Ohio EPA Slaps Rover Pipe with $431K Fine for Spills, Other Issues
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) is frustrated with Energy Transfer and its management of constructing the ~$4 billion Rover Pipeline through the state. As MDN reported in April, Rover spilled some 2 million gallons of non-toxic drilling mud (i.e. bentonite) in three separate incidents (see Rover Pipeline Accident Spills ~2M Gal. Drilling Mud in OH Swamp and Rover Update: Half of 15K Workers Now Hired, 2% Pipeline Laid). We know that the biggest spill happened in Stark County, and another sizable spill in Richland County. It appears spilling some mud wasn’t the only environmental violation. The OEPA has just assessed a $431,000 fine against Energy Transfer for “18 incidents involving mud spills from drilling, stormwater pollution and open burning at Rover pipeline construction sites have been reported between late March and Monday.” The latest mud spill happened on Monday–200 gallons in Harrison County. OEPA Director Craig Butler said, “All told, our frustration is really high. We don’t think they’re taking Ohio seriously…Normally when we have…a series of events like this, companies respond with a whole lot of contrition and whole lot of commitment. We haven’t seen that. It’s pretty shocking.” Not good news for Rover, when one of the main state regulators (that can stop the project) is leveling criticisms like that… Read More “Ohio EPA Slaps Rover Pipe with $431K Fine for Spills, Other Issues”
Finally! President Trump has proffered two candidates to fill the (soon to be) four empty slots as commissioners for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The FERC board is supposed to have five commissioners. It currently has two, and soon to be one. Three commissioners are needed to fulfill a quorum, allowing votes to be taken on important infrastructure (i.e. pipeline) projects. A number of vital Marcellus/Utica projects are on hold due to lack of quorum. The not-so-secret rumor running around Washington since March was that Trump would nominate Kevin McIntyre, Neil Chatterjee and Robert Powelson (see 
The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the Obama/McCarthy reign of terror, far overstepped its charter by seizing power that doesn’t belong to it. Last May the EPA issued new methane rules in a back-door way to try and regulate the oil and gas industry (see 
Every now and again a gift lands in our lap, unexpectedly. Such is the case today. A third year law student at the University of Buffalo School of Law, Kelsey Hanson, has researched and written a masterful paper on the potential for LPG (liquefied propane) fracking in, yes, New York State. The paper, titled “Hey New York, You Can Frack: An Examination of How Liquefied Petroleum Gas Sidesteps New York’s Fracking Ban to Provide a Legal and Practical Approach for Horizontal Drilling in New York’s Marcellus Shale” (full copy below) has just been published in the Buffalo Law Review (how did that happen?!). In the paper, Hanson first gives a background of traditional fracking, then zeros in and explores LPG fracking–its benefits and its pitfalls. She concludes that the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has left the door open, legally, for shale LPG fracking in the Empire State. She also gives us a much-needed update on the question MDN gets asked frequently: Whatever happened to LPG fracking in Tioga County, NY? The article is eminently readable, full of great information, and worth your time…
Once upon a time, during the Obama reign of terror, the out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as headed by the odious Gina McCarthy, blasted the PennEast Pipeline project (see 
Very good news for Spectra Energy’s Atlantic Bridge project in (of all places) New York State. In January the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave its final stamp of approval for Atlantic Bridge (see 
In April, MDN brought you news of an effort underway in Ohio to tax Ohio ratepayers $5.4 billion and give that money to FirstEnergy to prevent some of its nuclear power plants from closing (see 
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), headquartered in Western New York State, is making noises (threats) that Gov. Andrew Cuomo should be very concerned about. NFG covers the full span of the oil and gas business–from upstream (with its wholly-owned drilling subsidiary Seneca Resources), to the midstream (with wholly-owned subsidiary Empire Pipeline) to downstream (NFG’s natural gas utility service to 740,000 customers in NY and PA). It’s a big company that generates a lot of jobs and revenue for New York State. Yet NY is metaphorically crapping all over NFG–and the company is signaling its willingness to retaliate by leaving. No, not move the company HQ, or sell off its gigantic utility business. Nothing of that sort (yet, anyway). But NFG CEO Ronald Tanski said on an earnings call last Friday that NFG is “getting lousy regulatory treatment in New York State” and that “Given this type of regulatory treatment in the state, we have to take a serious look at our ability to achieve any reasonable growth in New York.” Translation: We’ll stop launching new projects that invest billions in the Empire State, and instead invest that money and the jobs it creates in PA and other states. The “lousy treatment” NFG is getting is related to NY’s corrupt Dept. of Environmental Conservation decision to deny it permits to build the Northern Access Pipeline (see 
Last week the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued updated guidelines for “statutory unitization applications” (full copy below). That is, when a driller wants to form a unit for drilling by combining adjacent properties, the driller must first request permission from the ODNR to form a unit. In Ohio, a unit can be formed when the driller has 65% of the acreage in the unit under a lease agreement. In other words, these are the revised/new guidelines (i.e. hoops) drillers must jump through before the ODNR will agree to combine either willing, or unwilling (force pooled) landowners into a unit for drilling… 
The U.S. The House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing on Wednesday to hear testimony on a proposed plan to grant the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) more authority to speed up the pipeline approval process. Up for discuss is an amendment to the Natural Gas Act to grant FERC more authority in coordinating what is, admittedly, a complex review process. A more powerful FERC would, for example, likely be able to override states like New York that refuse to grant water crossing permits (permits that are issued under a federal law!). Don Santa, executive director of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, was one of the people testifying before the assembled Congressmen. He said things have gotten pretty bad over the past two years–yes with FERC, but also with other federal and state agencies. Here’s some of what was said at the hearing…
Thumbing their collective noses at Ohio RINO Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich, Republican legislators in the House added a “little-noticed provision” in the state budget deal that will give the legislature, and not the governor, the power to select members of the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission. That small change would have huge consequences. How? the Oil and Gas Commission is charged with approving potential drillers on state land. Five years ago, Kasich flip-flopped on the issue and since then has not allowed shale drilling in state-owned forests and state-owned parks–by refusing to add any new members to the Commission. It is a de facto moratorium from the governor that prevents fracking on state-owned land. Enough is enough. Republicans intend to change it this year…
Looks like Middletown Township, in Delaware County, PA (Philadelphia suburb), has finally faced reality that the Mariner East 2 Pipeline is coming through town. To be fair, town council came to that conclusion last September when they voted to grant easements to Sunoco Logistics Partners to build Mariner East 2 across four parcels of public land (see 
In early April MDN reported that West Virginia’s effort to pass a law dealing with co-tenancy and joint development–what we called forced pooling lite–had gone up in pot smoke (see