Energy Industry Groups Refuse to Support Glick FERC Reappointment
There’s grumbling and complaining in the D.C. swamp that U.S. Senator Joe Manchin is refusing to hold a hearing on the reappointment of Richard “Dick” Glick to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Glick is currently the Chairman of the commission. His five-year term is already over, and come December 31st if he is not reappointed by the Senate (as Biden wants), he’s out, and FERC goes to a 2-2 tie between Democrats and Republicans. Lefty Dems are grumbling about Manchin, but not too loudly because they previously screwed him out of a bill to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline (“Save MVP” Permitting Bill is Dead – Manchin Pulls it From CR). They don’t dare make Manchin any more mad now, or they risk further retaliation.
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According to insiders in the D.C. swamp, the deal that U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (from West Virginia) made with Sen. Chuck Schumer (from New York) to get a “permitting reform” bill passed that would, among other things, allow the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), currently 94% built and in the ground, is on “life support.” The bill proposed by Manchin would bypass the clown judges on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals who are blocking it. The bill supposedly would allow MVP to finish and go online. However, Republicans are being falsely accused of blocking it.
The same three radicalized environmental groups that previously attacked the Renovo Energy Center (REC), a Marcellus gas-fired power plant planned for Clinton County, PA, are at it again. On November 22, the Clean Air Council, PennFuture, and the Center for Biological Diversity (all completely radicalized fossil fuel bigots) announced they had appealed an extension of time for an air pollution permit granted to REC by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Last week the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) voted to approve the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and its Environmental Quality Board’s (EQB) rammed-through (in a rush) regulation to control volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and by extension methane, for conventional drilling sites throughout the state (see 
The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) released a notice of intent to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) that will focus on the construction of a 32-inch buried pipeline under 3.5 miles of forest service land in the Jefferson National Forest. This is the third time around for the same permit. The first two EIS/permits were rejected by the clown judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. There’s no reason to believe the clowns will not reject it a third time, but Equitrans (the builder) and the USFS must go through the motions anyway.
MDN previously reported that in October, Joe Nolan, the CEO of New England’s largest utility company, Eversource, sent a letter to President Biden urging him to assemble a panel and figure out how to ensure natgas flows to New England (via LNG) this winter–because if it doesn’t, this IS the year rolling blackouts become reality (see 
In his first two days in office, Joe Biden declared war on the oil and gas industry. One of the first things he did was to revive an interagency working group on the “social cost” of greenhouse gas emissions and directed the issuance of an “interim” cost (see 
House Republican leaders said last Thursday the party is preparing an energy and environment package that will likely emerge in January as one of the first pieces of major legislation passed by the Republican-controlled chamber. The Republican leaders of the House energy committees said they have an interest in tackling permitting reform (proposed by Joe Manchin) in the next Congress as well. They say it’s doubtful a permitting reform bill can move in the next month before the current Congress adjourns.
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced that CNX Resources has paid two civil penalty assessments totaling $200,000 for violations at two different well sites in Richhill Township, Greene County. According to the civil penalty assessment paperwork, CNX spilled “production fluids” (wastewater, drilling mud, etc.) and didn’t clean it up quickly enough. Tallying all of the spills, CNX inadvertently spilled 2,170 gallons of production fluid at two sites, and ended up removing roughly 3,400 tons of “contaminated” soil.
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) voted to approve the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and its Environmental Quality Board’s (EQB) rammed-through (in a rush) regulation to control volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and by extension methane, for conventional drilling sites throughout the state (see 
In March of this year, the three Democrats who occupy and control the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) sent a loud and clear signal they don’t like the Commonwealth LNG plan to erect a new LNG export plant in Cameron Parish, La. due to concerns over so-called environmental justice (see 
Two separate but related cases concerning Pennsylvania’s entrance into the interstate carbon cap-and-trade program known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which we call a carbon tax, had their day in court yesterday. Judges from PA’s typically conservative Commonwealth Court heard oral arguments and, according to leftists, zeroed in on the issue of whether the so-called RGGI “fee” assessed by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is really a fee, or instead is really a tax. It makes a difference. The DEP can, constitutionally, assess a fee, but it cannot unilaterally slap a new tax on coal- and natural gas-fired power plants (as it is trying to do).
Spire Inc. is the owner and operator of the Spire STL Pipeline, a 65-mile pipeline that connects to and flows Marcellus/Utica gas from the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline in Scott County, IL, to residents and businesses in the St. Louis, MO area. Yesterday Spire issued its third quarter update and included a tidbit of information that had escaped us. In October, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a full, final, positive environmental impact statement (EIS) for Spire STL, the final step before issuing a permanent certificate for the pipeline to operate.