Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide NY | Transco | Williams
NYDEC Declares Rejected NESE Pipe Application Now “Complete”
On May 15 New York’s Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), under the direction of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, denied a permit for the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) natural gas pipeline (see NY Gov. Cuomo Denies Permit for Williams NESE Pipeline to NYC). It’s no secret the denial is political. The DEC claimed there was a “technical issue” with the application. Williams immediately fixed the “error” and refiled on May 17. The DEC has just declared the new application “complete”–meaning they will now reject it for other reasons.
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In March MDN brought readers a pair of posts about a new bill in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, HB 247, which would allow fully leased parcels that are part of one drilling “unit” to be combined with parcels in a different unit–“cross-unit drilling” if you will (see 
We’ve said, for years, that it’s just fine to be a clueless idiot and protest pipelines, fracking, drilling, fossil fuels–whatever. BUT, protesting doesn’t give you the right to illegally block a legal activity, like building (or operating) a pipeline, drilling a shale well, etc. Irrational anti-fossil fuelers are trying to excuse their illegal, anarchist behavior by claiming it’s somehow free speech or freedom of expression. WRONG. And now, the federal government is in the process of revising its criminal guidelines to ensure such behavior sees jail time and stiff fines.
It’s hard enough for drillers to get permits town by town in Pennsylvania, where the standards are all different thanks to the seven selfish towns that appealed the Act 13 law passed in 2012 (see 
Last August the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a decision overruling the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to allow National Fuel Gas Company’s Northern Access Pipeline project to proceed (see 
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tried to stop a fully built, brand new natural gas-fired electric generating plant in Orange County from going operational last year by instructing his Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to deny renewing an air permit it had approved just five years earlier (see 
In April MDN told you that Pennsylvania State Senators Camera Bartolotta (Washington County) and Pat Stefano (Fayette County) had beaten PA Gov. Tom Wolf at his own game by offering to pay for his so-called Restore PA plan, not by using a severance tax on shale production, but instead by allowing more shale drilling on PA state lands (see 
U.S. Senator John Cornyn, Republican from Texas, along with Republican Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, along with (surprise!) two Democrat Senators, Chris Coons from Delaware and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona, are all co-sponsoring a new bill called the Launching Energy Advancement and Development through Innovations for Natural Gas (LEADING) Act. While on the surface the bill seems to be addressing mythical man-made global warming, it’s true intent is to ensure loony birds in federal and state governments don’t outlaw the use of natural gas to generate electricity.
We recently brought you several stories about New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s predictable (and foolhardy) rejection of the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project to pipe more natural gas to a desperate New York City and Long Island (see 
Two weeks ago MDN reported that a New Jersey state commission, the Pinelands Commission, which has a power to block a pipeline through 10 miles of “protected” scrub pines and swamp lands, is currently paralyzed in their efforts to roll back permission previously granted for the pipeline project under Republican Gov. Chris Christie (see 
Earlier this year, under the direction of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the state issued new draft regulations aimed at shutting down most of the state’s “peaker plants”–small electric generating plants that produce electricity for brief periods during high demand (see 
Anti-fossil fuel kooks in Massachusetts are desperate to block a federally (and state) approved compressor station from getting built in Weymouth, MA. Antis have one remaining, way-outside chance of blocking the project: Bully the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) into reversing the permit it has already issued for the project.
Yesterday New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo dropped an economic atom bomb on New York City by rejecting a natural gas pipeline to bring more supplies of clean-burning natgas to NYC and Long Island (see 
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, arguably PA’s worst governor in a generation, has just thrown in his lot with uber-leftists Andrew Cuomo (governor of NY), Phil Murphy (governor of NJ), and John Carney (governor of DE) to support a total, permanent ban on fracking *and a ban on any drilling-related activities* in the Delaware River Basin (DRB). Put another way, Wolf has just turned his back on thousands of PA citizens living in the Wayne and Pike counties (in PA) who could be, right now, benefiting from Marcellus Shale drilling.