PA Labor Union Slaps FERC for Delays in Approving Pipe Projects
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) under current Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick has intentionally slammed the brakes on approving pipeline projects across the country, including those here in the northeast (something we predicted if Biden were to win the White House). Glick’s excuse for delaying new approvals is that FERC is trying to figure out how to account for mythical man-made global warming when evaluating whether or not to approve a new project. It’s pure horse manure, and a prominent Pennsylvania labor union is calling FERC out on its ongoing delay tactic.
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MDN first told you about plans to build the Chickahominy Power Station, a 1,650 megawatt state-of-the-art natural gas-fired power plant planned for Charles City County (near Richmond, Va.) in June 2018 (see 
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) published a notice in the September 4 Pennsylvania Bulletin for “final technical guidance” on Implementing the Area of Review Regulatory Requirement for Unconventional Well Permitting. This is a document to guide drillers as they evaluate where they will frack, instructing them in how they should evaluate and monitor other nearby wells (other fracked wells or conventional oil and gas wells) to ensure those wells don’t “communicate” oil and gas up to the surface. That is, to ensure oil and gas come out of the right borehole, the well it’s supposed to come out of.
Not only is the $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill bad for the country (see 
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) voted to approve the final Environmental Quality Board regulation to slap an insanely high carbon tax, euphemistically called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), on PA’s coal and natural gas-fired power plants. The partisan vote was 3-2 (Democrats voting for, Republicans against) in favor of hiking electric rates by an extra $2.36 billion over the next 10 years. Is there any way to stop Gov. Tom Wolf’s illegal entry into RGGI?
August 30 was RINO Neil Chatterjee’s last day at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see 
Yesterday a group of ~30 protesters rallied at the Historic Courthouse in Chester County, PA, and marched, while chanting, to the County Justice Center. Their protest is against almost completed Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline construction and against a long-completed and flowing Mariner East 1 (ME1) pipeline. The protesters, some who were left wing nuts, others who were honest folks who have been duped by Big Green and scaremongers in the media, asked county commissioners to file a Petition for Emergency Relief with the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) to stop any further construction of ME2 and shut down the already-operating ME1 pipeline that runs through the county.
The Barack Hussein Obama administration went crazy with over-regulation in many sectors. One of them was to redefine “waters of the United States” (or WOTUS) as everything down to (no exaggeration) mud puddles (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 
Although some 92% of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is already built and in the ground, important segments remain unfinished, including pipeline built under or through rivers, streams, and wetlands. One of the key remaining segments for water crossings is in Virginia. Last Thursday the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued a draft Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act permit that would approve plans to let MVP finish its work in the state. The DEQ is now accepting comments on the plan. Anti-drilling zealots have gone nearly berserk with the news. Did they really think they would stop this $6 billion project?
A number of big Marcellus/Utica drillers (i.e. producers) have gone whole hog on ESG (environmental, social, governance) programs in an attempt to prove to the world natural gas and the way we produce it is green too. One of the companies that popped up over a year ago to help M-U drillers (and drillers in other plays) prove they are clean and green was Independent Energy Standards Corporation (IES) TrustWell™ Responsible Gas Program (see 
In March 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to enter the public consciousness, some 500 people from labor unions and industry met in Pittsburgh to launch an organization called Pittsburgh Works Together (PWT), dedicated to fighting back against those who want to end southwest PA industries including steel, natural gas, and petrochemicals (see 
In an effort to flow more Marcellus natural gas to a gas-starved New York City, Kinder Morgan cut a deal with utility company Consolidated Edison in 2019 to beef up capacity along its Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) that feeds NYC, allowing Con Ed to avoid cutting customers off from natgas hookups (see 
The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) recently issued a “warning letter” to Shell concerning the company’s ethane pipeline, called the Falcon Pipeline. PHMSA claims the pipeline committed two “probable violations” by failing to place pipeline sections at a construction site in Beaver County on protective padding. PHMSA told Shell to fix it, or else.
When the executive branch of the federal government operates outside the law and nobody holds them to account, we have a lawless country. Under federal, established law, states have a maximum of one year to review applications for pipeline permits under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. Yet now the Biden administration and its rogue EPA is telling states they can take all the time they want to review these permits, instructing “co-regulators” like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) it’s OK if states go beyond one year. What a disaster. This is yet one more way Biden gets around the law in his mission to destroy the fossil fuel sector.
A far-left “environmental” group calling itself POWER pretends to be religious in nature. Perhaps it is religious–the religion of worshipping the creation instead of worshipping the Creator. The Pennsylvania-based group claims fossil fuels are racist, that fossil fuel companies intentionally target communities of color to install pipelines, compressor stations, and oil/gas wells. Yes, these people are wack in their views. But they have the ear of PA’s failed governor, Tom Wolf, and they intend to try and pack the state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) with people who are as equally wack as they are.