Nuke the Nukes: Harrisburg Battle to Prop Up Failing Nuke Energy
As MDN reported last week, the battle lines have been drawn and both sides have come out swinging in a battle over whether ratepayers should bail out economically failing nuclear power plants (see Battle Lines Drawn in PA to Prevent Nuke Energy Special Treatment). Five nuclear power plants in PA provide 37.5% of all electricity used in the state. There are no “greenhouse gas” emissions from nuclear power, making it attractive for some green radicals–but nuclear waste is a big problem because it never goes away, at least not for thousands of years. You have to store it. The biggest problem with nuclear energy today is that it costs more to produce electricity from nukes than it does from cheap natural gas-fired plants. Nukes can no longer compete. So in a couple of corrupt states–New York and Illinois–the nuke lobby convinced regulatory bodies and the legislatures to pass laws favoring nukes–forcing ratepayers to pay more to keep the nukes going. That battle has now come to Pennsylvania. One of the lobbyists hired by the nuke industry is John Hanger–former Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) under Ed “fast Eddie” Rendell. Hanger briefly ran in the Democrat primary for governor (losing out to Tom Wolf). Hanger ran on a platform of legalizing marijuana–hence our moniker of “pass a joint for John” (see Pass One Last Joint for John Hanger). After he dropped out, Hanger went to work in the Wolf Administration for a period of time, as Wolf’s Secretary of Policy and Planning. But after a year of that Hanger quit and moved out of PA–to be with his wife and daughter in Massachusetts (see John “Severance Tax” Hanger Quits Tom Wolf Administration – Why?). Hanger is back–“advising” (i.e. lobbying) for the nuclear industry in Harrisburg…
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Duke Energy Ohio, an LDC or “local distribution company” serves some half a million customers with natural gas in Ohio. The company has a 12-mile pipeline to flow the gas it needs, to move it from one point to another in Hamilton County (Cincinnati), in the southwest corner of the state. The Duke pipeline has been in service since the 1950s. Duke needs to replace that pipe or some of those half million Duke customers won’t get natural gas any more. Because anything to do with “fracking” or “pipelines” has been so thoroughly bastardized by the media and anti-fossil fuel protesters, there has been, of course, opposition to Duke’s plan. So Duke “listened” and has scaled back their plans. Instead of building a 30-inch gas pipeline running at 600 psi (pounds per square inch), the revised plan calls for a 20-inch pipeline running at 400 psi (see 
Big Green is a big business. Radical enviros have worked hard over the eight years of Obama’s reign of terror to build and expand the Environmental Protection Agency far beyond its originally intended purpose. The Obamadroids’ abuses via the EPA were breathtaking–many of which were chronicled here on MDN. Things like the odious and misnamed Clean Power Plan, the fruity Waters of the United States (WOTUS) regulation. Capturing every last molecule of so-called fugitive methane from oil and gas operations. The EPA became the modern day environmental equivalent of the Gestapo. So no wonder the environuts are apoplectic over President Trump’s mission to put the EPA on a diet and shrink it back to its pre-regulatory-obese size. But don’t think for a minute that the radicals will just stand by and watch it happen. They are fighting and fighting hard to prevent the enormously bloated agency from shedding budget, people, and regulations. We stumbled across their game plan for how they intend to fight Trump every inch of the way…
It seems the controversy in Pennsylvania over the Snyder Brothers’ strippers isn’t going to end any time soon. No, not those kinds of strippers, silly! We’re talking about stripper wells, which are defined in PA as wells that produce less than 90 thousand cubic feet (Mcf) for a one month period. Stripper wells are vertical wells that don’t produce nearly as much gas as horizontal shale wells. In 2012 PA passed the Act 13 law that includes a fee on wells targeting shale layers, including the Marcellus. And here’s where it gets a little complicated. Snyder Brothers drills mostly conventional (vertical only) wells. In 2011-2012 they drilled 45 vertical-only wells, but targeting the Marcellus (all of them fracked). Initially those wells produced more than 90 Mcf/month, but by December of the year they were drilled, they produced less than 90 Mcf. The way the 2012 Act 13 law is written, if a well produces less than 90 Mcf/month for “any” month it is considered a stripper well and exempt from paying the impact fee. The state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) assessed the fee anyway because for 11 months the wells produced more than 90 Mcf. The argument back and forth is whether the intent was “any single month” or not as the trigger to exempt a well from paying the fee. Snyder Brothers went to court and in March, they won, exempting those wells from impact fees (see 
We’ve previously reported on the story of two Pennsylvania towns that were either hoodwinked, or perhaps willing led astray, by the radical Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) into passing (now overturned) bans on fracking and injection wells in their towns–Highland Twp (Elk County) and Grant Twp (Indiana County). The two townships thought they would do an end-run around the state’s authority to issue permits for two injection wells–one in each township, by re-incorporating under so-called home rule charters. The towns essentially declared themselves independent of the state for a variety of matters, including oil and gas permits–which the PA state constitution clearly says is a function of ONLY the state Dept. of Environmental Protection. In March, the DEP issued final permits to each town, and at the same time sued each town to get those portions of their home rule charters, dealing with oil and gas, overturned (see 
