Pipelines

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline | UIL Holdings

UIL Invests $80M in Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline
July 28, 2015July 28, 2015

UIL Holdings, a Connecticut-based utility with 725,000 electric and natural gas customers in two states, is investing $80 million in Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) natural gas pipeline project that will stretch from NY to near Boston, MA to bring cheap, abundant and clean-burning natural gas to New England. One of UIL’s subsidiary companies is Berkshire Gas Company, one of NED’s anchor shippers. Berkshire, you may recall, is at capacity now with respect to natural gas supplies they receive from Kinder’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline. Berkshire has put a moratorium on accepting any new hookups for natural gas in Franklin County, MA (see Guts: No New Pipeline in MA? Then No New Natgas for Utility Customers). You may also recall that UIL is the company that offered the City of Philadelphia the best deal it will ever get to sell the city-owned Philadelphia Gas Works utility, a deal ultimately scuttled by the Democrat-controlled–and profoundly corrupt–Philadelphia City Council (see Philly City Council Kills the Phila. Gas Works $1.86B Deal). UIL will get a 2.5% ownership stake in NED in return for it’s $80M investment…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide NY | Williams

Cabot Says Constitution Pipeline Construction to Begin this Fall
July 27, 2015July 27, 2015

Last Friday during the Cabot Oil & Gas quarterly earnings call update with analysts, Cabot’s CEO Dan Dinges provided an important update on the Constitution Pipeline, 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. Although Williams is the lead company building the pipeline, Cabot is the other primary partner in the project. Currently the Constitution is 100% FERC authorized and they have 100% of the rights of way leases signed for the project. The only hold-up is the New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation in granting 401 Water Quality Certificates that allows the Constitution to lay pipe through and under swamps, creeks and other bodies of water. According to Dinges, they expect NY to issue those permits any day now…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH

Pipeline Case: OH Judge Finds Public Right to Free Flow of Energy
July 27, 2015July 27, 2015

There are a number of pipeline battles currently going on. While residents in New England tend to be more unreasonable than most when it comes to pipelines, landowners in other regions also oppose new pipeline construction. Some of their opposition stems from nutty opposition to fossil fuels. But some opposition is legitimate–concerns over where the pipeline will go through a property. Or concerns about lease terms/compensation. One thing that doesn’t hurt anyone is to allow a survey of a property. We would encourage landowners to begin their dialog about a potential pipeline with the surveyors–to make companies aware of your concerns about the routing of a pipeline across your land. But some holdout landowners unreasonably resist even a survey–and they’re consistently losing in Ohio courts. Specifically we’re talking about the NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline–a $1.5-$2.0 billion natural gas pipeline that will carry Utica and Marcellus Shale gas spanning 11 counties in Ohio, 3 counties in Michigan, and eventually connect to the Dawn Energy Hub in Canada. We recently told you that in most cases when landowners refuse access to surveyors, they lose (see NEXUS Pipeline Sues for Survey Access, Wins Most of the Time). Below we have news of a court decision from Fulton County, OH in which the judge outlines his reasons for ruling in favor of NEXUS to allow surveys to commence on properties for 15 hold-out landowners. The judge’s ruling is instructive. In it, the judge says the general public has a “right” to expect a “free flow” of energy products…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Group of Bostonians Use Religion to Protest 5-Mile Natgas Pipeline
July 27, 2015July 27, 2015

