Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Olympus/Huntley & Huntley | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Westmoreland County
Olympus Energy Seeks Approval for Compressor Station in SWPA
Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) is expanding its drilling program in Upper Burrell, in Westmoreland County, PA, near Pittsburgh (see Olympus Energy’s 3rd Upper Burrell Well Pad Wins Unanimous Approval). Along with all the new wells the company is drilling comes the need for pipelines to flow the gas, and along with the pipelines comes a need for a compressor station. Olympus has filed for permission to build a new compressor station.
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Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) plan to flow more Marcellus gas to Westchester and New York City is called the East 300 Upgrade Project. The project involves upgrades at two existing compressor stations (in Pennsylvania), along with building a brand new compressor station in West Milford (Passaic County), just across the border and not far from Westchester County, NY. For a second time this year, Passaic County commissioners have refused to vote in favor of a resolution opposing the project.
Leftists are not only anti-fossil fuels and anti-freedom, they’re also (when they eventually don’t convince others with their inane arguments) violent. Case in point: David Suzuki, the so-called godfather of the Canadian environmental movement, warned over the weekend that if politicians don’t act to reverse climate change, there could be attacks against oil and gas infrastructure. He flat-out threatened to blow up pipelines. Why is this man not in jail?
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is (surprisingly, under the current regime) sticking up for its decision made during the Trump administration to allow Equitrans’ 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from West Virginia into Virginia to continue working on completion of the 92% done project. A coalition of Big Green groups has repeatedly, viciously challenged and tried to block completion of the pipeline, more than doubling costs for the project due to court delays. On Friday, FERC filed a defense of its orders from late last year to allow MVP to restart construction on all but a very few locations still being litigated (primarily a small section through Jefferson National Forest).
What the heck? Did we just wake up in Stalinist Russia? The Missouri Public Utility Commission (MoPSC), which regulates public utilities in the state including the largest natural gas utility in the state (Spire, serving some 632,000 residents), has ordered Spire to send an email to customers fixing, retracting, correcting (whatever you want to call it) a previous email sent by Spire that warns customers they may soon be without natural gas because of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Even though Spire’s original email warning is 100% the truth. Does MoPSC have that kind of tyrannical power, to force speech?
An interesting back and forth took place (we’d call it squabbling) at a technical conference last Friday hosted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick pontificated that so-called global warming considerations must be made when evaluating new pipeline projects. He has used that excuse for years to vote against every single new pipeline project brought before him. Another FERC Commissioner, James Danly, pushed back and revealed flaws in Glick’s reasoning.
Yes, we as a collective society have lost our collective heads. So-called Critical Race Theory (CRT) appears to have brainwashed large swaths of our great land into seeing racism in every interaction and under every rock, tree–and now, even under the ground. Pipelines are racist! That’s the cry of the hard left, which unfortunately now controls our federal government. Three weeks ago we told you the Biden EPA had launched a film flam “investigation” (i.e. witch hunt) into a small pipeline aimed at delivering natural gas to a facility in Brooklyn so the gas can be liquefied and carted around New York City to prevent gas outages (see 
In February 2020 pipeline giant Williams officially confirmed it was ending its years-long bid to build the Constitution Pipeline, a $683 million, 124-mile pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY to move Marcellus gas into NY and New England (see 
Is the glass half empty, or half full? Last Friday MDN told you that the Pennsylvania State Public Utility Commission (PUC) issued a list of 14 new requirements for the Mariner East Pipeline projects, for all three pipelines–ME1, ME2, and ME2X (see 
Double or nothing? More like double “or else.” In July we told you that Energy Transfer’s (ET) Revolution Pipeline in southwestern Pennsylvania was fined an additional $1 million by the PA Public Utility Commission (PUC) on top of previous fines totaling over $30 million because of an explosion (an accident) when the pipeline first went into service (see 
Anti-drilling zealots have hounded the Mariner East (ME) pipeline project from its beginning, attempting to block the completion of the third and final pipeline (ME2X), due to be done by the end of this year. One of the ways the zealots have attacked is via repeated charges brought to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), the agency that oversees and regulates the intrastate ME system. In addition to unloading on Energy Transfer’s (ET) Revolution Pipeline system yesterday (see today’s lead story), the PUC also issued an order yesterday with some 14 actions (we call them todos) that ET must complete with regard to finishing construction of the ME system. Some of the todos deal with the ongoing operation of the ME system.
Yesterday the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Richard “Dick” Glick, told everyone to calm down about extending an emergency certificate to allow the Spire STL pipeline to continue operating beyond Dec. 13 when the existing certificate expires. Then Glick took his knife out and proceeded to knife Spire in the back, calling their action in warning customers they may go without natgas this winter (if FERC doesn’t act) “fear-mongering.” Glick also said the entire situation is “a mess” and there was “no evidence” the pipeline was needed when the Commission, during the Trump years, originally approved it. Hey Dick, if people will go cold (and some may die) this winter without it, don’t you think just maybe it *is* needed after all? Why do you refuse to admit you were wrong in voting against it originally?
In October the owner of the Glen Riddle Station Apartment complex in Delaware County, PA convinced a county judge to order the release of emails between officials in Middletown Township and Energy Transfer, owner of the Mariner East pipeline system (see