President Trump Replaces Neil Chatterjee as FERC Chairman
In something of a surprise for us, last week as the election returns continued to roll in and votes were counted (or miscounted, in a number of cases), President Trump demoted or fired several top agency heads. One of them was at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Trump demoted FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee and elevated fellow Republican James Danly to become the new Chairman of FERC. Chatterjee will remain a FERC commissioner.
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In August Pennsylvania hiked its permit fee to drill a new shale well to be the most expensive of any state in the country, from $5,000 to $12,500 (see 
The New Jersey Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council (“Highlands Council”) is a regional planning agency that works in partnership with municipalities and counties in the Highlands Region to help them implement the state’s 2004 Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act (the Highlands Act). The Highlands Council has just given its blessing for a Tennesee Gas Pipeline (TGP) compressor station in Passaic County, NJ, near the border with Westchester, NY.
While Gulfport Energy (big Ohio Utica driller) hasn’t officially filed for bankruptcy, it’s certainly a possibility (see 
The bad blood between Energy Transfer (ET) and the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) continues. ET’s Sunoco Pipeline subsidiary is desperately trying to complete the Mariner East 2X pipeline from eastern Ohio through to Marcus Hook near Philadelphia. A recent drilling mud spill in Marsh Creek State Park prompted the DEP to demand Sunoco change the route for ME2X (which was less than 60 days from being done) to a new route around the State Park (see 
Anti-fossil fuel nutters believe they have an opening to try and bully the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) into de-certifying a fully permitted and ready-to-start compressor station in Weymouth, Massachusetts because of an “emergency” release of a few puffs of natural gas during final testing of the facility.
Energy Transfer (Sunoco Pipeline) is pushing back against a demand by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) that the company’s Mariner East 2X pipeline project be rerouted around Marsh Creek State Park (in Chester County, PA) following a drilling mud spill in August. Sunoco has asked the PA Environmental Hearing Board, a special court created to hear appeals of DEP decisions, to override the DEP’s demand to reroute ME2X.
In June MDN told you that the East Pittsburgh Borough Zoning Board, bullied by anti-fossil fuel radicals, had revoked a permit allowing a series of Marcellus Shale wells to be drilled on the property of U.S. Steel Corp.’s Edgar Thomson steel mill, the oldest still-operating steel mill in the country (see 
Once again the Mariner East 2 pipeline project is up Snitz Creek…without a paddle? There have been a number of “inadvertent returns” or mud spills in Snitz Creek, place where drilling mud is used to grease a drill bit for drilling holes under the creek. Mud has popped up where it’s not supposed to. Some of the mud spills have been, literally, just a couple of gallons. NOTHING. A recent spill on Oct. 19 was for 200 gallons.
Pennsylvania is so lucky to have a group of talented state legislators in both the House and Senate. Last week a group of House Republicans introduced a group of new bills they have dubbed “Commonwealth’s COVID Comeback.” The bills are aimed at bringing more jobs to the Keystone State in the manufacturing and energy sector. One of the bills is squarely aimed at getting the foot-draggers at the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to approve permits faster.
Sometimes plans change, for the better! That’s what has happened with a Marcellus-fired power plant planned for Clinton County, PA called the Renovo Energy Center. The last time we wrote about Renovo was in February 2018 (see 
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, located in Massachusetts, has ruled that Enbridge, builder of the Weymouth compressor station, can keep a previously-issued state permit for the station, a permit that allows it to operate. This is the final humiliation and defeat of rabid anti-fossil fuelers who dedicated themselves to blocking the plant.