Every now and again it’s important to connect the dots–yet again–for new readers to MDN. Those who have been reading MDN for several years know that the category of what we broadly call anti-drillers don’t oppose natural gas shale drilling and pipelines and injection wells and railroad transloading terminals and…the list goes on…because of the sometimes legitimate issues of noise and truck traffic and lease abuses, etc. Every industry has it’s negatives. But that’s not why these people in their heart of hearts oppose natural gas. They oppose it because it’s a fossil fuel–which is, as we point out, an irrational position to hold. It’s irrational because the very sneakers on their feet they wear in protest marches, the clothes on their bodies, the materials their homes are built from, the cars they drive, the televisions they watch, the cell phones their faces are glued to, are all products made by with with fossil fuels. Plastics = fossil fuels. Plastics are hydrocarbons–you did know that, right? Hydrocarbons are fossil fuels–oil and natural gas etc. Like cancer metastasizes and invades its host, so too does the cancerous philosophy that mankind by burning fossil fuels is killing Mother Earth. So-called global warming is the philosophy–the point of view–that drives and justifies anti-drillers’ irrational opposition to shale energy. The latest example comes from a group of people in Boston (ab)using religion to oppose a 5-mile pipeline. The stated reason for their opposition? “Climate change is the pressing moral issue of our time, and religious leaders must speak out against practices that are destroying the environment”…
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Energy Companies | Energy Services | EQT Corp | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Range Resources Corp | Statewide PA | Washington County

EQT Midstream Building $250 Million Pipeline – for Range Resources!
July 24, 2015July 24, 2015

In a show of “coopetition” or cooperative competition, EQT Midstream, a division of major Marcellus/Utica driller EQT Corporation, is going to build a $250 million, 32-mile “header pipeline” for arch-rival Range Resources in southwestern Pennsylvania to “support Range’s dry Marcellus and Utica development.” The new pipeline, which will be built in two phases in 2016 and 2017, will provide Range with more than half a billion cubic feet of natural capacity per day…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

PennEast Pipeline Offers Spirited Defense, Counters False Claims
July 24, 2015July 24, 2015

How do you break through the ongoing misinformation pumped out by mainstream media and lying environmental organizations like the Sierra Club and THE Delaware Riverkeeper when it comes to the necessity, wholesomeness and righteousness of pipeline projects like the PennEast Pipeline planned to run from the Wilkes-Barre, PA area to the Trenton, NJ area? Peter Terranova, chairman of the PennEast Pipeline Board of Managers, is taking his message about the PennEast directly to the citizens by publishing a guest viewpoint in Wilkes-Barre’s The Citizens’ Voice newspaper. In his column Terranova lays out the case for the PennEast–and addresses some of the lies being spread by ne’er-do-well “environmental” organizations…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA

No Work Gets Done at Inaugural PA Pipeline Task Force Meeting
July 23, 2015July 22, 2015

In May, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced the formation of the Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force (PITF)–an effort to “promote unprecedented collaboration of stakeholders to facilitate the development of a world-class pipeline infrastructure system” (see Disaster on the Horizon: PA Gov Wolf Creates Pipeline Task Force). Last week we told you who Wolf appointed to the 42-member committee–one-third of them report to him in one fashion or another (working for the state government), and over one-half of the members work for either local, state or federal government (see PA Gov Wolf Packs Pipeline Task Force with His Own Minions). In other words, Wolf packed the so-called task force with people who don’t know a darned thing about the private sector and how to run a business. Yes, it is a train wreck waiting to happen. Wolf and his minion DEP Sec. John Quigley intends to slow down the pace of pipeline construction in the state just when it needs to speed up. Such are the consequences of voting for the wrong candidate. Yesterday the PITF held it’s first official meeting with Quigley chairing it. Interestingly, there was talk from Quigley about midstreamers getting a “social license”…
Read More “No Work Gets Done at Inaugural PA Pipeline Task Force Meeting”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | MarkWest Energy | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Washington County

MarkWest Energy Takes Cecil, PA Back to Court over Compressor Stn
July 23, 2015July 22, 2015

