you think (view it below). It is a picture of young children tricked out in “Stop the Pipeline” yellow shirts and red Stop the Pipeline hats–sitting on the floor playing with toys at a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) hearing in southern New Hampshire last week. Two hearings were held to gather public comments on Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct natural gas pipeline. As they usually do, anti-fossil fuelers turned the hearings into freak shows–using (we’d call it abusing) children as props. We ask: Who would do something like that to their own children? Why would you brazenly use your own child as a cheap prop in a sleazy attempt to gain attention and sympathy for a political viewpoint? How low can you go?…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

Antis “Shocked” One of Their Own Sent Death Threats to PennEast
August 3, 2015August 3, 2015

Last Friday MDN told you about an ongoing FBI investigation into death threats made by anti-drilling zealots against workers of the PennEast Pipeline (see FBI Investigates Death Threats Against PennEast Pipeline Workers). Multiple choice question: When one of their own tips over the edge into violence or proposed violence, anti-drillers (a) act shocked and surprised, (b) deny it’s true, implying it’s a made-up story by the pipeline company, or (c) both. If you guessed (c) you would be correct…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Statewide NY | Williams

Shrill Opposition to Constitution Pipeline after Cabot Comment
August 3, 2015August 3, 2015

Flat-out, 100% lies is what best describes the claims being made by anti-pipeline groups like Stop the Pipeline in New York State in a letter sent to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, with respect to charges that the already-FERC-approved Constitution Pipeline would, if built, incite an environmental Holocaust in the state. These are the VERY SAME people who successfully pressured Cuomo into banning fracking in the state–so they’re hoping they can bully the pathetically weak Cuomo once again, this time to reject the Constitution Pipeline. The renewed and shrill campaign against the pipeline comes because last week Cabot Oil & Gas CEO Dan Dinges said he expects the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to issue permits allowing the pipeline to cross streams and swamps (i.e. “wetlands”) any day now. The fact that this pipeline WILL get built is eating anti-drillers alive. They can’t stand it. So they whip up an email “letter” to Cuomo, and then get their sympathetic buddies at the Democrat Albany Times Union to run a story on their efforts, trying to manufacture the appearance that there is a groundswell of support against the pipeline–when there isn’t…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Litigation | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Deerfield’s 2nd Bite at the Litigation Apple Against NED Pipeline
August 3, 2015August 3, 2015

Back in February MDN told you about a group of aging hippies, er, a, New Englanders from Deerfield, MA who decided to sue the federal government to block Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline project from being built across their property (see Mass. Town Sues FERC to Stop Pipeline Claiming Gas is for Export). The Town of Deerfield is using the pro bono services of a lawyer that doesn’t live in Deerfield, Cristobal Bonifaz. Bonifaz filed the lawsuit in federal court. His argument is that “most of the gas” flowing through NED will be exported and not even used in New England, and taking private property via eminent domain to do so is illegal. His claim is false–but truth isn’t what always wins in court cases. These days it’s finding a liberal judge you can influence that wins in court. Bonifaz is back and he’s filed the same exact lawsuit a second time–with a different (small) group of people from Deerfield and surrounding areas…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

StateImpact: PA Pipelines “Risky” & “Mystery” – Might Kill ‘Ya Too
August 3, 2015August 3, 2015

Yet another hit piece against the shale industry from the taxpayer-funded, left-leaning, anti-drilling PBS StateImpact Pennsylvania. This time it’s about pipelines. Reporter Susan Phillips says there’s so darned many of the stupid things under our feet, we don’t even know where they all are and “POOF!” they may explode at any minute if you look at ’em wrong. Case in point: A man operating a bulldozer whose company called One Call before digging, dug up a pipeline that wasn’t mapped and had evil, nasty natural gas running through it. It exploded and sent the man to the hospital with burns over 70% of his body. We’re not making light of the accident or this man’s plight (which is truly tragic). We are making light of the silly notion implied by Phillips in her wide-ranging hit piece that pipelines are “risky” and a “mystery” with the implication we shouldn’t build another single pipeline until we can get pipelines already in the ground fully mapped down the square centimeter. This is a new, coordinated attack on the industry from the usual suspects. Stop the pipelines and you stop the evil fossil fuel natural gas from getting to market…
Read More “StateImpact: PA Pipelines “Risky” & “Mystery” – Might Kill ‘Ya Too”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pipelines

FBI Investigates Death Threats Against PennEast Pipeline Workers
July 31, 2015July 31, 2015

We don’t want to broad-brush paint all anti-drillers opposed to pipelines, like the PennEast Pipeline, as whack-a-doos. But clearly some of them are–and some of them are potentially violent. It has just come to light that PennEast Pipeline received letters this past spring threatening to kill PennEast Pipeline employees. The FBI is investigating–talking to some of the whack-a-doos to ask them if they know about the letters…
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Carbon County | Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation

PennEast Changes Route Where it Crosses Appalachian Trail
July 31, 2015July 31, 2015

This story is cool on many levels. Score another PR victory, and another clever re-route, for the PennEast Pipeline. PennEast, you may recall, is a $1 billion, 110-mile, 36-inch diameter natural gas pipeline that will run from Luzerne County, PA to Mercer County, NJ. It is vigorously opposed by Big Green groups like the nutty Sierra Clubbers and THE Delaware Riverkeeper. Some who oppose it have threatened violence (see today’s companion story). Why? Because the PennEast will flow that evil, nasty fossil fuel called natural gas. Can’t have that, you know. PennEast has made a course correction that is sure to cut down on the time it requires to get approved. The course correction is where the PennEast will cross the Appalachian Trail in Carbon County, PA. The course correction also lets the PennEast deliver cheap Marcellus Shale gas to a new electric generating plant being built by the Blue Mountain Ski Resort…
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Alternative Energy | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

New England’s Obdurate (and Foolish) Opposition to Pipelines
July 31, 2015July 31, 2015

Yet another example (not that you need it) that most folks who oppose pipelines, and shale drilling, and anything to do with shale energy–do so because they irrationally hate fossil fuels. This latest example comes from the land of liberal lunacy–Massachusetts. Leigh Youngblood, director of the Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust, community organized a protest rally preceding a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) scoping session on Wednesday in Greenfield, MA. The FERC scoping session was to hear about potential environmental impacts from the proposed Tennessee Gas Pipeline interstate project known as Northeast Energy Direct, or NED. Youngblood, true to lib Dem form, believes that Massachusetts should dump dirty fossil fuels and instead concentrate their “superior” intellects on using so-called alternative energy sources. Renewable energy is the future, dontchya know…
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