Regulation

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    NJ DEP Keeps Badmouthing PennEast Pipeline

    PennEast Pipeline route through NJ

    PennEast Pipeline is caught between a rock and a hard place in New Jersey, and the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) isn’t lifting a finger to help. In April, MDN told you NJDEP has temporarily rejected PennEast Pipeline’s Freshwater Wetlands Individual Permit and Water Quality Certificate application, submitted April 6 (see NJ DEP Temporarily Rejects PennEast Request for Wetland Permits). NJDEP said in their response that PennEast has not provided enough detail about the project–leaving out key pieces of information for two-thirds of the pipeline’s 37-mile trek through NJ. NJDEP says they want the application refiled within 30 days, and if PennEast doesn’t give them what they want within 60 days, the DEP will consider the application “withdrawn.” Here’s the Catch-22: In order to get the details needed via surveys, PennEast needs access to property. But many NJ landowners have been convinced by groups like the odious Sierra Club to deny permission. So PennEast can’t do their surveys to get the details needed for the the NJDEP. Since it’s a federally approved project, NJDEP certainly won’t issue eminent domain to allow PennEast access to survey. For that, PennEast must wait on FERC. It’s rumored that FERC will grant eminent domain sometime this summer for PennEast to allow them the right to access NJ (and PA) properties of holdout landowners. Antis are elated and breathlessly say PennEast will be delayed for months, maybe years (doing things like multi-year surveys on plants). PennEast continues to say the NJDEP’s responses are routine and being handled. Who’s right?…
    Read More “NJ DEP Keeps Badmouthing PennEast Pipeline”

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    Fate of 2 Important Pipelines May Rest in Virginia Governor Race

    Election matters, and elections for governor really matter–at least with respect to shale drilling and pipelines. Here in New York State, where MDN is written, we are ruled by a corrupt autocrat by the name of Andrew Cuomo. Single-handed Cuomo has decided to ban fracking and block new shale gas pipelines (see After 6+ Years, Andrew Cuomo Bans Fracking in New York; NY Gov. Cuomo Refuses to Grant Permits for Constitution Pipeline; and Cuomo’s Corrupt NY DEC Blocks NFG Northern Access Pipeline Permit). So when a Democrat candidate in Virginia to be the next governor vows to block pipelines there, we don’t take it as just electioneering. These people are serious–and dangerous. Our court systems have failed to reign in Democrat autocrats who rule by fiat. It’s up to the people to ensure they don’t get elected. On June 13 Virginia will hold a primary in their gubernatorial race. Since a Democrat has won the governor’s mansion in nine out of the last ten elections, it pays to pay attention to the two leading Dem candidates for governor in Virginia. One of them, former Congressman Tom Perriello, says he’ll block both the $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline through his state, and the $3.5 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline. His opponent, the sitting Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam, doesn’t outright oppose the projects but instead says they will be put under an extreme review by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Just one problem with that: The DEQ says FERC is the one who will monitor and review the project, not the DEQ. In other words, what Northam has been promising is just another empty political promise (surprised?). With a close race, will this late-breaking news from the DEQ tip the balance in favor of the radical Perriello?… Read More “Fate of 2 Important Pipelines May Rest in Virginia Governor Race”

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    5 Climate Jihadists Disrupt Senate FERC Nominee Hearing

    Click for larger version

    Last Thursday the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a confirmation hearing for two nominees for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Neil Chatterjee, energy adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Robert Powelson, a Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission member and president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners were put through their paces, questioned by Senators for two hours. Getting these men confirmed is a high priority–to restore a voting quorum. Right now there are only two (soon to be one) FERC commissioners. You need three minimum for a voting quorum. When filled, there are five FERC commissioners. During the hearing, extremists from Beyond Extreme Energy attempted to disrupt the hearing with yelling. They were taken out of the room and arrested. These are the same kinds of people Powelson previously called environmental jihadists–those who show up at FERC commissioners’ homes to intimidate them before votes (see Potential FERC Com. Powleson Calls Anti-Fossil Fuelers “Jihadists”). Powelson later walked back his “jihad” statement, sadly. By all accounts the disruptions by the jihadists at the hearing were minor and didn’t (as the nutters had hoped) slow down anything. One jerk handcuffed himself to a chair and the Capitol police whisked him out while the hearing continued, uninterrupted (see the image). Below are accounts of the hearing and what was said, along with a press release from Beyond Extreme Energy…
    Read More “5 Climate Jihadists Disrupt Senate FERC Nominee Hearing”

