FERC’s Proposed Policy Changes Mean Uncertainty, Fewer Gas Projects
Under orders from the White House, earlier this year Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick tried to permanently enshrine global warming considerations as a requirement to approve all new pipeline projects (see FERC Democrats Ram Thru Global Warming Policy for Pipe Decisions). Under extraordinary pressure from just about everyone (both Republicans and Democrats), a month later he backed off (see FERC’s Glick Does “Abrupt About-Face” on New Global Warming Regs). But FERC still plans to adopt these onerous changes. According to attornies with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, the proposed changes “are significant, having the potential to stifle the development of greenfield projects and major expansions if they are allowed to go forward.”
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Although we understand self-interest and wanting to protect one’s profit margin, we continue to be distressed that some of the biggest chemical companies in the world (meaning in the U.S.) are actively trying to block LNG exports. Why? They want the natural gas they buy (in very large quantities) to be as cheap as possible. In 2017, Big Chemical–companies like Dow Corning, BASF, Eastman Chemical, and others–via their trade association Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA), launched an effort to try and persuade Energy Secretary Rick Perry and the Trump Administration to create barriers to exports of natural gas (see 
In March 2019, MDN told you about a new Williams plan to beef up the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, to deliver an extra 829 MMcf/d (originally 1 billion cubic feet per day) of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland (see 
All six Big Banks (and investment firms) on the West Virginia blacklist of companies pressuring investors to avoid fossil energy companies are objecting to being included on the WV blacklist. One month ago WV State Treasurer Riley Moore sent a letter to six big banks/investment firms alerting them they are about to be added to the state’s “blacklist” for violating policies by not investing or doing business with fossil fuel companies (see 
The 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project from Wetzel County, WV to Pittsylvania County, VA announced in 2014 was supposed to be completed in 2018 and cost $3.5 billion. The project builder, Equitrans Midstream, now says MVP, which is 94% complete, should be done by the end of 2023 at a staggering cost of $6.6 billion. What happened in between 2014 and today is that Big Green groups, many of which use foreign funding (from countries like Russia) have repeatedly challenged the project. Complicit and colluding judges have placed roadblocks in the way, preventing MVP from finishing. Given the ongoing opposition from the radical left, MVP recently asked FERC to extend the time to complete the project until October 2026, just in case. Comments on MVP’s request to extend the deadline are due by tomorrow.
Since 2013 anti-fossil fuel zealots–people with an irrational hatred of fossil fuels–have tried to ban drilling under (not on) public parks in Allegheny County, PA (near Pittsburgh). In January of this year, County Councilor Bethany Hallam, a committed anti-fossil fuel fanatic (who herself uses fossil energy every day) introduced yet another resolution to ban fracking underneath county parks, which would potentially deny an important revenue stream to the county (see 
Last year the Bidenistas initiated a massive power grab to transfer the right of individual states to regulate local natural gas gathering pipelines to the federal government (see 
In June the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Environmental Quality Board (EQB) adopted an onerous new regulation that supposedly will capture every last molecule of stray methane that leaks from shale drilling operations (see 
God help you if you are a midstream company that has to wade through the mountain of federal regulations and codes generated by agencies including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and are subject to those agencies’ arbitrary decisions on what they will and won’t enforce. In what amounts to a game of Simon Says, FERC has just fined M3 Ohio Gathering, Utica East Ohio Midstream, and UEOM NGL Pipelines–all three either current or former owners of two tiny NGL pipelines that flow propane and ethane from the Scio (Ohio) fractionation plant–$30,000 for not filling out a particular form over a six-year period. Thirty grand for a paperwork violation. It is, according to lawyers who watch these things, an escalation, an “aggressive expansion of enforcement” on the part of FERC.
Last year Big Green lobbyists using the City of Oberlin, Ohio contested the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) decision to approve the Enbridge/DTE Energy NEXUS pipeline, a $2 billion, 255-mile pipeline from the Ohio Utica Shale into Michigan that’s been flowing for years connecting to a pipeline that exports some of the gas into Canada (see 
Shippers (drillers, utility companies, others that buy and sell natural gas) are now free to buy and sell producer certified gas (PCG), or responsibly sourced gas (RSG), at all pooling points across the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) system. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the TGP pooling plan after previously rejecting the plan. FERC decided the pooling plan is precisely what we said it was–a marketing thing–and not an endorsement by FERC of whether or not the methane flowing with that designation meets certain environmental criteria.
Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a 6-3 decision in West Virginia v. EPA that changes everything. It’s hard to overstate just how important the court’s decision is. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and the attorney generals from 18 other states sought to limit the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its misinterpretation of the so-called Clean Air Act in order to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants. The court ruled in favor of WV against EPA, meaning EPA cannot regulate coal- and natural gas-fired power plants out of existence, as it was seeking to do. Let’s all revel in this MAJOR victory!
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) and its pipeline subsidiary Empire Pipeline have worked on a plan to build the Northern Access Pipeline since 2016. Northern Access is a 97-mile project from McKean County in Pennsylvania into and through Allegany, Cattaraugus and Erie counties in New York, that will flow Marcellus gas into New York State. The project was repeatedly delayed by the radicals of the Andrew Cuomo (now Kathy Hochul) administration. NFG says it still wants to build the project, but needs more time. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) just gave NFG an extra 35 months to get the project done.
Plum Boro (Allegheny County, PA) officials and environmental leftist groups (backed by Big Green foreign money) are gearing up to oppose Plum’s second wastewater injection well with smears and lies. A long-fought-over wastewater injection well in Plum finally opened for business in mid-2021, having overcome all sorts of smears and slanders and lawsuits by the enviro-left (see