The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) over the weekend published a final (revised) version of its Waste General Permit which governs how wastewater from shale fracking and produced water can be processed and reused for more drilling and fracking.
Read More “PA DEP Publishes Revised Permit for Liquid Waste from Fracking”
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), the agency in charge of issuing permits for building the Mariner East pipeline projects, has just poked its head up to weigh in on another Energy Transfer project it issued permits to build: Revolution Pipeline. The PUC is proposing a $1 million penalty for “multiple violations” that led to an explosion of the pipeline as it entered service. The PUC also details a bunch of hoops ET must jump through in order to start service on the pipeline.
Read More “PA PUC Proposes $1M Fine for ET Revolution Pipe Explosion in 2018”
Leftists, like Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, always have to learn lessons the hard way. In August, Wolf’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) finalized and put into effect a massive increase in the permit fee to drill new shale wells, going from $5,000 per well to $12,500 (see Permit Fee to Drill PA Shale Well Officially Went Up 250% on Aug 1). The fee was based on the assumption the state would continue to see 2,000 new permit applications per year. From August to November the state received (drum roll please)…202 new permit requests. A total BUST.
Read More “PA Drilling Permit Requests Way Down After Huge Fee Increase”
In Pennsylvania, there are two permits required by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for nearly every shale well drilling project: A Chapter 102 (erosion and sediment control) and a Chapter 105 (water obstructions and encroachments). The DEP has proposed and is seeking comments on wide-ranging amendments to its Chapter 105 regulations.
Read More “PA DEP Proposes Changes to Ch. 105 Water Permits”
In March 2019 MDN told you about Kinder Morgan’s Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America LLC (NGPL) project that carries Marcellus/Utica gas from the Midwest all the way to the Gulf Coast to feed just about any of the existing or under construction LNG export plants in the region (see NGPL Pipe Will Flow M-U Gas to Gulf Coast for LNG Export). Phase 1 of NGPL’s Southbound Expansion project was placed in service in October 2018, providing an extra 460,000 Dth/d (460 MMcf/d) of gas from NGPL’s interstate pipeline interconnects in Illinois, Arkansas, and Texas to markets in NGPL’s South Texas zone. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has just given Phase 2 of the project permission for a partial startup.
Read More “FERC OKs NGPL Pipe Phase 2 Partial Startup – M-U Gas to Gulf Coast”
The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) issued an environmental impact statement (EIS) on Friday that supports plans for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to run through 3.5 miles of woodlands, and under the Appalachian Trail, in the Jefferson National Forest in Monroe County in West Virginia, in and Giles and Montgomery counties in Virginia. This is one of the few items remaining on the MVP checklist before completing the project which is already 92% built and in the ground.
Read More “US Forest Service Issues EIS Supporting MVP Thru Jefferson Forest”
Energy Transfer’s (ET) Revolution Pipeline runs through Bulter, Beaver, Allegheny, and Washington counties in southwest PA. The 24-inch gathering pipeline shifted and exploded in September 2018, just as it was entering service (see Revolution Pipeline Near Pittsburgh Explodes – Home & Barn Destroyed). After more than two years and countless squabbles between the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and ET, the pipeline is ready to return to service. Almost…
Read More “PA DEP Invites Public Comment on Revolution Pipe Final Permits”
This is rich. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) took its sweet time reviewing a permit application to drill a series of Marcellus Shale wells on the property of U.S. Steel Corp.’s Edgar Thomson steel mill. Because the DEP delayed its review for so long, in October the East Pittsburgh Borough Zoning Board revoked a local permit previously granted for the project in 2017 (see Town Rejects Permit to Drill Shale Well at Pittsburgh Steel Mill). Now the DEP says they won’t continue their years-long permit review until the driller regains the lost local zoning permit. The DEP caused the problem in the first place!
Read More “PA DEP Suspends Permit Review for Pittsburgh Steel Mill Shale Well”
Down but not out. That’s the best way to describe a $346 million pipeline project in northeastern Virginia called the Header Improvement Project. On Dec. 1 the Virginia State Corporation Commission dismissed a request to approve the project. Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) said it will resubmit the project under a new docket/request.
Read More “State Board Rejects $346M Pipeline Expansion Project in NE Va.”
Miracles never cease! The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) met yesterday and voted to approve a 1,300-foot-long pier in Gibbstown, NJ to load LNG tankers. Reaction by anti-fossil fuel zealots was swift, predictable, and hilarious. They’re claiming loading LNG onto ships is somehow more dangerous than the old DuPont dynamite factory that used to exist at the same location. They’re also calling the leftist Democrat governors of PA, NJ and DE “climate deniers.” Too funny!
Read More “DRBC Does Right Thing, Approves NJ LNG Export Terminal”
It seems pretty certain at this point that Joe Biden will seize control of the White House come Jan. 20 (although we still hold out hope for a Supreme Court intervention against the blatant election illegalities in PA, GA, MI, WI). If Biden/Harris do occupy the White House come January, what will that mean for hotly-disputed pipeline projects, including the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from West Virginia into Virginia?
Read More “How Biden Administration Can Impact Mountain Valley Pipeline”
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the utility and midstream giant based in Buffalo, NY, remains committed to building it’s Northern Access Pipeline project, a $500 million project that includes building 97 miles of new pipeline along a power line corridor from northwestern Pennsylvania up to Erie County, NY. The project also calls for 3 miles of new pipeline further up, in Niagara County, along with a new compressor station in the Town of Pendleton.
Read More “FERC Denies Time Extension to Build PA to NY Northern Access Pipe”
On Monday MDN told you about a cool new website called LandGate that offers instant valuations for oil and gas rights sitting under a property, along with the location of wells drilled nearby (see Free Website Helps M-U Landowners Estimate O&G Values). MDN friend Tom Shepstone (Natural Gas Now) built on our discovery by using LandGate to calculate the value that has been destroyed by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and their ongoing “temporary” ban on fracking in northern Wayne County, PA.
Read More “DRBC has “Taken” $1.3B from Northern Wayne County, PA Landowners”
Last week MDN told you that the judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit signaled they will overturn, for a second time, a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that allows the 92% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from finishing its work by installing pipe under or through creeks and rivers (see 4th Circuit Clown Judges Signal They’ll Overturn MVP Permit, Again). We’ve just learned that the State of West Virginia is working to revise its environmental regulations to help MVP address the court’s objections.
Read More “WV Modifying Regulations to Allow MVP Project to Finish”
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is in major butt-covering mode with the state’s conventional (non-shale) oil and gas industry. During an industry-led advisory committee meeting held yesterday, members of PA’s conventional oil and gas industry delivered some rather blunt comments to DEP Deputy Secretary for Oil and Gas Management Scott Perry, accusing the DEP of “ramming the most punitive set of regulations on this industry to date.”
Read More “O&G Industry Calls Out PA DEP for “Appalling” Conventional Regs”
Two years ago the Maryland Board of Public Works (BPW), which has three members (two leftwing Democrats and RINO Gov. Larry Hogan), rejected an 8-inch, 3.5-mile pipeline (tiny!) that would travel under the Potomac River, even though 12 other pipelines have previously been built under the Potomac in the same general vicinity (see Maryland Pulls a NY, Rejects Pipeline Under Potomac River). Yesterday the same group of three BPW lefties approved a 10-inch, 6.83-mile pipeline for a different company. Our conclusion: The fix is in. Corruption.
Read More “Maryland Board of Public Works Approves Tiny Pipe in Eastern Shore”