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    Radical Antis Ask FERC to Stop ET Construction on Rover Pipeline

    Radical environmental groups are seeking to stop the Energy Transfer Rover Pipeline project by using recent violations as leverage. The FreshWater Accountability Project, begun in Ohio after the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District signed agreements to sell water to the shale industry, along with Michigan Residents Against the ET Rover Pipeline, filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Wednesday asking the federal agency to stop all construction on Rover. The request will almost certainly go nowhere–but Rover’s own actions have opened the door to this action. We understand that accidents happen when drilling horizontally underground for pipelines and that sometimes you get an “inadvertent return” (leak) of drilling mud slipping up to the surface. But it’s tough to explain away a 2 million gallon leak (see Rover Pipeline Accident Spills ~2M Gal. Drilling Mud in OH Swamp). It’s also hard to ignore storm water runoff fouling farmers’ fields where Rover is digging trenches (see OEPA & Rover at Odds Over Storm Water Runoff, “Fine” Now $714K). It smacks of a rush job, and that gives the other side an opening in their quest to stop fossil fuel infrastructure projects like Rover… Read More “Radical Antis Ask FERC to Stop ET Construction on Rover Pipeline”

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    MarkWest’s Washington, PA Processing Plant Plans Reactivated

    In October 2016, MDN reported that electric company FirstEnergy had begun construction of a new electric substation in Washington County, PA to provide electricity to “support two natural gas processing facilities being developed in the area” (see Work Begins on $40M Electric Substation in W PA to Help Marcellus). At the time we speculated that at least one of the beneficiaries would be MPLX’s MarkWest Energy subsidiary. We were right. Not long after, NGI’s Shale Daily reported that one of the projects to be served by FirstEnergy’s new substation will be the MarkWest Harmon Creek Complex, a new processing plant that would be built to process natgas for Range Resources (see MarkWest Building New Processing Plant in Washington County, PA). But then all went quiet, when the project went on “indefinite hold.” The hold is now over. MarkWest officials recently attended a Smith Township planning commission meeting (where it will get built) to discuss the project which is now front and center once again. According to MarkWest, plans call for initially building one cryogenic plant and one de-ethanizer. Eventually MarkWest wants to build four cryogenic plants and two de-ethanizers at the Harmon Creek Complex… Read More “MarkWest’s Washington, PA Processing Plant Plans Reactivated”

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    Dela. Riverkeeper Loses Another Court Case Against Marcellus Pipe

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit slapped down THE Delaware Riverkeeper in yet another crushing defeat for the virulent anti-fossil fuel organization (and mouthpiece for the William Penn Foundation, its main funder). Even though Williams’ Transco Leidy Southeast expansion project went online some 18 months ago, Riverkeeper sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) some 14 months ago over its approval of the project (see Dela. Riverkeeper Sues FERC Again – Over Leidy Pipeline Expansion). Leidy Southeast was/is 30 miles of additional pipeline segments laid next to existing pipe, called loops, in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, along with upgrades at several compressor stations. The project bumped up the capacity of the mighty Transco pipeline by an extra 525,000 dekatherms of natural gas per day–enough natural gas to serve 2 million homes. The project means more Marcellus gas now flows south to new markets. Riverkeeper claimed FERC should not have approved the project until PA had issued federal 401 stream crossing permits under the Clean Water Act. It was a “procedural” objection. That is, Riverkeeper claimed FERC did things out of order and should be, we don’t know, shut down? Punished? Flogged? Prevented from doing it ever again? Riverkeeper also went after PA and NJ after they issued the 401 certificates, saying they shouldn’t have. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals (in Philadelphia) rejected that argument last August (see Court Rejects Dela. Riverkeeper Case Against PA DEP Pipe Approval). The new news is that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has now rejected Riverkeeper’s case against FERC. The justices said FERC is free to approve projects prior to states issuing 401 certificates because a project approval still doesn’t mean the project will get built–unless the states DO issue those 401 certificates. It all sounds rather complicated to follow. The short version is this: Delaware Riverkeeper lost yet another court case against a pipeline project…
    Read More “Dela. Riverkeeper Loses Another Court Case Against Marcellus Pipe”

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    No LNG Peakshaver for Maine – PUC Declines to Fund Project

