PHMSA Keeps Weymouth, MA Compressor Offline Following Shutdowns
Score a minor victory for the forces of evil. As we reported yesterday, two days ago Enbridge’s Weymouth, Massachusetts compressor station, about to come online, experienced a second emergency shutdown (see 2nd Emergency Shutdown at Weymouth, MA Compressor, Antis Pounce). The plant had to vent what amounted to a puff of natural gas. Yet antis screamed for an intervention. They got it.
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In July Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law House Bill (HB) 732, a bill that will grant 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 
Equitrans Midstream, which used to be part of EQT as EQT Midstream, is still EQT’s main squeeze when it comes to gathering pipelines connected to its wells. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced yesterday it has fined Equitrans $427,650 for “slips, stabilization, and erosion and sedimentation violations at pipeline sites in Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties.”
Energy Transfer (ET), builder and operator of the Revolution Pipeline in southwestern Pennsylvania, last week received permission from the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to reroute a section that “slipped” after record rainfall two years ago, resulting in an explosion in Beaver County.
Some fantastic news to share. Last Friday the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reissued the second of three necessary permits required to finally finish the 92% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project in Virginia and West Virginia. The Army Corps reissued a permit they previously issued (but got overturned by Big Green groups in court), a Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12, allowing the project to cross over or under some 1,000 or so creeks, rivers, and wetlands.
Last Friday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a “settlement” (with no admission of guilt) with MarkWest Energy, with MarkWest paying a $150,000 fine for failure to monitor for air emissions leaks at its Liberty Bluestone facility in Butler County, PA.
Last week Enbridge asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to bring its Weymouth, Massachusetts compressor station online by Oct. 1 (see 
On Tuesday Equitrans Midstream sent the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) an official letter (called a filing) politely requesting FERC get off its collective rear end and grant permission to resume construction activities for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) so they can complete certain kinds of work before winter sets in. Equitrans requested an order allowing work to resume no later than…tomorrow!
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued modified permits for the Mariner East 2 pipeline project in three southeast PA locations (Delaware and Chester counties). Each location has faced problems with underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD). The modifications allow a different type of installation method to be used–open trench.
Yesterday the Ohio Power Siting Board approved the construction, operation, and maintenance of a Utica-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant on the main campus of Ohio State University in Columbus. Wonders never cease! Of course, irrational fossil fuel haters are not giving up the fight to try and block it.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is making official what has, until now, been unofficial (but enforceable via court orders)–state environmental agencies have exactly one year to dither around and then either grant or reject issuing a Section 401 permit for pipelines (and other projects) to cross rivers and streams and wetlands. Last week FERC issued a Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) to make the one-year time limit (a part of law under the Federal Clean Water Act) an official part of FERC regulations too.
There are at least a few honest politicians in Columbus, Ohio. Last week several Ohio state legislators made the case to overturn House Bill (HB) 6. Last year FirstEnergy Solutions (now called Energy Harbor) allegedly paid $60 million in bribes to (now former) Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four of his associates to gain their assistance in passing the hugely unpopular HB 6 (see 
In May, Australian company LNG Limited (LNGL) found a buyer for its Magnolia LNG export project, located in Louisiana, for $2 million (see