Maine PUC Says Shutting Weymouth, MA Compressor a Really Bad Idea
In February the Democrat-controlled Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said it would accept comments from the public on whether or not the Commission should willy nilly shut down a legally permitted, already built, and successfully running compressor station in Weymouth, Massachusetts (see FERC Considers Canceling Already Built/Running Weymouth Compressor). Nothing like changing the rules of the game after the game has already been played, right? The comments on whether to shutter the Weymouth compressor have come in fast and furious. Among those who don’t want the compressor shut down is the entire state of Maine.
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Back in March MDN told you about supposed violations by Chesapeake Energy of the federal Clean Water Act and the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law and Dam Safety and Encroachments Act by failing to identify and protect swamps (i.e. wetlands) at a number of oil and gas well sites in Pennsylvania (see 
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to force the state to participate in the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a tax on carbon aimed at eliminating coal and natural gas-fired electric power plants, got a boost yesterday when the state Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Air Quality Technical Advisory Board voted 10-8 in favor of the plan.
One of the ways the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania State Legislature is attempting to block Gov. Tom Wolf from unilaterally forcing the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax scheme, is by voting against any new members to the state’s Public Utility Commission (see 
The Jones Act prevents LNG from being transported from one U.S. port (like Cove Point, Maryland and Elba Island, Georgia) to other U.S. ports (like Boston and New York) because there are no built-in-the-USA LNG carriers, a requirement under the 1920 Jones Act. When New England runs low on natural gas, they must import the gas from Russia (see 
A number of municipalities (mainly cities) in states like California, Washington, and Massachusetts have passed local ordinances banning the use of natural gas in new or refurbished construction. That is, they’ve become energy bigots, institutionalizing discrimination against forms of energy they irrationally hate. Prejudice and discrimination (hatred) are always ugly, whatever form they take, whether against other humans or against energy sources. Some states have passed new laws to prohibit local municipalities from engaging in energy discrimination and natural gas bans. Pennsylvania is the latest to consider such protection.
Once again the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is falling down on the job. For years we’ve covered the news that DEP delays in issuing simple permits for erosion and sediment control are taking far longer–months longer–than they should. A Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit is supposed to take 14 days to review and issue. In the Southwest DEP office, it’s taking an average of five months! Enough is enough. It’s time to pass legislation (one of three bills) now working its way through the PA House and Senate that allows private, third-party engineers to review and approve permits since the DEP (under Sec. Pat McDonnell) is incapable of doing its job.
In July 2020, PA Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law House Bill (HB) 732, a bill that grants tax breaks to companies willing to build brand new petrochemical plants in the Keystone State–plants that use huge quantities of Marcellus Shale gas (see 
Yesterday MDN reported comments by Energy Transfer (ET) that the company plans to finally (after years of delays) complete the final pieces of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project by the third quarter of this year (see 
Yet another assault on natural gas pipelines coming from the federal agency that’s supposed to promote them: the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). When FERC approves a new pipeline project, the very first thing fossil fuel haters do is challenge that decision, requesting a “rehearing” or reconsideration of the decision. FERC under new Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick has just ruled that construction work on pipelines can’t proceed unless and until the rehearing request is no longer pending (FERC decides yes or no), which can take up to 90 days. In other words, FERC has just handed antis the right to delay a project by up to three months (in reality 10 months) just by filing a rehearing request.
On July 18, 2019, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act). It is among the craziest and stupidest climate laws in the world, requiring NY to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and by 85% by 2050 (from 1990 levels). The law creates a Climate Action Council charged with developing a scoping plan of recommendations to meet these targets. The Council has multiple “panels” to assist. One of the panels is the Power Generation Advisory Panel, filled with far-left, Big Green people. That panel is about to recommend NY State prohibit the construction of any new natural gas-fired power plants–beginning now.
A new so-called study has appeared sponsored by the radicals at Heinz Endowments. It is bought-and-paid-for “research” that claims the Act 13 law passed in Pennsylvania in 2012 hasn’t done a darned thing to prevent shale wells from being drilled closer than 500 feet from houses and schools. Duke University, Harvard University, and Boston Children’s Hospital took money from Heinz and prostituted themselves, putting their names to this filthy propaganda. Heinz then instructed one of their own, StateImpact Pennsylvania (which Heinz also funds) to publish a “news story” about the study, hoping to catch the interest of leftist, lazy “reporters” (like those at Bloomberg, AP, etc.) to pick up the story and repeat it. This is how news gets manufactured in today’s world.
If the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) thinks it is going to change the rules for how it approves existing, already-filed applications for pipelines, it needs to think again. That’s according to a group of both Republican and Democrat U.S. Senators who sent a warning letter to FERC last week. The Senators say FERC has no right to change the rules part of the way through the game, which is exactly what FERC, under Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick, is threatening to do.