PA DEP Fines Landfill (with Drill Cuttings) 2nd Time – $59K
The Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill in Westmoreland County, PA (southwestern corner of the state, near Pittsburgh) was fined $24,000 earlier this year (see PA DEP Fines Drill Cuttings Landfill for Contaminated Runoff). The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) claimed effluent from the landfill, because the landfill accepts shale drill cuttings, had damaged a water treatment system in a nearby municipality. The DEP is back to shake down the landfill again, this time assessing a $59,000 fine.
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After more than a year of being on pause due to lawsuits from Big Green groups, the 92%-complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) finally has permission to resume construction in West Virginia and Virginia. Late Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted permission to MVP to restart work on all but a 25-mile segment. We suspect workers are back on the job even as you read this.
Anti-fossil fuelers have struck out again with another of their wild claims about pipelines poisoning the environment. Antis alleged steel pipes coated with epoxy (that had to sit in storage on location for years due to sham lawsuits by Big Green groups), are not safe. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) says otherwise.
In September, the new owner of Magnolia LNG, investment firm Glenfarne Group, along with Kinder Morgan (which plans to build a pipeline to the Magnolia facility), asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to extend the time to build the project (see 
Here’s a new one for us: The Leach XPress pipeline project has a teeny tiny presence in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania. We did not know that! Just 1.74 miles of the pipeline runs through PA, but that small section has earned the builder, Columbia Gas, a big fine.
This is extremely frustrating. FirstEnergy subsidiary Energy Harbor is accused of bribing former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and several of his associates to pass (and stay passed) a $1.1 billion bailout bill that funnels electric ratepayer (i.e. taxpayer) money into the hands of FirstEnergy, to prop up two uneconomic and failing nuclear power plants (see 
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 
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 
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 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.