Pipelines

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    PA Landowners File Countersuit Against Mariner East 2 Pipeline

    MDN told you last week that unfortunately Sunoco Logistics was forced to file eminent domain cases against several landowners in Washington and Huntingdon counties in Pennsylvania to gain access to survey those properties as a future possible site where the Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline will run (see Sunoco Files Eminent Domain Cases in PA Courts for Mariner East 2). Four landowners in Washington County have hired Hershey-based attorney Michael Faherty to represent them in an attempt to stop Sunoco’s efforts–in essence either reroute the pipeline (starting things all over again) or shut it down permanently. Faherty successfully won a case against Sunoco Logistics in York County last year and “feels confident” that efforts to stop Sunoco will “be successful.” His legal argument is an interesting one…
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    LNG Importer Publishes Sham Report Slamming New England Pipelines

    For more than a year the owner of an LNG import terminal located off the coast of Massachusetts, GDF Suez, has been lobbying hard against any new pipelines that would bring abundant, cheap and clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas to New England (see Guess Why GDF Suez Doesn’t Want Marcellus Pipeline to New England). Why is GDF Suez opposed? Because their business, importing natural gas from other countries, is threatened. Something called self-interest. So GDF trots around attempting to make the case natural gas isn’t really needed in New England–not beyond what GDF Suez can provide anyway. The latest salvo in a disgusting display of self-interest is a so-called report bought and paid for by GDF that supposedly makes the case that proposed pipelines are too expensive because some of the cost will be passed on to electric rate payers who will experience greatly reduced electric rates once the pipelines are flowing gas to New England. GDF used what appears to be its own in-house analysts from a company called Energyzt to write a biased report that is being reported by mainstream media as some sort of independent report–which it definitely is not…
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    New OPEN Compressor Station in Belmont County Under Construction

    A new compressor station is being built in Colerain Township (Belmont County), OH as part of the Ohio Pipeline Energy Network (OPEN) pipeline project. Last month we told you that the OPEN project, 76 miles of new pipeline running through Belmont, Columbiana, Carroll, Jefferson and Monroe counties that will connect to the Texas Eastern Pipeline, and then reverses the flow on the Texas Eastern to carry Marcellus and Utica Shale gas from eastern Ohio to the Gulf Coast, is on track to be done this year (see Spectra’s OPEN Ohio Pipeline on Track to be Done by End of 2015). One of the remaining, important pieces of the puzzle is to build a large compressor station to help flow the gas. Here’s an update on that part of the project…
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    Lawless EPA Issues New Methane Rule to Cripple U.S. O&G Drilling

    lawlessThe gloves are now off and everything is out in the open: President Barack Hussein Obama wants to destroy the oil and gas industry in the United States of America. Yesterday Obama’s preferred tool of destruction, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), released a plan that brings the jackboots of the federal government down on the necks of the industry–forcing them to “reduce” methane emissions by 40-45%. Methane, you may recall, is what drillers actually extract from the ground and sell. Methane is what they get paid for–the very thing they are incentivized to capture so they can sell it. Drillers have reduced their methane emissions–the stuff leaking out around the edges–by at least 40-45% over the past few years. In other words, the industry is already doing what the EPA wants them to do. Which means this action is a blatant attempt at stifling drilling in this country. Let us be crystal clear: This action by the EPA is illegal. This is an outright attempt to regulate the oil and gas industry, contrary to the U.S. Constitution which reserves such regulation to the individual states. Just have a look at the so-called “rule” the EPA has published (all 591 pages of it). It is a top to bottom set of unlegislated regulations that will put all oil an gas drilling in the regulatory hands of the EPA.

    This is a big and important story, so we’ve broken it into several posts. Below, in this post, is the EPA press release–a masterful propaganda spin job–along with a copy of the 591-page “rule” the EPA will first publish in the Federal Register, and then, 60 days later, adopt as an unlegislated law that will become of the law of the land governing oil and gas drilling. All done through the back door of trying to reduce methane emissions as a way of controlling mythical global warming.
    Read More “Lawless EPA Issues New Methane Rule to Cripple U.S. O&G Drilling”

