Regulation

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    Journal ‘Science’ Pimps Itself to the Democrat Party with Op-Ed

    Science, as in the storied journal, is supposed to be about, well, science. Instead, they’ve opened up their pages to politics. Not that Science hasn’t long been bastardized by and riddled with politics. But just like mainstream media was unmasked during this last election as being TOTALLY biased and willing to “shade” the truth (i.e. lie), Science is now unmasked. Barack Hussein Obama submitted an article to the journal about global warming, as an exercise in mass propaganda, to try and create the meme that he actually achieved great things related to energy while in office–i.e., his “legacy.” The opposite is true. In the Science article (below) Obama alludes to the rise of fracking as lowering carbon emissions, but he can’t even bring himself to actually refer to fracking or hydraulic fracturing in the article itself. That would tick off his radical base. The entire article is about global warming and how mankind is causing it–pure rubbish and non-science. But there you go. Our point is that it is now only too obvious that Science is to the scientific world what the National Enquirer is to the “news” world…
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    Obama EPA Signs One Final “Sue and Settle” Case Against O&G

    January 20th, when Donald Trump is inaugurated and decomposing swamps like the EPA get drained, can’t happen soon enough. However, before that date, the Obamadroids are doing everything they can to get their last digs in. One of them is the rogue, out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency, which will soon be swept clean by Scott Pruitt (delicious justice if ever there were some). We’ve written about the sleazy practice of “sue and settle” in the past–a practice whereby government agencies like the EPA get their friends in the radical environmental movement to sue them, then they quickly settle the case and say “See, we HAVE to do this because the court is making us do it.” Scott Pruitt knows all about that practice and it will stop on Jan. 20. But until then, the EPA continues to engage in it. The latest case they’ve just settled was brought by the odious National Resources Defense Council, Earthworks and a mishmash of other radical groups in May 2016 regarding an attempt to ban injection wells and stop landfills from accepting drill cuttings (see Enviro Nazis File Lawsuit to “Force” EPA to End Injection Wells). The EPA wants to once again eat away at the sovereignty of the states by regulating oil and gas drilling “wastes” using federal law (illegal under the U.S. Constitution). When was the last time you heard of a big lawsuit like this being settled in a matter of a few months? Yeah, never…
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    Obama EPA Files to List NatGas Plants as “Toxic” Polluters

    In January 2015 a gang of nine far-left anti-drilling “environmental” organizations sued the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claiming the agency doesn’t require the oil and gas industry to spend big bucks to fill out reams of paperwork to prove it’s not polluting Precious Mother Earth with nasty chemicals (see 9 Anti-Drilling Groups Sue EPA Hoping to Damage the O&G Industry). The lawsuit was filed by the Environmental Integrity Project (better called the Environmental Dishonesty Project), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Center for Effective Government, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture), the Clean Air Council, THE Delaware Riverkeeper Network (i.e. Maya van Rossum), the Responsible Drilling Alliance, and Texas Campaign for the Environment. The lawsuit by the litigious gang of nine, as we said at the time, will provide cover and an excuse for the EPA. This is all scripted out and done in collusion with the Obama EPA. In October last year, the EPA announced that natural gas plants do qualify to be included in their so-called Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), a system that will require processing plants to fill out several trees’ worth of paperwork on an annual basis. The EPA decision made the antis orgasmic with delight (see PA Big Green Groups Elated: Latest EPA Sue-and-Settle Scam Worked). The Obama EPA, in a parting shot at the natural gas industry, just filed the official proposed rule (last Friday, copy below) that will make it happen. Fortunately the rule won’t go into effect until March 7, giving incoming EPA chief Scott Pruitt the opportunity to stop this nonsense…
    Read More “Obama EPA Files to List NatGas Plants as “Toxic” Polluters”

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    VA County Approves Compressor Stn for Atlantic Coast Pipeline

    As MDN reported last week, area residents packed a small meeting hall in Buckingham County, VA for a five-hour marathon session to express their concerns about building a new compressor station in the county for the upcoming Atlantic Coast Pipeline (see Residents Pack County Bd Mtg re Atlantic Coast Compressor Stn). A number of those residents, working from misinformation, are opposed to the pipeline. Fortunately the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors, who have been researching the compressor station project for the past two years, saw through the misinformation and vitriol and voted to approve the project after the marathon session. That vote “incensed” some of the antis…
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    Towns Near Philly Collude with CAC to Block Mariner East 2 Pipe?

