Reaction to Gov. Wolf’s Bonkers Plan to Strangle NatGas Elec Plants
Yesterday MDN told you that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has gone completely off his rocker with a power-grab to force PA into a regional alliance to tax natural gas-fired electric plants out of existence (see Gov. Wolf Goes Bonkers: EO Destroying Gas-Fired Elec, Carbon Tax). The reaction to his breathtaking power-grab has been swift–on both sides. The radicals at Big Green groups like the Sierra Club are praising Wolf, and PA Republican legislators are threatening to block Wolf’s reckless executive order.
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In October 2012, after a rigorous review by New York’s Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the Cricket Valley Energy Center in Dutchess County was accepted and approved. Construction of the 1,100 megawatt plant (to fed by PA Marcellus gas) began in July 2017 (see 
In May 2016, the out-of-control Obama EPA issued new methane air emissions rules as a back-door way to try and regulate the oil and gas industry (see 
Really? Is this what it’s now come to? Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is so desperate to make a criminal case against someone, anyone, in the shale industry, he’s even going after state employees–workers at the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). In a bid to raise his visibility among state voters (so he can run for governor), Shapiro launched an investigation in January looking for environmental “crimes” committed by Range Resources and other shale drillers (see 
In New York State it’s not popular–frankly it’s not safe–if you’re a Democrat who opposes mob boss Andrew Cuomo for any reason/any issue. Yet six Long Island State Senators, all Democrats, are doing just that. The six sent a letter to Basil Seggos, who runs the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and does whatever Cuomo tells him to do, asking Seggos to provisionally approve the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project.
Last December Williams announced its Leidy South Project, a new expansion of the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania (see 
Sunoco Logistics Partners, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer, is still on the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environment Protection’s (DEP) naughty list. In February, PA Gov. Tom Wolf ordered the DEP to suspend all reviews of clean water permit applications and other pending approvals for ALL of ET/Sunoco’s pipeline projects in the state–including the Mariner East and Revolution pipeline projects. The ban on approving reviews has not yet been lifted and means that in 33 locations across the state (most of them in the Philadelphia area) Sunoco can’t complete underground horizontal direction drilling (HDD) work for its Mariner East pipeline projects.
Last September MDN reported that Southwestern Energy was the very first driller to earn the label of producing “responsible gas” from the Independent Energy Standards Corporation (IES)–what they call their TrustWell™ Responsible Gas Program certification (see 
Most of the drama surrounding Williams’ Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project has centered on New York State and its corrupt Governor, Andrew Cuomo, who denied a federal Clean Water Act Section 401 water crossing permit for the project (see 
Detractors of the Trump Administration pretend the only thing the Administration does is “roll back” safety and environmental regulations, lowering protections for citizens, making it more dangerous to live and work anywhere in our great country. In fact the Trump Administration has done an excellent job in correcting some of the wild over-regulation from the Obama Administration. But it’s grossly inaccurate to say the current Administration has only repealed regulations. Case in point: The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has just transmitted three significant new final rules (regulations) to the Federal Register that will strengthen the safety of more than 500,000 miles of onshore gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines throughout the U.S.
The voters in Youngstown have finally, after seven years, had enough of the the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and its useful idiots who have tried, and failed, to get a so-called Community Bill of Rights ballot measure (i.e. frack ban) passed. Last November Youngstown voters rejected the CELDF measure for the eighth time (see