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    Pro-Drilling Groups Weigh in on Lawless EPA Methane Rule

    white hatAs for the good guys, the guys in the white hats who support clean-burning natural gas and fossil fuels, they also weighed in on the EPA’s lawless new methane reduction rule, otherwise known as 40 CFR Part. Here’s what the good guys from ANGA, API, Marcellus Shale Coalition, WVONGA and even what three U.S. Senators had to say…
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    Anti-Drilling Groups Weigh in on Lawless EPA Methane Rule

    black hatIf you wonder whether or not a new regulation is good or bad, you can always tell by who supports it and who doesn’t. In the case of the EPA and their lawless new methane reduction rule, otherwise known as 40 CFR Part 60, national radical environmental groups like Earthjustice and the Sierra Club, along with regional and local radical groups like the Ohio Environmental Council and the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council, are applauding the action taken by the Obama EPA…
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    The One Graph that Exposes the EPA Lie re Methane Regulation

    The graph below puts to rest the lie that the EPA’s action in trying to control oil and gas drilling via the back door of controlling methane emissions will do anything to help so-called global warming. It won’t. Not a thing. Why? One-third of all methane emissions are naturally occurring–coming from “wetlands” (i.e. swamps, representing 22%), the ocean (3%) and yes, termites (4%). Who knew termites fart that much? But wait, there’s even more farting. Of all “man-caused” methane emissions, cow farts, otherwise referred to as “enteric fermentation” represent 16% of all methane emissions, and “animal waste” (i.e. cow manure) represents another 5% of all methane emissions. That is, agriculture is responsible for 21% of all “fugitive” methane emissions. Oil & gas and coal extraction? That represents 19%. So the EPA is focusing on 19% of the problem and ignoring the other 81% of the problem, claiming that will magically reduce global warming. What utter cow manure…
    Read More “The One Graph that Exposes the EPA Lie re Methane Regulation”

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    Anti-Pipeline “Hands Across Our Land” Protest in VA & WV a Bust

    Hands Across Our Land, a minuscule gathering in three locations in Virginia and one location in West Virginia organized by the far left Sierra Club and the extremists of 350.org, held “protests” so small yesterday that if it weren’t for local media looking for any story to report during the summer doldrums, nobody would have noticed there even was a protest. Casual observers would have thought, “Oh, there’s a small group, perhaps a (nutty looking) family out for a stroll.” The “protesters” were there to object to two necessary, innocuous, safe natural gas pipelines from being buried in the ground–Dominion’s 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline which is due to run from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina; and EQT/NextEra US Gas Assets’ 330-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline from West Virginia into southern Virginia. As is typically the case, most of the protesters were in their 50s and 60s, former hippies who have found a new cause (anti-fossil fuels) to rejuvinate their otherwise meaningless lives…
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    Dominion Buys 26% of Iroquois Gas Transmission Pipeline

    Dominion has just purchased themselves a bigger seat at the Marcellus/Utica midstream (pipeline) table with the purchase of 26% of the Iroquois Gas Transmission System. The Iroquois, you may recall, is one of two pipelines that will connect to the Constitution Pipeline to be built by Williams starting later this year. The Constitution will flow 650 million cubic feet (MMcf) per day of Marcellus Shale gas mostly from Cabot Oil & Gas wells in Susquehanna County, PA. The 125-mile Constitution will run from PA into New York and connect with the Iroquois (and the Tennessee Gas Pipeline) in Schoharie County, NY. The Iroquois is a 416-mile interstate natural gas pipeline running from the U.S.-Canadian border at Waddington, NY, through NY and western Connecticut to its terminus in Commack, NY, and from Huntington to the Bronx, NY. The Iroquois supplies clean-burning natural gas to local distribution companies (LDCs) an electric power generators in New England and the greater New York City area. Increasingly the Iroquois is flowing Marcellus Shale gas. It is that pipeline that Dominion has just purchased a major piece of…
    Read More “Dominion Buys 26% of Iroquois Gas Transmission Pipeline”

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    Carole King: VA Pipeline Makes Me Feel Like an Unnatural Woman

