Maine Feeling the Effects of No New Gas Pipes – Electric Bills 2-3X
For years MDN and others have warned of coming shortages for natural gas in New England, including the State of Maine. We told you that natgas and electricity prices will go through the roof due to lack of new pipelines (almost all electricity produced in New England is from gas-fired power plants). Yet New England and Maine have steadfastly refused to allow new gas pipelines to get built. So we don’t feel all that bad for Maine residents who have seen their electricity prices double and even triple since January of this year.
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Earlier this week the Deputy Chief Administrative Law Judge of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) issued a ruling against the now completed Mariner East 2 pipeline project, assessing a $51,000 fine on the project. Which is relatively minor considering the project has already been fined by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) more than $20 million. This latest parting shot at the now-done NGL pipeline project levied for being too loud and not doing enough to communicate with residents in an apartment complex near where the pipeline was doing construction work in Delaware County.
Yesterday MDN brought you news of a bold new plan by EQT CEO Toby Rice to “unleash” American LNG exports to not only help our friends in Europe, but also to reduce the amount of coal use across the world, thereby lowering coal-related emissions including carbon dioxide (see 
As we write about today in a couple of different posts, EQT CEO Toby Rice has a bold vision to “unleash American LNG” to, in part, supply American natural gas to our friends in Europe. Rice’s plan is not an overnight plan, but it can work and it can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions floating in Mom Earth’s atmosphere (if you care about such things, we personally do not). There are currently 14 (!) LNG export facilities approved by the U.S. that could be built and come online in the next year or two. That’s enough new plants to double our current LNG exports. Why haven’t the backhoes begun to dig on any of these projects? Two roadblocks.
President Joe Biden and his surrogates have been blaming U.S. oil and gas producers for not producing more in the face of prices going through the roof. Big Oil & Gas have responded that the Bidenistas refuse to even talk with them about important issues, like onerous new regulations, blocking new pipelines, etc. It looks like the Bidenistas are finally desperate enough to at least sit down and talk. According to Bloomberg (not always a reliable source) Dept. of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is having conversations with several oil companies at the CERAWeek conference.
Even though construction is completed for the Mariner East pipeline system, anti-fossil fuelers are still lying about the project and its status. Energy Transfer said during its recent quarterly update that Mariner East is in the process of being commissioned, i.e. tested (see 
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia, is in a grumpy mood. The cause? The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Manchin is meeting with FERC commissioners tomorrow and he plans to take them to the proverbial woodshed for a good thrashing. Two things are on Manchin’s mind: FERC’s new rules that use global warming as a standard for reviewing pipeline projects, and ongoing delays with finishing the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project.
A former wind lobbyist and friend of Chuck Schumer, Richard “Dick” Glick, took over as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) under Joe Biden. Glick is a radical leftist, a swamp-dwelling D.C. Democrat. Under his oversight, the five-member FERC board (three Democrats, two Republicans) voted 3-2 in February to begin using global warming factors when reviewing new natural gas pipeline projects (see 
Gene Barr, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, unloaded on Joe Biden and his inept energy policies in a recent op-ed in which Barr says it’s time for U.S. energy policy to stop empowering Russia. In addition to more oil drilling and oil pipelines, Barr advocates for more natural gas drilling and more natural gas pipelines here in the Marcellus/Utica. Do you want to help Europe? Stop blocking American oil and gas, President Biden!
Interstate pipelines are pipelines that cross state boundaries. They are regulated (approved by) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Each year new pipelines are added, or existing pipelines expanded, to flow ever-more natural gas across our great country. Some years those additions of new capacity are higher, and some years lower. We think it’s no coincidence that in 2021, the first full year of Joe Biden’s assault on the oil and gas industry, new pipeline capacity to flow natural gas grew at its lowest rate since the bad Obama years.
Pipeline and midstream giant Williams issued its quarterly and full-year update earlier this week. The company, which owns and operates the massive Transco pipeline system, reported new all-time highs for both gathering volumes (13.9 Bcf/d), and transmission volumes (23.8 Bcf/d). CEO Alan Armstrong said on a call with analysts, “We really continue to fire on all cylinders.” Indeed they do.