    The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) recently declined to help fund a new LNG peakshaving facility in the state, concluding it would not reduce consumer natural gas and electricity prices. Er, a, what’s an LNG peakshaver anyway? Good question! According to industrial engineering company Fives, “LNG peak shaving units are used for storing surplus natural gas, so as to be able to meet the requirements of peak consumption later during the different seasons. Gas distribution companies and local administrations use this application to be more flexible in their consumption of natural gas. Thanks to these Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) peak shaving units, they will be able to face periods of peak consumption during cold winter times and extreme summer heat. Peak shaving can also be used to keep natural gas prices from soaring during periods of high gas consumption.” That helps. They are small LNG plants that kick in when demand for natural gas exceeds supply. There are 44 such peakshaving tanks at 29 locations in the northeast. Last September the Maine legislature authorized the PUC to spend $25 million on leasing capacity at a peakshaving plant, if they could find the right plant to do it. A number of projects were submitted, and the PUC said nyet–they don’t like any of them and don’t think a peakshaver will be needed going forward… Read More “No LNG Peakshaver for Maine – PUC Declines to Fund Project”

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    NG Advantage Virtual Pipeline May be Coming to MDN’s Backyard

    For the past few years MDN has had an eye on a trend we find exciting–“virtual pipelines”–by which we mean facilities that are located along a pipeline that compress natural gas (CNG), load it onto tanker trucks, and then distribute that gas to businesses that are not fortunate enough to be located near a natgas pipeline. With irrational opposition to pipelines rampant, virtual pipelines are a good alternative. We were first alerted to this trend when International Paper’s Ticonderoga mill in northern New York, near the Vermont border, opted for a virtual pipeline from NG Advantage, back in 2015 (see NY Paper Plant Opts for “Virtual” NatGas Pipeline Over Real One). NG Advantage has established a presence throughout New England, most recently adding Maine to their delivery options (see NG Advantage’s “Virtual” NatGas Pipeline to Maine Begins Flowing). In January, a competitor of NG Advantage–Xpress Natural Gas (XNG) set up a virtual pipeline in Susquehanna County, PA–not far from MDN HQ (see Major CNG Virtual Pipeline Coming to Susquehanna County, PA). Imagine our surprise–and delight–to find out that NG Advantage wants to build a virtual pipeline about 9 miles from MDN HQ–along the edge of Binghamton in an adjacent suburb called Port Dickinson! This one flew mostly under the radar. NG Advantage has proposed a new compressor station and tap into the Millennium Pipeline where it crosses the Chenango River. They already have three businesses lined up to buy CNG from the project. Port Dickinson approved the project last night, but it’s still not a done deal yet…
    Read More “NG Advantage Virtual Pipeline May be Coming to MDN’s Backyard”

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    No More “Acting” for Pat McDonnell – Confirmed PA DEP Secretary

    No more “acting” for Pennsylvania’s Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). In May 2016, DEP Secretary John Quigley was fired for using a PRIVATE email account to collude with his Big Green friends to try and bully PA’s legislators into supporting his onerous proposed regulations (see Smoking Gun: Copy of the Email that Got John Quigley Fired). Richly deserved. The man who took his place as Acting Secretary is Patrick McDonnell, a 19-year veteran of the DEP. Pat made it clear from the beginning he’d like to move from “acting” to full Secretary. It took Wolf long enough, but finally last September he put Pat’s name forward as permanent DEP Secretary (see Gov. Wolf Nominates Pat McDonnell to Head PA DEP, Finally). We’re not sure what the holdup was, but the PA Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee finally held a hearing and grilled McDonnell a few weeks ago, after which the panel voted to recommend he be confirmed (see PA DEP Acting Secretary McDonnell Will Soon Drop “Acting” from Title). We’re happy (we think) to announce that Pat McDonnell was confirmed by a full vote by the PA Senate. The vote was unanimous…
    Read More “No More “Acting” for Pat McDonnell – Confirmed PA DEP Secretary”

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    Trump Budget Axes 31% of EPA Budget, Rightsizes Climate Spending

