A small LNG export facility project at a site on the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida received final approval yesterday from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Eagle LNG, the project sponsor, plans to have the facility built and running by 2021.
Read More “FERC Grants Final Approval to Jacksonville, FL LNG Export Plant”
A group of mostly Democrats, with three RINOs (Republican in Name Only) thrown in to earn the laughable label of “bipartisan,” gathered in Harrisburg, PA at the Capitol earlier this week to turn up the pressure on PA’s liberal Gov. Wolf on the issue of clamping down on methane emissions in the oil and gas industry. The group’s ultimate purpose is to eliminate the Marcellus Shale industry from the state. They can’t admit that openly, but that’s their agenda.
Read More “PA Dems, RINOs Pressure Gov Wolf to Attack Shale with Methane Regs”
We’ve written plenty about President Obama’s so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP), a plan to force electric generators to convert to using more “renewable” sources of energy and less fossil fuels (see Obama Stabs Natural Gas Electric Plants in Clean Power Plan). The Obama CPP would have outright assassinated coal powered generation, and wounded (but not quite killed) natural gas. It was Obama’s attempt at picking winners and losers in who and how we get our energy. Fortunately the Trump Administration neutered the CPP and Tuesday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed Trump’s action and declared the CPP dead as a doornail.
Read More “Obama’s “Signature” Climate Reg, Clean Power Plan, Finally Dead”
There, now that’s the DRBC (Delaware River Basin Commission) we know and expect–obsequiously bowing before the likes of THE Delaware Riverkeeper and her environmental cousin, the Sierra Club. In June the DRBC approved a request by New Fortress Energy to build a $96 million 1,600-foot-long pier on the Delaware River (see DRBC Approves New Fortress LNG/NGL Shipping Dock on Dela. River). After being hounded (and threatened) by Riverkeeper and the Sierra Club for months over that approval, DRBC voted last week to “reconsider” its earlier decision. Their true colors shine through.
Read More “DRBC Reconsiders New Fortress LNG/NGL Shipping Dock on Dela. River”
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is obviously populated with leftist climate warriors, hellbent on blocking any new fossil fuel projects in the state. Last November Equitrans (formerly EQT Midstream) filed an application to extend the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline that stretches from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA *another* 70+ miles south–into North Carolina–called the MVP Southgate project (see EQT Makes it Official, Files with FERC to Extend MVP into NC). NC DEQ is doing anything and everything it can to stop Southgate.
Read More “Politicized NC Regulators Object to MVP Southgate Pipe Expansion”
Two of the eight Pennsylvania House bills that are part of an initiative called Energize PA have been voted out of the PA House State Government Committee. Both bills, House Bill (HB) 1106 and 1107, are aimed at streamlining and speeding up the permitting process at the semi-dysfunctional Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). Enviro-leftists are spitting nails and hopping mad. These bills have momentum and now go to the full House for a vote.
Read More “PA House Committee Approves 2 Bills to Fix Sloooow DEP Permits”
In February 2017, Spire, a natural gas utility company based in St. Louis, Missouri, filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the Spire STL Pipeline, a 65-mile, 24-inch diameter pipe that will flow 400 million cubic feet (MMcf) per day of yummy Marcellus/Utica gas from the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline to St. Louis (see Spire Files Plan with FERC to Flow Marcellus/Utica Gas to St. Louis). Construction on the project began this past December (see St. Louis Marcellus/Utica Pipeline Begins Construction).
Read More “St. Louis Marcellus/Utica Pipeline Ready to Flow Nov. 15”
Nice try, but no cigar for Plainfield Township in Northampton County. The Plainfield Board of Supervisors last week passed a new zoning ordinance that prevents pipelines (and cell phone towers, and solar farms, and wind mills, and and and) from being built near or under the 1.5 miles of the Appalachian Trail as it passes through their township. Thing is, when it comes to pipelines (like PennEast Pipeline) that are federally regulated, Plainfield can’t stop it. Their ordinance isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.