    Another famous white, rich, aging, hippie woman has lined up against pipelines. At least this famous white, rich, aging hippie, Carole King, has talent–unlike Yoko Ono who is talentless, someone who still rides the coattails of her famous husband, God rest his soul. Carole King doesn’t need fame or to increase her personal fortune, unlike Ono. So why is she speaking out against the Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline and where it will run in Virginia? Because the pipeline will come close to land owned by Yogaville, an “ecumenical spiritual retreat” in Buckingham County, VA that King has $upported for decades. Most folks think of yoga as funky pretzel-like stretches people do at the gym or at a special class at your local community college. What they may not know is that yoga is as much a spiritual practice (i.e. religion) as it is an exercise routine. Apparently King is one of its practitioners. Makes her Feel Like A Natural Woman. Good for her. Whatever gets you through the day, right? King wrote directly to Dominion CEO Thomas F. Farrell II to request he ax the pipeline plan and instead stick up solar panels and windmills. Here’s why King is wrong about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline affecting Yogaville…
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    2 Marcellus LNG Export Projects Get Canadian Approval

    Two Canadian LNG export projects have made significant progress–but both are still far away from actually getting built. A year ago MDN supplied you with a list of five potential Canadian LNG export projects along the East Coast of Canada (see List of LNG Export Projects for Marcellus/Utica Shale Gas). Two of those projects–Bear Head LNG and Goldboro LNG, both located in Nova Scotia–have received a green light from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (see 2nd Canadian LNG Plant Gets U.S. Approval to Export Marcellus Gas). Both projects received a green light last week from the Canadian National Energy Board (see the article below). The gazillion dollar question is: Where will the natural gas come from that gets exported via these facilities? We’ve long hoped that Marcellus Shale gas would be some of that gas–we have way more than we can use here at home. But at the recent RBN Energy “State of the Energy Markets” conference in New York City, RBN’s Rusty Braziel said virtually none of the gas going to New England via the proposed Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct pipeline nor the Spectra Energy Access Northeast pipeline would be exported. Frankly, if Marcellus gas doesn’t get piped to Canada, we think there’s virtually no chance these LNG projects will get built. Our sentiments were recently echoed by Moody’s Investors Services (see Moody’s: “Vast Majority” of LNG Export Projects Will be Canceled). So, read the following article, but do so with your head swiveling around as ours is. Will Marcellus gas get exported? Will the Maritimes & Northeast pipeline get FERC permission to reverse its flow and send gas from the U.S. into Canada? Will Kinder and Spectra actually build their pipelines to New England? A lot of unanswered questions when you consider whether or not Canada will actually build any of these LNG projects…
    Read More “2 Marcellus LNG Export Projects Get Canadian Approval”

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    Medical Doctor Exposes Anti-Pipeline Lies about PennEast

    Dr. Gilbert Ross, M.D., is the senior director of medicine and public health at the American Council on Science and Health in New York. Dr. Ross penned an eloquent article that exposes the lies being peddled by the “leaders” of Hopewell Township, New Jersey in their vote to prevent construction of the PennEast Pipeline in the township. Dr. Ross makes the point that we have repeatedly made (although far less eloquently) for years here on MDN: The real philosophy that underpins the actions of people opposing fracking, pipelines, anything to do with shale–is an irrational hatred of fossil fuels. But opposers can’t cast their opposition in those terms or they would be laughed out of office and out of public meetings. So they use FUD–fear, uncertainty and doubt–to make the hoi polloi believe oil and gas drilling and pipelines are somehow a threat, a danger to everyone and everything. That is, they lie about the risks associated with oil and gas in order to advance their own twisted anti-fossil fuel agenda. Here to make the point better than we do is Dr. Ross, writing in a major New Jersey newspaper…
    Read More “Medical Doctor Exposes Anti-Pipeline Lies about PennEast”

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    FANG Protesters Chain Themselves to RI Compressor Station Gate

    FANG logoLet’s talk about optics and the strategies employed by fossil fuel haters. We’ll leave aside our standard argument that people who hate fossil fuels, like natural gas, are wildly hypocritical as their very existence is a direct result of the benefits of fossil fuels. Today we focus on two men who hit life’s lottery–one (younger) became a pediatrician, the other (older) a physics professor. Last week the two chained themselves to the entrance of Spectra Energy’s Burrillville, Rhode Island compressor station to call attention to Spectra’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) project to beef up the compressor station and add pipelines to bring more cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale natural gas to gas-starved Rhode Island and other New England states. The two protesters belong to a fossil fuel hate group called FANG–Fighting Against Natural Gas. Using PVC pipe, chicken wire and (yes) tar, they intertwined their arms to make it extremely difficult to un-knot them. The police had to cut away a section of the fence and cart the fence and the two protesters to the hospital where doctors and nurses had to waste time untangling the mess. The optics, of course, is that FANG wants you to hear about a doctor and a physics professor (supposedly smart people) who put themselves in harm’s way to protest something–so the something must be evil and rotten since these two virtuous “high value” (and smarter than the rest of us) members of society are sounding the alarm. We think you should focus on different optics–the logo/mascot FANG uses on their website (pictured here, taken from their website). A wolf bearing its fangs indicates extreme danger–and a willingness to go to extremes to cause property, and perhaps even bodily, damage. Homeland Security should take note…
    Read More “FANG Protesters Chain Themselves to RI Compressor Station Gate”

