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”
Even though MDN editor Jim Willis once worked at both The White House (during the Reagan years) and for Congresswoman Helen Bentley on Capitol Hill during the 1980s, he still sometimes does not understand the inner workings of the D.C. swamp. Example: Why did President Trump nominate, and a Republican Senate just confirm, Allison Clements to be a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioner?
Read More “U.S. Senate Confirms Radical NRDC Lawyer as FERC Commissioner”
Enbridge’s Weymouth compressor station project, the final piece of the $452 million Atlantic Bridge expansion project, last week received permission from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to begin operations in early December. This is a MAJOR victory.
Read More “Weymouth, MA Compressor Station Gets Greenlight to Start Operating”
A truly bipartisan bill ensuring only those people in Pennsylvania who actually need pipeline safety information have access to it was signed into law last week by Gov. Tom Wolf. PA House Bill (HB) 2293 requires pipeline operators to provide emergency response plans upon request to the secretary of the Public Utility Commission, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, and the Emergency Management Director for each county where the pipeline runs through a densely populated area.
Read More “PA Gov. Wolf Signs Law Requiring Pipe Cos. Share Emergency Plans”
Leftist Democrat Congressman Jamie Raskin, from Maryland, is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to provide reams of documents on how it handles landowner complaints about natural gas pipelines crossing their land. Raskin is Chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. He’s got his knickers in a twist over the centuries-old concept of eminent domain–that the government (under the Constitution) has the right to seize individual property with just compensation in rare but necessary cases.
Read More “Maryland Congressman Demands FERC Answers re MVP, ACP”
Every now and again we hear from MDN readers who mildly (or strongly) disagree with our politics and view of the leftwing Democrat Party and the frail, mentally-challenged Joe Biden (who won’t last two years in office before he’s pushed out for medical and/or mental reasons). They tell us a Biden presidency isn’t the end of oil and gas, and maybe he will even help our industry! (Even though Biden promised to “transition away from oil” in his last debate appearance.) We’re mystified that anyone can hold the view that Biden will be good for O&G, but there are people (in our audience) who do hold that view. The article below does a good job of capturing their viewpoint and thinking about the incoming Biden administration.
Read More “Some in Oil & Gas Industry Look Forward to a Biden Presidency”
“OK Jim, what’s *really* going to happen to the oil and gas industry under a Joe Biden presidency? None of your apocalyptic B.S. please.” We’ve heard that sentiment/question expressed on occasion by MDN subscribers. Last week the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank and the Kansas City Reserve Bank hosted a virtual conference titled, “Energy and the Changing Economy: Navigating the Changing Energy Landscape.” Some of the best experts in the industry (some of them Biden supporters) delivered their best guess as to what will realistically happen over the next four years to the oil and gas industry under a Biden administration…
Read More “Oil & Gas Experts Give Realistic Assessment of Biden Impact”
The natural gas industry is proving effective at policing itself–far more effective than having the jackboots of the federal government step on its neck. Case in point: an industry group called Our Nation’s Energy Future (ONE Future), a coalition of 32 natural gas companies, released its 2019 report (below) that shows member companies collectively beat the group’s methane intensity goal by 67% for the year.
Read More “NatGas Coalition Beats Methane Emissions Goal by 67% in 2019”
Earlier this month the Sierra Club filed yet another lawsuit (we’ve lost count of how many they’ve filed) attempting to block construction of the final 8% of Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). The Clubbers asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to “temporarily” block a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (see Sierra Club Files Another Lawsuit to Block MVP’s FWS Permit). Earlier this week the court declined, meaning MVP can continue working over the winter.
Read More “Fourth Circuit Allows Work on Mountain Valley Pipe to Continue”