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Unions Push PA Legislators to Override Wolf Veto of Petchem Bill
Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 1100, aimed at attracting new petrochemical investment to the state, was previously passed by the PA House, and last week, by the Senate (see PA Senate Tweaks, Passes Bill Attracting Cracker-Type Investment). Gov. Tom Wolf (liberal Democrat) says he will veto the bill anyway–denying the state billions of private economic stimulus it could receive (see Gov Wolf to Veto Bill Attracting Cracker-Type Investment to NEPA). The bill was passed by a large bipartisan majority in both the House and Senate. There’s a good chance Democrats will join Republicans to override Wolf’s veto.
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While we’re sure he means well, Congressman David McKinley, a professional engineer (P.E.) from West Virginia (Republican) has thrown his support behind a “bipartisan” effort to create a new federal bureaucracy to oversee the decarbonization of the power generation sector. In other words, an effort that will end the use of natural gas to generate electricity–by 2050. We just can’t support something like that. It’s short-sighted, heavy-handed, and creating a new federal bureaucracy simply goes in the wrong direction. Period.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has taken the first, very big and important step of approving an environmental assessment (EA) for TC Energy/Columbia Transmission’s Louisiana XPress Project. TC/Columbia filed an application with FERC last July for the project (see 
Pennsylvania State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, Majority Chair of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, doesn’t put up with the juvenile antics from the Democrats on his committee–like Danielle Friel Otten and Greg Vitali–from those who violate decorum by pretending they want to ask a question when in fact they want to pontificate like the gasbags they are. Wednesday at a hearing on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), Metcalfe shut down Otten and Vitali when they attempted to violate rules and bloviate instead of asking relevant questions.
A longtime dispute between the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Range Resources reemerged in January when the DEP ordered Range to fix a well in Lycoming County the DEP alleges is leaking methane into the surrounding ground and water supplies. The DEP says faulty cement casing allows methane to leak. Range maintains the methane was already in the ground/water supply long before it drilled the well. Range is appealing the DEP’s order to “fix it” to a special environmental court.
The U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy (of the Committee on Energy and Commerce) held a hearing yesterday called “Modernizing the Natural Gas Act to Ensure it Works for Everyone.” The Natural Gas Act of 1938 created the Federal Power Commission (FPC), giving the agency control over the regulation of interstate natural gas sales and pipelines. Later on, the FPC was dissolved and became the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). One of the witnesses at the hearing, there to bash FERC, was (suprise!) THE Delaware Riverkeeper herself, Maya van Rossum.
Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 1100, aimed at attracting NEW petrochemical investment to the state, is due to be voted on (and passed) by the PA Senate this week. Gov. Tom Wolf (liberal Democrat) has vowed to veto the bill–denying the state billions of economic stimulus it could receive. Why the veto? Your guess is as good as ours. Likely because it will encourage more use of PA’s abundant natural gas supplies, and that doesn’t sit well with radicalized enviro types.
Yesterday we received a somewhat strange note from the Delaware River Basin Commission. We’re subscribed to receive communications from the DRBC relating to the PennEast Pipeline project. The DRBC note says that PennEast has withdrawn their application seeking permission from the DRBC to use or discharge water from the basin during the construction of the pipeline project. DRBC doesn’t quite know what to make of the request and says they are “currently reviewing the letter” and have “no additional comment at this time.” Oooo…chilly.
Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) handed the PennEast Pipeline project a huge victory in its fight to overturn a poor decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. FERC said the judges of the Third Circuit were wrong in their ruling that PennEast cannot use FERC’s delegated power of eminent domain to cross property owned or managed by the State of New Jersey. The FERC ruling bolsters PennEast’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, making it far more likely the high court will now hear the case.
The work is happening fast and furious at the West Virginia state legislature right now. Legislators only have a 60-day session each year in which to pass new laws. More states should limit the time like WV! Yesterday two different Senate committees voted to pass three different bills, including SB 554, also known as the Lease Cancellation Bill.
Something of a kerfuffle has kicked up in West Virginia over the issue of drillers issuing lease “release” (some call it “cancelation”) notices–issued after a lease has expired. Senate Bill (SB) 554 dominated debate on Tuesday at a meeting of the WV Senate Energy Industry and Mining Committee. WV landowners (and rights owners) say a lot of older leases don’t have a release provision/notice, something landowners need so they can explore leasing with another driller after an existing lease expires. Drillers say the bill as proposed will create a logistical and administrative nightmare of paperwork.
We’ve been warning you, for the past two years, that FERC Commissioner Richard “Dick” Glick is nothing more than a Chuck Schumer political hack. He consistently votes against ALL new natural gas pipeline projects, claiming FERC doesn’t pander enough to global warmists in deciding whether a project should get built. Now Glick is siding with radicalized “environmentalists” (socialists) who want to deny FERC the right to use one of their most important tools–called a “tolling order”–a tool FERC uses to counter a myriad of lawsuits Big Green now files against every…single…new…pipeline project. To say Glick has betrayed his office is an understatement.
Apparently New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, far-left Democrat, is trying to grab the far-left spotlight away from his neighbor, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Murphy unveiled an insane energy plan for NJ yesterday, a plan that calls for eliminating the use of natural gas in the state by 2050. That’s 30 years away. Even though such a reduction will decimate the state economically and force millions of its residents to suffer from lack of heat and electricity. Natural gas is used to produce produces 50% of NJ’s electricity heat the homes and businesses of 75% of NJ residents! This is a stark raving mad plan. All in the name of solving a problem that doesn’t even exist–man-made global warming.