As we noted in June, after more than four years of resisting, Cecil Township, PA–under court order–finally approved a compressor station proposed by MarkWest Energy (see Cecil Twp Approves MarkWest Compressor, with Poison Pill Conditions). We also noted that Cecil pulled a fast one with their so-called approval. The reason they got away with violating the court ordered deadline was because they were supposedly bargaining in good faith with MarkWest–nailing down final details both sides could live with. But it wasn’t good faith on the part of Cecil. At the last minute, Cecil tacked on 26 “conditions” making it all but sure that MarkWest would not agree to the plan. And sure enough, MarkWest has had to take Cecil, one of seven selfish towns that sued to overturn the Act 13 law, back to court yet again. Perhaps the judge should just remove the town supervisors this time since they habitually refuse to obey the law?…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines

Wrath of Kann: Lancaster Anti-Driller Guilty of Disorderly Conduct
July 23, 2015July 22, 2015

Back in April MDN told you about a loud mouthed anti-drilling protester in Lancaster County, PA who was arrested and removed from a public meeting for disorderly conduct. That is, she wouldn’t shut her mouth. So the officials running the meeting removed her (see Wrath of Kann: Lancaster Anti-Driller Arrested/Ejected from Mtg). The meeting was an educational forum about home rule and what role the town can and should play when it comes to regulating things like pipelines. Audience members were permitted to ask questions only, but that didn’t sit well with a local anti-driller who refused to ask questions and instead pontificated. The audience was clearly agitated with her (watch the video below) so police present at the meeting arrested and removed her. A judge has found her guilty as charged…
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Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Mickey Mouse Loves Marcellus Shale Gas – More Gas Heading to FL
July 22, 2015July 22, 2015

Sit tight Florida: Marcellus Shale gas is on the way! That’s the message from Genscape and Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. When will Marcellus gas make its way to Florida? Actually, it already is. In fact, Mickey Mouse (i.e. Disney World) is already benefiting from cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas. But there’s plenty more on the way beginning later this year when both Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline system and Spectra Energy’s Ohio Pipeline Energy Network are completed and begin sending gas to the Sunshine State…
Read More “Mickey Mouse Loves Marcellus Shale Gas – More Gas Heading to FL”
Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Research | Spectra Energy | Transco

Report Says New England Pipelines Not Cost Effective for Maine
July 22, 2015July 22, 2015

A disappointing report was recently delivered to the Maine Public Utility Commission (PUC) that may result in Maine sticking its head in the proverbial sand along its lovely coastline and miss out on cheap, abundant, clean-burning natural gas. In an effort to lower electric power prices, in 2013 the Maine Legislature authorized the PUC to spend up to $75 million a year to buy up to 200 million cubic feet per day of natural gas through an “energy cost reduction contract” (ECRC) that would be paid for by electric ratepayers if it is cost effective. Three companies provided proposals to the PUC: Spectra Energy, Tennessee Gas Pipeline and Portland Natural Gas Transmission System. The PUC hired the Boston-based London Economics International (LEI) to evaluate the proposals and the report is in (full redacted copy below). LEI says none of the three proposals provide enough cost savings to Maine consumers to make them worthwhile…
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Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Congressman Says Obama Purposely Not Enforcing Pipeline Safety
July 21, 2015July 21, 2015

Congressman David McKinley, Republican from West Virginia, recently expressed his frustration with the Obama Administration and their lack of action in enforcing the 2011 Pipeline Safety Bill. McKinley said pipelines are safe but because Obama isn’t interested in promoting the image of safe pipelines (because it leads to more natural gas use), the Obama Administration is intentionally dragging its feet as it so often does when it doesn’t want to enforce laws Congress has passed that the lawless Lord B.H.O. disagrees with. McKinley threatens if federal agencies won’t do their job, Congress will force them to do it…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lorain County | Medina County | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Spectra Energy | Statewide OH | Wood County (OH)

NEXUS Pipeline Sues for Survey Access, Wins Most of the Time
July 20, 2015July 20, 2015

