New England States Finally Waking Up re Domestic Natural Gas
It seems the rather thick-headed governors from New England have finally woken up and understand their resistance to new natural gas pipelines has placed them in a pickle. The region, when it gets really cold (like over the next few days), gets really short on natural gas. Prices soar, supplies diminish, and people not only pay high natgas prices, but high prices for electricity, which gets generated by natgas. The govs have a plan to slap a Band Aid on the problem.
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This post is about a pipeline project we’ve written quite a bit about over the past few years–Dominion Energy’s New Market project that ever-so-modestly expands an existing pipeline in Upstate New York. But at its heart, the issue is much deeper. Anti-fossil fuel radicals are challenging this project, in court, as a way to force the government to consider man-made global warming when approving such projects.
A couple of developments to share with you about the Mariner East 1 NGL pipeline which has been completely shut down since Jan. 21 when a new sinkhole appeared in Chester County exposing a few feet of the bare pipe (see 
MDN previously reported that last Sunday a new sinkhole appeared exposing a tiny section of the Mariner East 1 (ME1) NGL pipeline in Chester County, PA, prompting Sunoco Logistics Partners to close down ME1 in the Greater Philadelphia area (see 
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 
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.
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.
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 
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.
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.