    Yesterday the Trump White House released a proposed 2018 federal budget. The Trump budget is titled, “A New Foundation For American Greatness.” Trump inherited a $20 trillion deficit and, frankly, a huge, steaming pile of a mess from his predecessor, His Eminence, BH Obama. (The deficit doubled under Obama.) The Trump budget calls for spending $4.1 trillion next year–which is still (disappointingly) higher than this year’s $4 trillion and last year’s $3.8 trillion budgets. As in all budgets, some items are getting the ax, and some are getting more love. On the ax side, Trump plans to trim 31.4% of the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget next year (from this year). The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), on the other hand would get a 15.2% increase in its budget. But don’t be deceived. FERC’s increase amounts to $48.4 million–a rounding error in the budget. EPA’s budget next year will be $5.7 billion (down from $8.2 billion this year). In talking about the budget, the main architect, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, said that much of the EPA’s “crazy” spending on climate change will be scaled back. However, what is missing from most media accounts about Mulvaney’s comments, is that not all spending on so-called climate change is gone. Mulvaney said they are rightsizing the budget–spending money on real research, not on lunatic things like the National Science Foundation spending money to fund a climate change musical. That kind of crap is out in Trump’s no-nonsense budget. Finally, an adult in The White House!…
    Read More “Trump Budget Axes 31% of EPA Budget, Rightsizes Climate Spending”

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    DEP GP-5 & 5A Regs – Imminent Threat to PA Marcellus Drilling

    In December 2016, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) unveiled new regulations to clamp down on methane emissions and other other air pollution that allegedly comes from shale drilling sites (see PA DEP Releases New Regs re Methane & Air Pollution at Drill Sites). The onerous new regulations, not in effect yet, were originally prompted by bullying from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Even though EPA pressure has disappeared under President Trump, PA Gov. Wolf still intends to push forward with these onerous (frankly, disastrous) regulations. According to the DEP, the proposed General Permit 5A (GP-5A) and the revised General Permit 5 (GP-5), “establish updated Best Available Technology (BAT) requirements for the industry regarding air emission limits, source testing, leak detection and repair, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements for the applicable air pollution sources.” After some final tweaks, the DEP released draft versions of the new permits (i.e. regulations) in February (see PA DEP Seeks Public Comment on Regs for Methane, Compressor Stns). The original public comment period was slated to last 45 days, ending in March. For no stated reason, the DEP extended the comment period until June 5th (see PA DEP Extends Public Comment Period for Methane Regs). In March, MDN editor Jim Willis heard former DEP Secretary Mike Krancer say if GP-5A is enacted as written, it will result in a 12-18 month moratorium on new production in Pennsylvania (see Big News from the O&G Awards Northeast Industry Summit). The shale industry is taking the changes very seriously and has initiated a full court press to oppose the new regulations as written…
    Read More “DEP GP-5 & 5A Regs – Imminent Threat to PA Marcellus Drilling”

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    Update on Orange County, NY Marcellus-Fired Power Plant

    MDN previously reported on a $900 million Marcellus gas-fired electric generating plant coming to Orange County, NY (see Orange County, NY Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant OK’d by Judge). The CPV (Competitive Power Ventures) Valley Energy Center project was vigorously opposed by local anti-drilling ninny nannies, including Hollywood star James Cromwell. No matter. The plant is now under construction, as we reported in March (see Construction Update on CPV NatGas Power Plant Near Middletown, NY). The good news is that construction of the plant is “moving full-steam ahead” and is on track to go online in early 2018. The local economic development agency said the plant has been a boon to the local economy. Here’s the latest about the CPV Valley Energy Center project, that somehow, against all odds, is getting built in New York State… Read More “Update on Orange County, NY Marcellus-Fired Power Plant”

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    OEPA & Rover at Odds Over Storm Water Runoff, “Fine” Now $714K

    More trouble for Energy Transfer and the Rover Pipeline project as the company is working against a tight deadline to get the $3.7 billion, 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that traverses Ohio up and running this year. It appears as if the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) is hellbent on picking a fight with the project. Perhaps some of OEPA’s criticisms are justified–perhaps some are not. We’ll give you the “lay of the land” (pun intended) as we see it. Early on Rover appeared to rush too much, resulting in numerous drilling mud spills in locations where Rover was drilling underground to avoid creeks and rivers and other structures. One of those spills dumped 2 million gallons of drilling mud (i.e. bentonite) in a wetland next to the Tuscarawas River (see Rover Pipeline Accident Spills ~2M Gal. Drilling Mud in OH Swamp). Following that accident and other accidents where mud was spilled, the OEPA announced it had fined Rover $431,000. As it turns out, that OEPA claim, made by OEPA spokesman James Lee, was a little white lie (see Turns Out OEPA & Columbus Dispatch Were Lying – Rover NOT Fined). Apparently the OEPA has “suggested” such a fine, but a long process now ensues where such a fine (and the alleged infraction) are negotiated. So no, no fine has actually been assessed, yet. The James Lee from the OEPA is back, partnering up his favorite mainstream mouthpiece–the Columbus Dispatch–to claim that Rover did not plan storm water management properly and that Rover’s poor planning has resulted in heavy storm water runoff into farmers’ fields where Rover is digging trenches. So OEPA is upping their $431,000 “fine” (that’s not actually a fine, yet) to $714,000! Here we go again… Read More “OEPA & Rover at Odds Over Storm Water Runoff, “Fine” Now $714K”