An update on a story we brought you one week ago. Last Monday MDN told you that the NEXUS pipeline, primarily a project of Spectra Energy, sued four Medina County, OH landowners who refuse NEXUS surveyors access to their property (see NEXUS Pipeline Sues 4 Medina County Landowners for Survey Access). On Friday, a Medina County Common Pleas judge rejected NEXUS’ request for a restraining order that would allow them access. The case goes to trial on September 24. But lest we leave the wrong impression, judges in just about every other Ohio county where NEXUS has had to sue for survey access have granted NEXUS the restraining orders they were seeking…
Read More “NEXUS Pipeline Sues for Survey Access, Wins Most of the Time”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Killer Weeds Attack! Shale Drilling Causes “Invasive” Plant Growth
July 20, 2015July 20, 2015

Just when you’ve think you’ve heard it all when it comes to how evil and nasty fracking and shale drilling are, along comes another story of the horrors of shale drilling. An article in the most recent issue of the journal Invasive Plant Science and Management says shale and pipeline drilling in Colorado’s Piceance Basin (pronounced “pee awns”, located in northwestern Colorado) disturbs the dirt and because the dirt gets disturbed it gives non-native, “invasive” plants a chance to grab hold and choke out all other vegetation–or some such thing. Apparently the housing boom in Colorado that digs up more dirt than all of the drill pads and pipelines combined doesn’t have the same effect on the invaders. Maybe invasive plants don’t like the construction workers and backhoes that dig up dirt for a house foundation like they do construction workers and backhoes that dig up dirt for a drill pad or pipeline. Wait–they’re the same construction workers and backhoes? Shhh. Don’t tell the invasive plant species…
Read More “Killer Weeds Attack! Shale Drilling Causes “Invasive” Plant Growth”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

KM Board Approves Scaled-Back New England Pipeline for $3.3B
July 17, 2015July 17, 2015

Yesterday the board of directors for Kinder Morgan approved a $3.3 billion investment in the company’s proposed Northeast Energy Direct pipeline project–a huge project that includes a new supply pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY, and a new market delivery pipeline from Schoharie County, NY to Dracut, MA. It is the market delivery pipeline as it passes through both Massachusetts, into New Hampshire and then back into Massachusetts that seems to be stirring up the most controversy that the board approved yesterday with a price tag of $3.3B. But beneath the headline news that the board has given the OK to spend big money is the “real” story–which is that KM has chosen to build a smaller 30-inch pipeline rather than the pre-filed 36-inch pipeline they had hoped to build. Why? Because they haven’t gotten any major new customers to sign on for capacity in the pipeline since the initial open season (see Kinder Morgan Fails to Sign Up New NED Customers in Last 8 Mos). The smaller pipeline means smaller compressor stations. It also means a little less disruption when it’s built as KM will need less space to store pipes. But the more modest environmental impacts don’t assuage anti-fossil fuelers who want to eliminate all fossil fuels and, we suppose, go back to the stone ages with camp fires and animal skins for clothes…
Read More “KM Board Approves Scaled-Back New England Pipeline for $3.3B”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

NH Gov Hassan Asks FERC to Schedule More Hearings for KM Pipeline
July 17, 2015July 17, 2015

New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan seems to be playing both sides of the fence in the debate to bring cheap, abundant Marcellus Shale gas to New England to help relieve sky-high electric and natural gas prices in the region–particularly in the winter months. Hassan is one of six New England governors who previously backed the concept of a new natural gas pipeline to the region (see Blue State Blues: 6 New England States Want New Natgas Pipeline). Yet lately, Hassan, one of the five Democrat governors supporting a pipeline, seems to be backing away from the concept and calling on Kinder Morgan with its proposed Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline plan to bend over backwards, sideways and any which way it can to please her lib constituents. The latest in her escalating rhetoric is a letter sent Wednesday to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking them to schedule more than just three scoping hearings. As we’ve often commented, anti-drilling nutters need cameras and open forums to feel good about themselves. They parade and preen and behave in the wackiest ways when they know a camera and microphone are present. Hassan wants to provide more such opportunities for her supporters…
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