White House Likes Massachusetts Radical to Fill FERC Seat
What a disaster, with respect to regulating oil and gas, the Biden administration continues to be. Word is leaking around Washington, D.C. that the administration has vetted and likes Maria Duaime Robinson, a leftist Democrat Massachusetts state representative, to replace Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Neil Chatterjee (RINO). So-called renewables companies are salivating at the prospect of having one of their own putting the screws to the oil and gas industry.
Read More “White House Likes Massachusetts Radical to Fill FERC Seat”
We’re always jazzed when we unearth information related to the Marcellus/Utica nobody else has yet discovered or highlighted. We think we’ve found something interesting related to a recently updated spreadsheet maintained by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). On Friday the EIA published a post to trumpet the news that 19 “liquids” pipeline projects are “moving toward completion in 2021.” In reviewing the list we discovered two projects related to the M-U in 2021, and a third M-U project coming in 2022. All three have an impact on the ability of M-U drillers to move NGL’s out of our region to higher-paying markets.
We find it kind of amusing that anti-fossil fuelers dead set against a plan by Kinder Morgan to build a new compressor station in Passaic County, NJ, and dead set against upgrading an existing compressor station in neighboring Sussex County, NJ, were all worked up to attend a Sussex County Board of Commissioners meeting where a Tennessee Gas Pipeline representative was supposed to make a presentation, but the rep didn’t show. He had (ahem) “car trouble” and couldn’t make the meeting in person. Antis were all dressed up with nowhere to go.
Here’s an interesting concept. What if you were to replace the natural gas flowing through a pipeline, say an old, unused pipeline, with compressed air instead? And what if you retooled an existing gas- or coal-fired power plant so the compressed air itself spins the turbines in the compressor to produce electricity? That’s the concept being floated by the appropriately named company called Breeze.
Here’s a peer-reviewed, published research study you won’t read about in mainstream media. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Penn State University, and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation recently published research in The Electricity Journal (full copy below) detailing how much money it cost New England electric ratepayers in 2014 when there was a cold-weather event that caused a shortage of natural gas used for power plants, due to lack of pipelines. New Englanders paid $1.8 BILLION for that one event in skyrocketed electric rates–due to the folly of their elected leaders in blocking new pipelines to the region.
Three far-left Democrat judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit have attacked the Marcellus/Utica by overturning a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval for a long-completed and flowing natural gas pipeline in the St. Louis, MO area–a pipeline that flows M-U gas to residents, businesses, and electric generating plants in the region. The Spire STL pipeline now faces closure. It is a 
The West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection (WV DEP) is moving forward with its constitutional duty to evaluate whether or not the state should issue a federal Clean Water Act permit allowing Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to finish crossing water bodies it hasn’t already crossed under a previous permit (which was overturned by the lefties of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit). WV DEP will hold an online, virtual hearing tonight at 6 pm to accept comments from the public.
Last night the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) held a virtual hearing on a compromise plan between Energy Transfer/Sunoco Logistics and the DEP to allow ET/Sunoco to complete construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project in the Marsh Creek State Park area (Chester County) where there have been some “issues” that halted work in the area. Given the buildup by the anti-fossil fuel left to turn out and mouth off at the hearing, we’re struck that (so far) it is radio silence in mainstream media about the hearing. We can’t find a single story about the hearing. We do, however, have a report on more than two dozen pro-pipeline speakers who turned out for the virtual hearing. Perhaps that’s why the media is silent?
Sabal Trail is a $3.2 billion, 515-mile interstate natural gas pipeline in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama built to deliver (in part) Marcellus gas to the southeast. Sabal Trail connects to Williams’ Hillabee Expansion Project, which is a pipeline spur built off the huge Transco pipeline system. On June 15 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued orders extending the time for both projects to complete the final bits of their construction by another two years.
Adelphia Gateway, a plan to convert an old oil pipeline stretching from Northampton County, PA through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook, recently received permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to begin final the final bits of construction (see 
A federal court in Pennsylvania upheld the findings of a U.S. Dept. of Labor investigation that oil and gas contract worker Henkels & McCoy Inc. owes big money in back wages and overtime to 362 workers at 11 worksites in five states, including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Connecticut, Georgia, and (yes) even in New York too. The company must now pay $1,085,830 in back wages and damages.
The price of electricity and natural gas in New York State is through the roof. Average New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) power prices across major hubs increased by 50% year over year in May, and natural gas prices increased nearly 75% year over year. It’s a train wreck here in New York. And you can directly blame Andrew Cuomo and the Democrats in the NY legislature for blocking new natural gas pipelines. That’s the root cause. No pipelines = obscenely high prices for electricity and gas.
Traders are crediting news from Enbridge’s Texas Eastern Transmission (TETCO) pipeline that a recent flow restriction enforced by the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) will continue through the end of summer with helping to spike the Henry Hub futures price of natgas, up 4.5% on Friday to close at $3.30/MMBtu.
As we report today, Enbridge’s Texas Eastern Transmission (TETCO) pipeline will not be back to full pressure flowing Marcellus/Utica gas south (some of it to the Gulf Coast) until the end of summer. Last week MDN brought you the news that TETCO was denied permission to continue operating its pipeline system (three pipelines, actually) at full pressure (see