Dela. Riverkeeper Asks Senate to Delay FERC Nomination Hearings

President Trump, who will not be impeached, regardless of what press whores on fake news outlets like CNN say, recently nominated two extremely qualified people to be Federal Energy Regulatory commissioners (see Trump Nominates 2 New FERC Commissioners – Powelson & Chatterjee). As we pointed out in a story yesterday, liberal Democrats have been hounding Trump for months to nominate new commissioners–so they could begin grandstanding against them (see Now We Know: Lib Dems Wanted FERC Nominees for Grandstanding). Washington is sick. Radical environmentalists have NOT wanted any new nominees, because they want FERC neutered and unable to vote on new pipeline projects. One of the worst of the worst in the campaign to keep FERC in a quorumless state is THE Delaware Riverkeeper–Maya van Rossum. Riverkeeper is a front organization for the William Penn Foundation–created to shield William Penn from losing its nonprofit status for engaging in outright political activities like its opposition to fracking and fossil fuels (see Dela. Riverkeeper Protects Wm. Penn Foundation’s Tax Exemption). Maya continues to do her masters’ bidding. In a letter to the U.S. Senate dated May 15, van Rossum, pretending to represent “national organizations,” asks the Senate to slow down and even block Trump’s two FERC nominees…
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Something has befuddled us for a long time. Why would Big Oil companies–like ExxonMobil, Shell and BP–actually support the international climate agreement that caps carbon dioxide emissions from the fuels they extract? In December 2015, then-President Barack Hussein Obama signed the Paris Agreement (otherwise known as COP21) that forfeits the national sovereignty of the United States in the name of so-called man-made global warming (see
While reviewing documents filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the Energy Transfer Rover pipeline project, we came across a letter filed by ET yesterday. The letter (full copy below) addresses the recent “inadvertent return” (i.e. major leak) of 2 million gallons of drilling mud in a swamp next to the Tuscarawas River (Stark County, OH). Following that leak and other leaks, FERC told Rover to stop any new underground drilling not already under way (see
Things that don’t make sense, don’t make sense for a reason. You have to keep digging until you get to the truth. We’re referring to our previous posts where we scratched our heads over calls by both House and Senate Democrats (very liberal, very anti-drilling) for President Trump to hurry up and nominate commissioners to the quorumless Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see
The largest (so far) Marcellus Shale-gas fired electric plant in Pennsylvania is currently under construction in Lackawanna County, PA (near Scranton). The Lackawanna Energy Center, being built in Jessup by Invenergy, will produce 1,480 megawatts of electricity. However, there is a second, smaller Marcellus-fired electric plant also in the works. Last October, MDN brought you the news that Archbald Energy Partners, a collaboration between Canada-based EmberClear Corp. and New Jersey-based DCO Energy, wants to build a plant in Archbald, PA (again, near Scranton) that will produce 485 megawatts of electricity (see
There’s a reason hospitals and court rooms are frequently the settings for soap operas on TV–there’s always so much drama surrounding medicine and the law–the latter of which is our focus today. In January MDN reported what seemed like the final chapter in a long, drawn-out case between Marcellus driller EQT and the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). In October 2014, the DEP fined EQT a whopping $4.53 million for a leaky wastewater impoundment in Tioga County, PA (see
Early last week MDN brought you the news that Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline project has been fined by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) for $431,000 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” (see 
Wikipedia: “The Iron Curtain was the name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. A term symbolizing the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled areas. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the Soviet Union.” There is an “economic Iron Curtain” in Wayne County, PA–a curtain imposed by the Delaware River Basin Commission, or DRBC (equivalent to the Soviet Union in our metaphor). The DRBC refuses to allow shale well drilling and fracking in the Delaware River Basin, while next door in the Susquehanna River Basin such activity has been going great guns for years. As we previously reported, one brave landowner in Wayne County is fighting, in court, to rip down the DRBC Iron Curtain (see
As MDN began reporting last week, Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline, a $4 billion, 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada, has quickly become a soap opera. MDN brought you the news that Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline project has been fined by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) for $431,000 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” (see
A group of landowners in Ohio calling themselves the Coalition to Reroute Nexus (CORN), whom we affectionately call CORNballs, have filed a lawsuit in court against the NEXUS pipeline project. Not to actually reroute NEXUS, but to kill it. To stop it. The landowners are asking a federal court to block the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) from allowing the project to proceed–which of course is not going to happen–and to legally bar the NEXUS Gas Transmission project from building the pipeline. Which has been the aim of the CORNballs from the beginning–contrary to the party line that they just want it rerouted around them. The CORNballs seem to be in league with antis in the City of Green, OH, who recently voted to give $100,000 of taxpayer money to high-priced Cleveland lawyers to try and stop NEXUS (see
Here’s a story we LOVE! As we previously reported, anti-fossil fuel “protesters” (i.e. paid thugs) in North Dakota, there to try and stop the Dakota Access Pipeline from being completed (which didn’t work), left a major mess behind when they finally moved on (see
There has been a slight delay from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the approval process for Dominion’s $5 billion, 594-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline–a natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina. On Friday, FERC issued an official update to Dominion to say that instead of issuing a final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on June 30, 2017, as previously promised, the agency will now provide the final EIS on July 21, 2017–three weeks later. The final EIS is an important step in the process–perhaps THE most important step. When/if FERC issues a positive EIS that finds a project will not cause undue environmental harm, it’s usually all over. Yes, other steps are involved, but a final approval is then a foregone conclusion. So IF the final EIS is delivered on July 21, a 90-day clock begins ticking. FERC will then have until Oct. 19 to deliver their final final final approval of the project…
“Stupid is as stupid does.” – Forrest Gump. New England needs more natural gas. Why? Because they heat with it, but more importantly, because the produce electricity with it. New England has the highest electric rates in the country–up to four times higher than other regions. These are indisputable facts. In early 2014 all of the six New England state governors sent a letter supporting new pipeline infrastructure to bring cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas to New England (see