    Several townships in the Philadelphia orbit appear to be colluding with each other and with the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council in passing nearly identical resolutions opposing the Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipeline. Eight townships or boroughs along or “close to” (meaning not along) the route in Delaware and Chester counties have published resolutions or proclamations badmouthing the project. The municipalities include: Edgmont, West Goshen, Thornbury, Middletown, Westtown, Rose Valley, Swarthmore and Media. Some of the self-incriminating evidence for collusion comes from an admission by one of them: “The community statements are similar to each other because of consultation between their leaders.” And this, from the odious Clean Air Council: “Alex Bomstein, a lawyer with the environmental group Clean Air Council, said that while there are other local campaign such as those in Lebanon and Huntingdon Counties, the efforts in Delaware and Chester Counties are more ‘developed’ in the Philadelphia suburbs. ‘There are more people organizing than elsewhere,’ he said, probably because of a greater population density closer to Philadelphia.” Why would the StateImpact Pennsylvania propagandist quote the CAC in the same article as the colluding towns, unless they were somehow tied together?…
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    Court Denies PA Senators Right to Join Lawsuit Against DRBC

    Last May MDN told you about a group of brave landowners in Wayne County, PA who have had their property rights stolen by the Delaware River Basin Commission (see Wayne County, PA Landowner Sues DRBC Over Fracking Ban). They filed a lawsuit against the DRBC asking a judge to declare the DRBC does not have jurisdiction to prevent construction of a natural gas well. Several northeastern PA counties (unfortunately) are located in the Delaware River Basin and the DRBC has steadfastly refused to allow them to drill any shale wells, citing concerns that the Delaware River supplies fresh water to millions downstream–even though they can’t explain how that water might get contaminated. A few months later, the DRBC’s best friend and patron, THE Delaware Riverkeeper, sued to join the lawsuit to help defend the inept DRBC (see Delaware Riverkeeper “Intervenes” to Protect its Patsy – the DRBC). In November, three PA senators filed to join the lawsuit on behalf of the landowners that they represent (see PA Senators File to Join Case Against DRBC Fracking Moratorium). Predictably, THE Delaware Riverkeeper sought to prevent the senators from joining the lawsuit. You see, it’s OK for Riverkeeper to participate as an outsider, but not OK for the Senators to participate to ensure the people they represent get represented in the lawsuit. That’s how it works in the world of enviro radicalism. Unfortunately, the court where the case is being heard sided with the radicals and has ruled the Senators have no right to represent the people they were elected to represent when it comes to a court case…
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    Enviro Radicals at NRDC Declare War Against Trump Administration

    Spitting and spouting about so-called renewables and nasty, evil, vile fossil fuels, the head of the extremist Natural Resources Defense Council is trash-talking the incoming Trump Administration even before it takes up residence in Washington. Typical. According to Rhea Suh, a Donald Trump presidency equals the end of a liveable earth. We invite Ms. Suh to relocated to Mars, or perhaps one of the moons of Jupiter. Here’s some of the insane ramblings from the NRDC earlier this week in declaring war on the Trump Administration…
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    Weaponized EPA has Its Own SWAT Team, Drones & Special Agents

