Rover Pipe Asks FERC for OK to Open New Segments in OH, MI
On Friday Energy Transfer Partners asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to start up service along another major chunk of it’s massive Rover Pipeline. ET wants to begin service along a 100-mile segment of Rover in northwest Ohio and in Michigan. ET also asked for permission to start up a segment of Mainline B in Crawford and Wayne counties (OH). The 100-mile segment, called the Market segment, completes the pipeline as it connects to the Vector Pipeline in Livingston County, Michigan. ET says 99% of all pipeline for Rover is now in the ground and done. Some 83% of underground horizontal direction drilling (HDD) required to install small portions of the pipeline under creeks, rivers, bridges, roads, etc. is now done. It won’t be long now until Rover is done done. Here’s the latest great news that most of the rest of the pipeline is now ready to begin service…
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The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) released the results of it’s industry-leading program to monitor oil and gas wells for methane (and oil and brine) migration–that is, for anything would impact groundwater. The Mechanical Integrity Assessment Program, as it’s called, is “the most rigorous routine well integrity assessment program to protect groundwater in the United States,” requiring quarterly inspections by operators of their wells. The DEP is in the process of releasing the results of those reports for the past four years–from 2014-2017. They’ve just released results for 2014 (full copy below). What did the DEP find? “[L]ess than 1 percent of operator observations indicated the types of integrity problems, such as gas outside surface casing, that could allow gas to move beyond the well footprint.” In other words, there is virtually no methane migration happening from shale (and conventional) natural gas wells because of good well casings and regular checks. It is hard to overstate how important these findings are. The DEP’s own evidence disproves wild claims that methane is migrating from shale wells everywhere, claims made by anti-fossil fuel radicals and a colluding media (
Five natural gas trade associations representing pretty much the entire natgas industry (producers, suppliers, pipelines and local gas utilities) sent a joint letter to President Trump on Tuesday asking the President to clarify the role of states in administering Clean Water Act Section 401. Specifically, the groups want the president to slap around individual states that are abusing Section 401 to block critical pipeline projects–like how the corrupt Andrew Cuomo in New York is blocking the Constitution Pipeline by withholding Section 401 approval for the project. The five groups which collectively call themselves the Natural Gas Council, say in the letter that some states abuse Section 401 “to hijack the permitting process for pipelines that transport natural gas in interstate commerce.” In other words, New York’s action not only hurts the residents of New York, it hurts the residents and producers in Pennsylvania that produce the gas, and potential customers in New England and beyond who would use the gas (i.e. interstate commerce). While Section 401 gives states a say in how federally-approved pipeline projects are managed, it does NOT give states the right to outright reject those projects. The Natural Gas Council is calling attention to this ongoing violation and wants Trump to do something about it…
The hits keep comin’ from Williams. Yesterday Williams announced it has filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expand capacity along the mighty Transco Pipeline to increase the amount of gas the pipeline can flow to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S by 296,375 dekatherms (296 million cubic feet) per day. The Southeastern Trail expansion project (SET), as it is called, includes building 7.7 miles of 42-inch pipeline looping (pipeline laid next to existing pipeline) in Virginia, adding extra horsepower at existing compressor stations in Virginia, and making some pipe and valve modifications on other existing facilities in South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana to allow for bi-directional flow. The project aims to bring more gas to utilities, including PSNC Energy, South Carolina Electric & Gas, Virginia Natural Gas, the City of Buford, Ga., and the City of LaGrange, Ga. Note that Mountain Valley Pipeline recently announced they want to expand the MVP project an extra 70 miles to serve PSNC Energy (in North Carolina) too. Williams is currently working to finish up the Atlantic Sunrise project, which includes new pipeline to feed Marcellus gas from northeastern PA into the Transco mainline. Bottom line: This new Southeastern Trail expansion project will bring Marcellus gas to more customers in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S. And that’s a good thing!…
Big Green groups are objecting to a plan to exempt Pennsylvania’s mom and pop conventional oil and gas drillers from regulations meant to apply to unconventional (shale) oil and gas drillers. The anti-drilling Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) along with the anti-drilling Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) co-authored a letter to PA Senators encouraging them to vote against a bill now working its way through the Senate (and House). In March, two identical bills were introduced, one in the Senate, the other in the House, that would “roll back” (more like “lock in”) regulations that govern conventional PA drilling to the Oil and Gas Act of 1984 (see 