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    NY’s Grotesque Energy Double Standard re “Home Rule”

    Here’s one that really gets us hot and bothered. MDN is written from Upstate New York (near Binghamton). We covered, extensively, the battle to allow fracking (and now, natural gas pipelines) in our beloved home state. We won’t plow up old ground again except to say that one of the battles fought, and lost, was over whether or not local municipalities can ban fracking for everyone. Two backwater towns in New York–Dryden (Tompkins County) and Middlefield (Otsego County) passed town bans that were challenged in court. The case eventually went to NY’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. We (pro-drillers) lost. Local towns now have the right to outright ban fracking–if and when it ever becomes legal to frack in New York. Some call it the “home rule” law. This was all done at the prompting and urging of a very corrupt governor–Andrew Cuomo. The judges on NY’s high court are appointed by the governor. It’s the worst kind of incest and miscarriage of justice. So along comes a wind power project that a corporation wants to build in Western NY. Some of the locals don’t want it. If they convince their towns to pass a ban on wind projects for the town, guess what? In that case NY state law will overrule the town and allow the wind project to get built anyway. How, on God’s green earth, is that in any sense fair? Here’s what we hope: We hope at least one of the towns involved passes a ban and it goes to court and they throw the high court’s decision on frack bans right back in their face. It’s time to expose the energy double standard in NY…
    Read More “NY’s Grotesque Energy Double Standard re “Home Rule””

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    Cuomo Tries to Finish Killing NY NatGas with New Methane Rules

    It’s so enormously frustrating to live in The Empire State–New York. Which is where MDN is produced. Our illustrious governor, Andrew Cuomo, has drunken deeply from the man-made global warming Kool Aid fountain. Cuomo, a radically left Democrat, may or may not actually believe in man-made global warming. Makes no difference. He, like other lib Dems, find it a useful tool to control the population. If you can control what people use for energy (and what how they pay for health care), you control their lives, period. Cuomo has made a decision to align himself with global warming nutters who oppose all fossil fuels because supposedly said fossil fuels, when burned, release carbon dioxide into the air. CO2 becomes “trapped” in the atmosphere and takes a long time to dissipate, creating (as the disproved theory goes) a “greenhouse effect,” trapping heat and (eventually) catastrophically warming Mom Earth. The problem, that we’ve pointed out countless times, is that empirical data–where people use instruments to monitor “average” temperatures–proves the earth has been cooling for the past 20 years. That little fact never makes it into mainstream media because it destroys the mythology that’s developed around this POLITICAL issue. Global warming is not, as the left pushes, about science. It is about politics. But we digress. Yesterday Gov. Cuomo released burdensome new methane emissions regulations that will further hamstring New York’s wilting conventional (not shale) oil and natural gas drillers. It seems Andy simply wants to extinguish the rest of the industry in our beloved home state…
    Read More “Cuomo Tries to Finish Killing NY NatGas with New Methane Rules”

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    Getting to Know Rob Powelson, Our Next/New FERC Commissioner

    As MDN alerted you on May 10, President Trump has nominated two highly qualified individuals to serve on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission–Neil Chatterjee and Rob Powelson (see Trump Nominates 2 New FERC Commissioners – Powelson & Chatterjee). Rob is a member of the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission (PUC), and currently the president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). Big Green is amping up its opposition to Rob Powelson. In March, Powelson had the temerity to tell the truth. During a speech he compared wacko pipeline protesters who were camping out at FERC members’ homes–threatening the commissioners–to Islamic jihadists (see Powelson Under Fire for Calling Enviro Jihadists, “Jihadists”). The enviro jihadists jumped on that, demanding Powelson be dropped from consideration for a FERC post. We’re happy to see Trump metaphorically stick his finger in their eye. We spotted an article that goes into a bit more depth on Powelson’s background and qualifications to hold this very important position. Let’s get to know Rob Powelson just a little bit better… Read More “Getting to Know Rob Powelson, Our Next/New FERC Commissioner”