New York Gov. Cuomo has now blocked the Constitution Pipeline from getting built (see 
Last December the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) said it would go on a “listening tour” in early 2017, to focus on so-called environmental justice–whatever that is (see 
One of the oft-repeated lies we hear from anti-fossil fuelers against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is that the agency “never” rejects a pipeline proposal, and “hasn’t in 20 years.” The conclusion, according to liemeisters like THE Delaware Riverkeeper, is that FERC is simply a “rubber stamp” for “big oil and gas”–not to be trusted and (preferably) shut down. That’s the kindergartenish meme they pedal to unthinking, left-leaning enviro lapdogs (their followers), who believe them. But you and I know the truth. This is that truth: FERC picks over pipeline projects with a fine-tooth comb. When FERC finds something they don’t like, they respond back to the project builder with “suggestions” about route changes, construction guidelines, request for more information, etc. If the project builder decides to disregard FERC’s “suggestions,” the builder runs the risk of having the project rejected. So they change it. It is an ongoing negotiation. What if FERC demands something really wacky? The project builder will push back, but in the end, what FERC wants, FERC gets. Period. And so it is with 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. Atlantic Coast is winding its way through the FERC regulatory process. Last week was the deadline for filing comments on FERC’s draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the project. On Tuesday, FERC sent Dominion a 36-page letter (full copy below) regarding the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, identifying 100 areas of concern with the “suggestion” that minor route changes and workspace reductions would button up most issues. You can bet your bottom dollar Atlantic Coast Pipeline will bend over backwards to make those adjustments. This is how adults handle things…
MDN spotted an announcement issue by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) stating they’ve assessed a $185,000 fine on the Constellation Pipeline and its builder EM Energy (i.e. EdgeMarc) for a series of violations when building the pipeline in 2014-2015. That sent us digging. We don’t recall a Constellation Pipeline (and we’ve been writing MDN since 2009). What is the pipeline? Where, in PA, is it located? What is its purpose? We think we found most of the answers…
For months MDN has encouraged its readers to get behind and support Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project–a $3 billion, 198-mile pipeline project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from northeastern PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. In February the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave its final seal of approval for the project (see 
As MDN pointed out in a post on Monday, the uncompetitive nuclear power generating industry is trying to protect its business by asking for special protections and a “bailout” from ratepayers in state after state (see 
Excuse us if we don’t shed any tears for companies dumb enough to found, base or refocus their entire strategy on the shifting sands foundation of ever-changing federal regulations–like the idiotic, hyper-restrictive regulations that every last molecule of methane must be sniffed out and stopped before it “escapes” (like a fugitive) into the atmosphere. Basing your business model on government regulations may work for a while, under tyrannical regimes that of B.H. Obama, but it doesn’t work under free market, sensible administrations like the Trump Administration. You bet an entire company’s future on a federal policy (fugitive methane) that was instigated by an executive branch agency, and then you wake up after election day to find out the policy has been changed. Whoops…
Soon after President Trump was inaugurated, some of the first Executive Orders he signed dealt with the Dakota Access Pipeline (now completed, thank God), and the Keystone XL Pipeline. Trump also signed a “Presidential Memorandum”–similar to, but not the same as, an Executive Order. On Jan. 24, President Trump signed the “Presidential Memorandum Regarding Construction of American Pipelines,” which instructs the Dept. of Commerce to ensure the pipelines used for new projects, and for major repairs, are Made in America–from the smelting stage through the final fabrication stage. That order has had the midstream industry squirming, quite frankly. Why? Because so much of the pipelines we now use are foreign made. While the goal of 100% American made pipeline is laudable (and something we support), the fact is, our domestic industries are not currently set up to produce all of the pipeline we need. So until our own domestic industries are capable, the midstream sector will have to continue relying on “global sourcing” for at least some pipeline materials. That was the message conveyed by five trade associations representing the industry in comments jointly filed with the Dept. of Commerce last Friday. The industry is walking a tightrope. On one hand they want to support Trump’s efforts to use American manufacturing of pipes, on the other, they want to be able to finish projects under way or planned to begin soon…
We’ve now written two posts addressing the jaw-dropping audacity of the corrupt New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation in their refusal to grant water crossing permits to a second major pipeline project (see