    We are speechless (and that doesn’t happen often). Get a load of this: “A new report from transparency watchdog group Open the Books documents an explosion in the number of federal agencies with gun-toting, badge-wielding law enforcement divisions. The report, called “The Militarization of America” [full copy below] details the astonishing scope of federal police power. There are now over 200,000 federal officers with arrest and firearm authority, in a whopping 67 different federal agencies….We all understand that the EPA is tasked with enforcing environmental laws. But does it really need a full-blown military-style police force? Congress granted the EPA police powers in 1988, but not with SWAT teams in mind. Even now, the agency says its Criminal Enforcement Program ‘enforces the nation’s laws by investigating cases, collecting evidence, conducting forensic analyses, and providing legal guidance to assist in the prosecution of criminal conduct that threatens people’s health and the environment.’ Well yes, but also by midnight raids with SWAT teams and attack dogs, confiscating private property, hauling people off to jail for accidentally spilling a barrel of oil, and other ‘enforcement’ horrors”…
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    PA DEP Slowing Down Permits to Construct Well Pads & Pipelines

    In 2012, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) launched an “expedited” review process for erosion and sediment control general permits that it grants when drillers or pipeline companies plan to push dirt around on more than 5 acres at a time. Which means every pipeline built and every shale well pad constructed. The expedited review process shortened the time to get a permit down to as little as 14 days–provided the paperwork was filled out correctly. The DEP conducted an internal review and found that 59% of the time they didn’t get the paperwork in a form they wanted, so they disqualified those applications. Now the DEP is revising its rules for expedited review, meaning they’re pretty much doing away with it. Welcome back to long delays in getting permits to push dirt around. This action appears to be a response to stinging criticism from the PA legislature that permits, which are supposed to be issued in 14 days, are taking over 100 days–a charge leveled by PA Sen. Camera Bartolotta who is introducing legislation to put a burr under the DEP’s saddle. So the DEP is saying fine, we’ll just change it back to the way it used to be. You can now expect long permit delays from the outset. Your state government at work, serving the people…
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    OH Judge Orders ODNR to Allow Shuttered Injection Well to Reopen

    American Water Management Services (AWMS) owns a wastewater injection well in Trumbull County that supposedly caused a low-level earthquake (that nobody could feel) in 2014. Two wells located at the site, both operated by AWMS, were “temporarily” shut down by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources following the quake (see ODNR Temporarily Shuts Down Injection Wells After Low-Level Quake). One of the two injection wells was allowed to re-open, but not the other (see ODNR Clears Trumbull Co. Injection Well in August Quake). However, AWMS can’t open just the one well. They need to open both and operate both. The ODNR is supposedly crafting new regulations that will govern the offending well that may or may not have caused the low-level quake and a year-and-a-half later the ODNR has not released those new regs. Meanwhile, everyone at that operation is out of a job. AWMS appealed the closure and in December 2015, a county judge threw out the appeal (see Judge Tosses Appeal to Re-Open Trumbull, OH Injection Well). So AWMS appealed it to the next level up–the 10th District Court of Appeals–in January 2016 (see AWMS Appeals Decision Upholding Trumbull Injection Well Closure). We’re not sure where the Appeals Court case sits, but a county judge has just ordered ODNR and AWMS to submit paperwork that will allow the well to reopen. Soon. The judge is telling the ODNR, no more foot-dragging. Get it done, now…
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    FERC Grants Permission to Begin Leidy South Construction in PA/VA

    In August of 2016 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finally granted a certificate to Dominion to build its Leidy South Project, a $210 million to build and/or upgrade six compressor stations along the DTI pipeline system in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia (see FERC OKs 6 Dominion Compressor Station Upgrades in PA, MD, VA). The upgraded compressors would allow DTI to pump an additional 155,000 dekatherms per day of natural gas, providing that gas to new and expanding natgas-fired electric generating plants. But apparently “yes” doesn’t mean “yes you can begin construction.” Earlier this week FERC granted its permission to Dominion to begin actual construction on the compressor stations…
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    Boone Tells The Donald How to Make America Great Again re Energy

