Last year we reported on rumors that President Trump may issue an Executive Order to overrule states like New York, forcing recalcitrant states to allow new pipeline projects as a matter of national security (see Pipeline Relief Coming 2019? Trump Targeting States Like NY). The rumor mill has turned white hot once again on this topic.
Read More “Trump Considers Exec Order to Overrule NY Blocking Pipelines”
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Deputy Secretary for Oil and Gas Management, Scott Perry, told DEP’s Citizens Advisory Council his program is losing $800,000 a month, which he desperately, desperately hopes will be fixed soon by slapping a 250% hike in permit fees on Marcellus drillers.
Read More “PA DEP Official Says Oil & Gas Program Losing $800K per Month”
The radicals of the Sierra Club along with some lesser-known but equally radical enviro groups are challenging an air quality permit recently granted by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for the PTT Global Chemical ethane cracker project in Belmont County, OH.
Read More “Radical Green Groups Appeal Ohio Cracker Plant Air Permit”
On Sunday a new sinkhole appeared in the backyard of a home in West Whiteland Township (Chester County), PA exposing a small portion of Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 1 (ME1) NGL pipeline.
Read More “New Mariner East 1 Sinkhole Appears, PA PUC Shuts Down Pipeline”
In September 2016, MDN reported that EmberClear planned to fund and build a new $900 million electric generating plant in Harrison County (see $900M Utica Gas-Fired Electric Plant Coming to Harrison County, OH). The project was supposed to begin construction by the end of last year, but didn’t.
Read More “EmberClear’s Cadiz, OH Gas-Fired Power Plant Slightly Delayed”
It appears the “leaders” of Franklin Park Borough in Allegheny County aren’t satisfied enough that they’ve rejected a free $1 million from PennEnergy Resources to drill under a town park (see Franklin Park Turns Down $1M+ to Drill Under Linbrook Park). Nope. Now they essentially want to ban fracking in the borough by passing an onerous new zoning ordinance.
Read More “Franklin Park Tries to Block Fracking After Rejecting $1M+ Proposal”
In December, Columbia Pipeline asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to start up an additional section of its Mountaineer XPress Pipeline in West Virginia (see Columbia Asks FERC to Start Up 2/3rds of Mountaineer XPress Pipe). The good news is that on Wednesday, FERC said yes.
Read More “FERC OK’s Mountaineer XPress Pipe to Start Up in WV”
Despite setbacks from Big Green groups launching a blizzard of lawsuits and regulatory challenges, Equitrans’ (EQT Midstream) 300-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is now 70% built (see Shocker: Mountain Valley Pipeline Now 70% Built, Online by 4Q19). The project continues to see positive momentum, the latest example coming from Franklin County, Va.
Read More “Franklin County, Va. Approves MVP Gate Station Permit”
This news is a bit dated, but still interesting and is new for us: Last October a group of landowners in Tioga County, NY filed a lawsuit to force the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to quit dragging its feet and set a date to consider the groups application to allow LPG (liquefied petroleum gas, i.e. propane) fracking for a shale well.
Read More “Landowner Group Sues NY State to Allow Propane Fracking”
At the beginning of each new year the West Virginia legislature fires up its annual 60-day session. WV legislators are part-time and only meet for two months out of the year. (How we wish that were the case here in NY!) For a number of years running, the oil and gas industry’s legislative agenda has pushed certain new bills. This year is different.
Read More “WV O&G Industry Plays Defense as 2019 Legislative Session Begins”
In early December, the clown judges of the Fourth Circus Court of Appeals (our name for the Fourth Circuit) put a hold on a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that allows the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline to get built through areas with so-called endangered and threatened species (see 4th Circus Blocks Permit, Stops All Work on Atlantic Coast Pipe).
Read More “4th Circus Clowns Refuse to Clarify Decision re Atlantic Coast Pipe”
Score a victory for the forces of good in (of all places), radical Massachusetts, where the administration of Gov. Charlie Baker (RINO) on Friday approved air quality permits for a natural gas compressor station in Weymouth.
Read More “Antis Outraged: Massachusetts Gov Approves Weymouth Compress Stn”
Bureaucracies move about as fast as the glaciers in Antarctica. It doesn’t matter where the bureaucracy is located–federal, local, or in this case, state government.
Read More “PA DEP Comes into 21st Century with e-Permits for Shale Wells”
Ole Andrew Cuomo (pronounced Coo-moh by many people we know) is facing a classic Catch-22 situation. He has long promoted and earnestly wants a new arena as the home for the New York Islanders hockey team, but unless he allows a new natural gas pipeline under New York bay, he’s not going to get it.
Read More “Cuomo’s Catch-22: No New NatGas Pipe? No New Long Island Arena”
A month ago MDN told you that EQT Midstream’s (now Equitrans) 300-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from West Virginia to southern Virginia is now 70% done (see Shocker: Mountain Valley Pipeline Now 70% Built, Online by 4Q19). We expect that number is even higher now.
Read More “Mountain Valley Pipe Defends Southgate Expansion into NC”
Yesterday President Trump formally nominated Andrew Wheeler to become Administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, a job he’s been doing without the title for the past few months. We freely admit we are conflicted about Wheeler.
Read More “Trump Officially Nominates Andrew Wheeler to Head EPA”