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    When Will There be Enough Pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica?

    How low can and will prices go in the Marcellus/Utica? Without pipelines like the Constitution, Northeast Energy Direct and Access Northeast (among others), prices for natgas in the Marcellus/Utica can and will go pretty low. Would you believe the price of natural gas selling at the Dominion South trading point in southwestern Pennsylvania briefly hit $0.71 (yes, 71 cents) per thousand cubic feet in early July? Would you believe there’s talk the price could even go as low as 60 cents/Mcf? That’s apocalyptic, end of any more drilling kind of prices. Without pipeline infrastructure, shale drilling shuts down. Which is why it is vital these pipelines get built. One bright spot is the recent reversal of the Rockies Express Pipeline now carting Marcellus/Utica gas to the Midwest (see 1.8 Bcf/d of Marcellus/Utica Gas Heads West on REX Starting Aug 1). Two more pipeline projects, due to be fully online in September, will also help: Spectra Energy’s Uniontown to Gas City (U2GC) Project Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner East 1 NGL pipeline from western PA to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia (see 2 Pipelines Will Raise Gas Sale Price by $1 for Range Resources). More on how pipelines are directly tied to the price of gas and the future of drilling…
    Read More “When Will There be Enough Pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica?”

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    Is Wayne County, OH Sheriff Breaking the Law re NEXUS Pipeline?

    It appears that an anti-pipeline member of the Wayne County, OH sheriff’s department, Capt. Doug Hunter, has convinced his boss, Sheriff Travis Hutchinson, to ride roughshod over the members of the department–telling deputies they can’t, in their off-duty hours, moonlight as security guards for the NEXUS Pipeline. Hunter’s argument to Hutchinson is that a member of the sheriff’s department going out with surveyors, who have been threatened by anti-pipeline wackos, somehow “intimidates” landowners. Even though the sheriff’s deputies are not in uniform, not driving a police car, and are otherwise unrecognizable to landowners as belonging to the sheriff’s department when they tag along to be sure the surveyors don’t get accosted by the peace-loving landowners the sheriff is “sworn to serve.” Sheriff Hutchinson bought Hunter’s argument hook, line and sinker. And so Sheriff Hutchinson has told his deputies what they can and can’t do in their off-duty hours. Hmmm. We wonder how the deputies like being told what they can and can’t do when they’re off the clock? We wonder if they like the sheriff preventing them from earning extra money working for a private company (a common practice with off-duty law officers)? Could the sheriff himself be breaking the law by disallowing his deputies from working for one specific private company, when (we presume) he allows the very same practice for other private companies?…
    Read More “Is Wayne County, OH Sheriff Breaking the Law re NEXUS Pipeline?”

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    Stark County, OH Judge Orders Sheriff to Assist NEXUS with Surveys

    In Summit County, OH, a county judge has denied NEXUS Pipeline’s request to force recalcitrant landowners to allow surveyors on their property (see Summit County, OH Judge Denies NEXUS Request to Survey Properties). In neighboring Stark County, it’s the reverse. A judge in Stark County granted NEXUS a court order allowing them to survey properties where the pipeline may potentially run. And whereas in Wayne County (borders both Summit and Stark) the Wayne County Sheriff won’t let his deputies work as off-duty security guards for NEXUS (see today’s story questioning the legality of the Sheriff’s action), the judge in Stark County has ORDERED the sheriff there to enforce NEXUS’ right to enter properties to survey them. The Stark County sheriff is telling his on-duty deputies to accompany surveyors to protect them. Is your head spinning yet?…
    Read More “Stark County, OH Judge Orders Sheriff to Assist NEXUS with Surveys”