Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Transco | Williams
PennFuture Appeals DEP Permits for Transco Northeast Expansion Proj
Environmental radical Pat McDonnell of PennFuture, the former Pennsylvania Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), along with his best friend THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, have just sued McDonnell’s former agency over permits the DEP issued to Williams to build the Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project (see PA DEP Issues Permits for Transco Northeast Expansion Pipe Project). REAE is a plan to beef up the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to deliver an extra 829 MMcf/d of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland.
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Once again, the Biden administration is attacking the fossil fuel industry. This time it is via one of its favorite blunt force instruments: the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Yesterday the EPA released what it calls its final “Good Neighbor Plan” that forces gas- (and coal-) fired power plants to further reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. It’s either reduce NOx by installing really expensive new equipment, shut the plant down, or option #3…pay an indulgence (tax) to keep sinning (polluting) by purchasing an “offset.” Liberals are so predictable.
We have an update to a project we first told you about in June of last year called the Southside Reliability Enhancement Project (see 
NOW we understand why antis have restarted their attacks on the various components of New Fortress Energy’s Wyalusing LNG liquefaction plant–a project that has been dead as a doornail for three years. Yesterday we told you we were somewhat mystified by the actions of antis in the Delaware River Basin in opposing LNG-by-rail transportation and a permit for the seemingly dead project in land-locked Bradford County, PA (see 
Yesterday at a Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board meeting, Kurt Klapkowski, Acting Deputy for Oil and Gas Management (part of the Dept. of Environmental Protection), told board members the DEP is about to file a letter of intent as early as this week to apply for “primacy” to regulate underground injection wells in the state. Currently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the primary regulator of PA injection wells–including oil and gas injection wells. In some states with the necessary structure in place, the EPA delegates its authority to oversee and regulate such wells. PA wants to be one of those states. Me before you.
We find this story kind of funny–and sad. The left and the Bidenistas are panicked over methane leaks. They claim methane leaks into the atmosphere are 70X more potent in causing man-made global warming than plain old carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It’s all a hoax, but, whatever. Let’s assume it’s a worthy thing to try and reduce the amount of methane leaks coming from oil and gas operations (ignoring, for the moment, the fact there are two other sources of methane leaks much larger than oil and gas–nature itself and agriculture). The Biden administration, which just released a $6.6 TRILLION budget (an incomprehensible number), is going to fund research on how best to detect and stop methane leaks for O&G. Guess how much the Bidenistas will spend on this critical work? (Please don’t laugh…) A grand total of $47 million.
The Biden EPA plans to allow private citizens to police oil wells and pipelines for methane leaks. Most of the time that means Big Green groups will do the “policing.” And here’s how it will work: A radicalized group like the Sierra Club or Earthworks or NRDC or some other odious bad actor will set up equipment near oil and gas well sites or pipeline operations to report suspected “super emitter” leaks of at least 100 kilograms per hour. Once reported (likely a false report), the company involved would be required to perform a root-cause analysis within five days and take corrective actions within ten days. Companies will be required to jump through hoops based on an accusation by an anti-fossil fueler. We call it “methane snitches” (see 
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), in collaboration with Carbon Mapper, Inc. and the U.S. Climate Alliance, conducted a research study in May 2021. The study looked at four different areas across Pennsylvania to measure leaking methane using a specially-outfitted airplane. The study wasn’t so much about who was leaking methane as it was about whether the airborne detection technology was accurate. However, the results (the who) was interesting. The study (see an overview below) chronicles the discovery of 153 total methane plumes detected from 91 individual sources, including oil and gas facilities (63 sources), coal mines (18 sources), and landfills (9 facilities).
We spotted an article that was quite alarming for us. Conservative Republicans in the U.S. Senate are working on “a tariff on carbon-intensive goods,” which is, according to the article, “a concept environmentalists have long considered a crucial tool to combat climate change.” Republicans working on a carbon tax? Really? But then we read further and discovered it is not a carbon tax on goods produced here in this country, but a tariff (tax) on imported goods from other countries–namely from China.
As we have been reporting, CERAWeek, the world’s premier energy conference, is happening all this week in Houston, Texas. On Thursday, Bloomberg reporters filed a roundup/overview of happenings at the event. Below is the roundup from Day Four of CERAWeek, which includes reporting on a secretive meeting hosted by Biden administration officials who are working on a plan to take over standards for what constitutes and what does not constitute “responsible” gas. Also in the list is a summary of comments (very disappointing comments) made by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Chairman Willie Phillips about racist (i.e., “environmental justice”) oil and gas projects.
As we mentioned in passing in our post yesterday about Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s first budget, one of the items in his budget (and in his speech) was support for a $1 billion hydrogen hub project in the Keystone State (see 
We have been closely tracking the restart of the shuttered Freeport LNG export terminal following its emergency shutdown in June 2022 after an explosion and fire. Most recently, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted permission for Freeport to restart two of three liquefaction “trains” at the facility (see 
Newly-elected Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro unveiled his first-ever budget yesterday, and it was a whopper, coming in at $44.4 BILLION. We were keeping an eye on his budget for two primary things: (1) Does it include a severance tax? (2) Does Shapiro plan to get revenue from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme? For the first, the answer is no. Thankfully, Shapiro did not lobby nor request a Marcellus-killing severance tax. Which is sure to tick off the left. However, it was a mixed bag because the budget DOES assume RGGI will kick in and provide the state with $663 million in proceeds for 2023-24. Wait, you thought Shapiro was against RGGI following his comments slamming it? Surely you’re not that dumb?