Big Green Sues to Block Tiny 12-Mile Pipe in Kentucky
In May 2021 MDN told you that Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) had won Kentucky state approval to build a new 12-inch, 12-mile pipeline near Louisville to supply gas to 62 homes and businesses that can’t connect to LG&E’s local natgas utility system (see Pass the Jim Beam! Judge Clears Way for Gas Pipe Near Louisville, KY). The local Bernheim Arboretum has resisted attempts to build across three-tenths of one percent (0.028%) of Arboretum land–along an existing cleared path where electric lines already go (see KY Utility Hints at Defunding Local Arboretum Blocking New Pipe). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted a permit for the full 12-mile pipeline, including across Arboretum land, in September of last year (see Pass the Jim Beam! Army Corps Issues Pipeline Permit for KY Forest). As LG&E gets ready to built, the Arboretum, in collusion with two Big Green groups, is suing to block the pipeline.
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Cancel culture strikes again. The Evil Empire has won another battle (but not the war). MDN first told you about plans to build the Chickahominy Power Station, a 1,650 megawatt state-of-the-art natural gas-fired power plant in Charles City County, VA, in June 2018 (see 
Consolidated Edison (Con Ed), the local gas and electric utility serving Manhattan Island and Westchester County in the New York City region, has proposed increasing electricity rates by 17.6% and natural gas rates by a stratospheric 28.1% beginning Jan. 1, 2023. Why so high for both? Lack of natural gas in the region. Why is there a lack of natural gas? Lack of pipelines from the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale.
BofA (Bank of America) Global Research recently issued a research report stating that natural gas production in both the Marcellus/Utica and the Permian Basin faces constraints in 2023 and likely will have to dial back on production. Both regions will hit capacity with existing pipelines in 2023 and there are no new pipes coming online. Also, one of the largest growing customers for our natgas supplies has been LNG exports. No new LNG facilities will come online in 2023, says BofA, which hasn’t happened since we began exporting LNG in 2016.
Exactly three weeks ago MDN brought you the big news that Equitrans Midstream was considering an appeal of two recent rulings by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that overturned a permit and FERC decision to allow Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), now 94% complete, to finish construction (see 
Our advice to landowners who own land in the path of a pipeline has always been to negotiate with the pipeline builder. It may seem as if the builder holds all the cards, especially if they have eminent domain authority (the power to condemn and “take” the land for use in constructing the pipeline). Our observation has been that most pipeline companies are reasonable and willing to accommodate requests to tweak routes. What is not reasonable is to refuse to negotiate in hopes you can block the pipeline from crossing your property. In those cases, the property is taken anyway and you then go through a protracted, years-long process of a court case to determine the value of the taking. Such a case has just begun in Roanoke, Virginia federal court over property taken for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).
It must be sad to live your life focusing all your energy on something you hate. You live in a prison of someone else’s making. You hand the keys of your happiness to someone else, rather than being the captain of your own destiny. Such must be the life of the Pennsylvania “Green” Party’s candidate for governor, Christina “PK Ditty” Digiulio, whose mission in life is to defeat new pipelines, like the now-completed Mariner East 2 pipeline.
Two weeks ago U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, from West Virginia, unloaded on the five commissioners of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) during a hearing before the committee he chairs, the Senate Energy Committee (see 
How many times must we say this before it sinks in: FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) is an economic agency, NOT an environmental agency. FERC’s role is to ensure pipelines, electric transmission lines, etc. are able to get built and are economic and not an undue burden for ratepayers. FERC’s role is NOT to worry about so-called global warming. Yet the liberal Democrats inside FERC, and now the liberal Democrats on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, insist FERC reopen already-approved projects, like a tiny pipeline expansion in Massachusetts, and re-do long-completed evaluations in light of global warming considerations. It’s INSANE.
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.
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.