In March the Pennsylvania House State Government Committee debated and voted to approve a slate of five bills aimed at fixing not only the slowmo way the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) approves shale permits, but also roll back some of the egregious regulatory overreach that exists in PA (see 
As Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) begins construction and launches a plan to expand their pipeline another 70 miles (see today’s lead story), the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) says it is eager to work with radical antis to monitor work that will be done by MVP in the Old Dominion. MVP is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA–and perhaps beyond into North Carolina (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Launches Plan to Expand 70 Miles into NC). MVP is being built by EQT Midstream, NextEra Energy and several other partners. It has been hassled by protesters and sued by a cadre of Big Green groups–all with no result. The pipeline is currently under construction. Since there’s no stopping it, antis intend to launch a host of volunteer “monitors” to rat out pipeline workers that do anything from drop a candy wrapper on the ground to drive 2 miles an hour over a locally posted speed limit. In other words, a busybody brigade. To which we say: Go ahead–knock yourselves out. MVP has nothing to hide. If you want to waste your time, it’s yours to waste. The DEQ, under Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam, is only too happy to work with the busybody brigade to further hassle MVP…
As the Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) $900 million Valley Energy Center natural gas-fired electric generating plant in Orange County, NY gets ready to begin service THIS MONTH, antis, including Big Green group Riverkeeper, are desperate to stop it from entering service. Since they couldn’t win any lawsuits to stop it, and since they couldn’t convince the federal government (FERC) to stop it, Riverkeeper and some politicians in Riverkeeper’s back pocket (via campaign contributions) have turned their attention to the Andrew Cuomo-corrupted Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), hoping they can convince the corrupt DEC to revoke the permits issued for the plant. On what basis does Riverkeeper and their colluding politicians claim the permits should be revoked? On the basis that a CPV lobbyist paid money to Cuomo’s closest confidante and aide as a bribe to get the project approved. There’s no evidence that the project got approved because of the bribe, but the stench is certainly there, and hey, if corrupt bribes got it approved, maybe corrupt politicians colluding with Big Green can get it unapproved, right?…
Last November we updated you on a lawsuit filed by a group of radical anti-fossil fuelers in Penn Township (Westmoreland County), PA (see 
Here’s one we didn’t see coming–a potential way to fix the ongoing disaster that is the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and their illegal attempt to regulate hydraulic fracturing within the Delaware River Basin under the claim they have the right to regulate anything that impacts groundwater. A Pennsylvania House of Representatives member, Dan Moul (Republican from Gettysburg), is about to introduce a bill that would replace the DRBC’s authority to regulate groundwater by vesting that authority solely in the hands of the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). The problem is, the bill appears to be targeted more at the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) than DRBC. The bill will affect both organizations. Last time we checked, the SRBC does a fine job of regulating water withdrawals for fracking AND makes no attempt to regulate fracking, which the DRBC is attempting to do. But then, we don’t think this bill has the DRBC’s frack ban, nor fracking at all, in mind. It likely has more to do with farming and other water uses and some perceived shortcomings at the SRBC…
In September, MDN told you that the obsequious members of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) had slavishly obeyed their radical environmental masters by voting to move forward with a permanent ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin (see 
The Commonwealth Foundation is Pennsylvania’s premier free-market think tank. The aim of the Foundation is to “transform free-market ideas into public policies so all Pennsylvanians can flourish.” We’ve highlighted their excellent work over the years. They’ve just done it again. The Commonwealth Foundation has just published a report called “The State of Natural Gas in Pennsylvania” (full copy below). The opening begins this way: “Pennsylvania’s regulatory and tax environment is stunting job growth and deterring investment. A decade after the Marcellus Shale boom, lawmakers are still debating how to tax the industry instead of fixing the policies contributing to Pennsylvania’s increasingly uncompetitive energy market.” At the end of the report the Foundation shows a severance tax comparison of existing severance taxes in other states that PA competes against, like Ohio, West Virginia, Texas, Colorado, and Oklahoma. The chart shows that the existing impact fee (in essence a severance tax) runs around 1.1%. The severance tax in Ohio is running around 0.7%, and in West Virginia 3.5%. In places like Texas, which increasingly competes against PA with prodigious quantities of natural gas production, the severance tax is 4.2%. However, Gov. Wolf’s proposed severance tax would be 5%–the highest in the nation except for New Mexico’s 7.9% (which doesn’t compete with PA). The report shows how PA is restricting Marcellus activity with over-regulation and a high corporate income tax…