Read More “PA Town Passes Ordinance Blocking Pipelines Near Appalachian Trail”
You may recall news from last year that an Ohio Supreme Court ruling requires landmen to have a real estate license in order to get paid–IF they are compensated via a commission and/or royalties for the deals they broker (see OH Supreme Court Rules Independent Landmen Need Real Estate License). However, IF a landman is paid a “day rate,” (flat rate by the day) or if the landman is an employee of the drilling company–someone whose compensation is not directly tied to the number and value of deals–that landman does not need a real estate license. But they do need landowners to fill out a new form and sign it in six places.
Read More “Ohio Issues New Form Landmen Must have Landowners Sign & Return”
Two of the eight Pennsylvania House bills that are part of an initiative called Energize PA will be considered and debated before the PA House State Government Committee on September 17. Both bills, House Bill (HB) 1106 and 1107, are aimed at streamlining and speeding up the permitting process at the semi-dysfunctional Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). Enviro-leftists are screaming–they don’t want the dysfunction to stop. Having shale permits issued more quickly is not in their game plan.
Read More “PA House Committee to Consider 2 Bills to Fix Sloooow DEP Permits”
Well, score a victory for the forces of evil. Sometimes Darth Vader wins–that’s life. Yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that PennEast Pipeline cannot use the power of eminent domain to “condemn” (take possession of) land that is owned or otherwise controlled by the State of New Jersey because it violates the Eleventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. According to the judges, the Eleventh Amendment says states have sovereign immunity from such actions.
Read More “Federal Court Rules PennEast Pipe Can’t Run Thru NJ State Land”
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), which once supported (in court) Sunoco Logistics Partners method of requesting permits for the Marcus Hook facility (near Philadelphia), has just flip flopped and change sides, now siding against Sunoco and the permits the DEP itself issued for the Marcus Hook facility. DEP is now siding with the radical Clean Air Council demanding that all of the work at the Marcus Hook facility be done under a single emissions permit, not separate permits.
Read More “PA DEP Changes Sides, Says Marcus Hook Should Get 1 Big Air Permit”
Just prior to taking a long Labor Day holiday weekend, MDN brought you news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has overruled New York State to allow the Constitution Pipeline to move forward with construction (see Victory! FERC Overrules NY DEC to Allow Constitution Pipeline). We missed a small but important part of the story–the fact that all four FERC commissioners, two Republicans and two Democrats, voted to overrule NY. FERC is teed off at Andrew Cuomo and this decision slaps him around.
Read More “FERC Democrats Mad at Cuomo re Constitution Pipeline”
Taking a chapter from the corrupt New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (a political tool of NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo), the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP) is trying to run out the clock on the PennEast Pipeline by telling the project that its latest (now second) application for a federal “401” water crossing permit is “incomplete” and therefore they won’t even consider it. It’s a political move by a corrupt state agency–done at the request of Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy.
Read More “NJ Falsely Claims PennEast Pipe Application Incomplete…Again”
Last week CNN inflicted a seven-hour “town hall” discussion with Democrat presidential candidates about so-called climate change (man-made global warming) on its handful of viewers. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson called it an act of “wanton cruelty.” LOL! He’s right! Most reaction we’ve seen runs along the lines of, “They don’t really mean the crazy things they say, like banning all fracking the first day they get in office.” We’re not so sure. The one takeaway you get from CNN’s marathon session is that the Democrat Party and ALL of its leading candidates want to assassinate the oil and gas industry. No more fossil fuels. No more fracking. The prospect of any of them assuming office is frightening.
Read More “Leading Dem President Candidates Demand Frack Ban – Unrealistic?”
This story is befuddling–we’re still trying to wrap our heads around it. The North Carolina Utilities Commission has filed a protest with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) objecting to Williams’ Leidy South expansion project, a project that is being built 100% in Pennsylvania! Why are NC regulators objecting to work being done in another state 500 hundred miles away?
Read More “NC Regulators File Objection to Williams PA Leidy South Pipeline”