PA Gov. Wolf Nominates Carbon Tax Warrior for PUC
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has nominated the wrong person to replace Andrew Place as one of the commissioners on the very powerful Public Utility Commission (PUC). Wolf has nominated Hayley Book, currently a senior adviser on energy and climate to PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Pat McDonnell. Book’s job at the DEP has been to try and force through Wolf’s illegal attempt to force the state into joining the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax scheme cooked up by a collection of liberal northeastern states (see Gov. Wolf Goes Bonkers: EO Destroying Gas-Fired Elec, Carbon Tax).
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Democrat governors across the country are now mimicking the example set by the dictator of New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo abuses state power to reject fossil fuel projects (unconstitutional in our opinion), telling NY’s state environmental agency to reject all new pipelines. Roy Cooper, governor of North Carolina, is the latest Cuomo wannabe. Cooper instructed his state’s environmental agency, the Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ), to reject permits for Equitrans’ proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Southgate project. Which the DEQ did yesterday. The agency tried to disguise the rejection using lame excuses, but the reason for the rejection was politics, plain and simple.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted permission to Kinder Morgan to begin service on train #10 at KM’s Elba Island LNG export facility, located near Savannah, Georgia. KM’s Elba project consists of 10 mini-trains, each capable of liquefying 0.3 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG–or roughly 40 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas. There’s just one train left to bring online…
Two different trade unions are asking some great questions about Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to force the state to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax on coal and gas-fired electric generating plants. For example, how would a $2.36 BILLION carbon tax reduce carbon dixoide emissions any more than is already happening by the use of natural gas? PA already reduced CO2 emissions by 32% over the same time period RGGI (a coalition of liberal northeastern states) began–far more of a reduction than RGGI states have experienced!–without belonging to the RGGI tax plan.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finally got its butt in gear and issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) for an amended request by PennEast Pipeline to break the project into two phases–building the pipeline through Pennsylvania in Phase One, and through New Jersey in Phase Two. FERC was supposed to issue its findings on or by July 10. Finally, after two weeks with no report, no explanation, and no communication, PennEast goosed FERC on July 24 (see 
Last year, in an effort to flow more natural gas to a starving New York City, Kinder Morgan cut a deal with utility company Consolidated Edison to provide more gas by beefing up capacity along its Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) that feeds NYC, allowing Con Ed to avoid cutting customers off from natgas hookups (see 
Over a year ago, in March 2019, MDN told you about a new Williams plan to beef up the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to deliver an extra 760 MMcf/d (originally 1 billion cubic feet per day) of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland (see 
President Trump visited the Permian Basin yesterday to announce export authorizations for LNG will now go through 2050, to sign four permits for pipeline and rail transport of fossil fuels, and to get the truth out about his administration’s efforts to make America secure by making our country “energy dominant.” The liberal media spin machine was in overdrive trying to cover up the great news about U.S. fossil fuels–but they could not. Trump was on his “A” game yesterday and it showed.
Radical environmentalists (far outside the mainstream) are making one final push to pressure the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to expand an already onerous new regulation it is planning to implement. Last December the DEP’s Environmental Quality Board (EQB) approved new regulations that supposedly will capture every last molecule of stray methane that leaks from shale drilling operations (see 
FirstEnergy is in the middle of an excrement storm. The company’s former subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions (now called Energy Harbor) allegedly paid $60 million in bribes to Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and several of his associates to gain their assistance passing the hugely unpopular House Bill 6 (see 
PennEast Pipeline is a $1.2 billion, 118-mile brand new (greenfield) pipeline project planned between the Wilkes-Barre, PA area and the Trenton, NJ area. The project has faced stiff opposition from nutty Big Green groups and from the Democrats who have seized control of NJ. Because of NJ’s opposition (
Wow, that was fast! Yesterday Kinder Morgan filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking for permission to start up train #9 at the Elba Island, George LNG export facility. And yesterday FERC turned around and issued that permission. Same day! How many trains (of the 10 total) are left to go online?
Yesterday the White House announced its intent to nominate the final two members needed to comprise a full five-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. One of them, Mark Christie, is the Chairman of the Virginia State Corporation Commission. He is one of the country’s longest-serving state utility regulators, having served for 16 years. Great credentials. Smart guy. The other nominee, Allison Clements, spent 10 years as a rabid radical working for the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). She is uniquely UNQUALIFIED for the job. A lemon.
On Friday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced it has fined CNX Resources and its subsidiary CNX Midstream $310,000 for two incidents in which 65 barrels (2,730 gallons) of non-toxic brine (salty water) leaked into the ground and 43 gallons of non-toxic drilling mud leaked into a creek. The DEP says CNX did “not adequately maintain erosion and sedimentation best management practices.”