    T. Boone Pickens, a Texas oil man (pronounced “aaalll man” in Texas) needs no introduction. In a post on LinkedIn, Boone offers some great advice to the incoming President-elect Donald Trump on how The Donald can make America great again, using domestic energy resources. Boone’s plan has two parts: (1) Don’t screw up what we have going for us. (2) Don’t settle for what we’ve done so far. Here’s some great insights from someone The Donald should listen to…
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    ODNR Says No ‘Felt’ Earthquakes from Injection Wells Last 5 Yrs

    On Dec. 31, 2011, the Youngstown, OH area experienced a 4.0 earthquake that was later determined to be caused by a wastewater injection well (see Youngstown Earthquake and Fracking: Is There a Connection? and ODNR Finds Youngstown Injection Well Caused Earthquakes). The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) later enacted new regulations to prevent future occurrences of earthquakes from either injection wells or fracking itself (see Did ODNR Overreact & Set Earthquake Detect Bar Too Low?). As we pointed out in 2014, the new rules would have shut down the Cleveland Browns stadium–if all of the fans were to begin stomping their feet it would create an “earthquake” greater than the allowed limits set by ODNR. Since the new rules were enacted there have continued to be earthquakes in Ohio, but not “felt” earthquakes from injection wells (see Study Says Series of Unfelt Earthquakes in OH from Utica Fracking). Typically an earthquake must reach 2.5 on the Richter scale to be felt on the surface. Since spring of 2012, there have been no major (above 2.5) earthquakes in Ohio related to injection wells, although there have been a few felt earthquakes supposedly tied to fracking over an active fault (see OH Researchers Confirm Hilcorp Fracking Caused Low-Level Quakes). Now five years later, the ODNR is patting itself on the back, taking credit for the reduced number of earthquakes tied to injection wells, because (they say) of their super-restrictive regulations…
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    Marcellus/Utica Drillers Ask for Special Permit to Kill Some Bats

    In April 2015 the Obama administration’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) did a disservice to not only the drilling industry, but the wind industry, farmers and the construction industry. USFWS listed the northern long-eared bat as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (see US Fish & Wildlife Fixes Wrong Problem for Northern Long-Eared Bat). USFWS says a fungus is spreading through the bat population, killing it. The northern long-eared bat is found in pretty much the eastern two-thirds of the country, minus Florida. The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) pointed out that USFWS has admitted the the bat is threatened because of something called white nose syndrome–which has nothing to do with habitat destruction. Yet drillers and midstreamers are now hamstrung with new regulations to “save the bats” even though they are not the ones causing harm to the bats. There are other bat species also on the threatened and endangered list, including the Indiana bat, eastern small-footed bat, little brown bat and tri-colored bat. All five species are in decline because of white nose syndrome. Drillers and midstreamers can’t cut down trees from April 1st through October 31st of each year for fear of killing a bat that may be roosting in the tree. This is nuts! Cutting a few trees here and there will not further deplete the bat population–but the thugish USFWS won’t budge. So a coalition of Marcellus/Utica drillers and midstreamers have asked the USFWS to grant them a special permit to allow them to inadvertently kill the odd bat between April and October. USFWS is now conducting a full environmental impact statement, which won’t be ready until next year…
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    FERC Approves Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline! Cabot Grabs More Capacity

    1/4/17 Update: Williams finally issued its own press release about this, which we’ve included below.

    On the last business day of 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a favorable final environmental impact statement (EIS) for one of the major pipeline projects in the Marcellus/Utica: the $3 billion Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. The FERC EIS for Atlantic Sunrise (full copy embedded below) said that although there may be some adverse environmental effects from the project, those effects can be “reduced to less-than-significant levels” by Williams via the plans submitted. FERC considered five alternative routes and chose to stick with the preferred route proposed by Williams. However, FERC did ask Williams two make minor tweaks to four locations along the route of the pipeline. Cabot Oil & Gas, the main customer for the 1.7 billion cubic feet of capacity, was positively giddy with the announcement. Cabot released their own press release to say that although they previously gobbled up 850 million cubic feet (MMcf) of capacity along the new pipeline, they are adding another 150 MMcf to that number, giving the company a grand total of 1 billion cubic feet (out of 1.7 Bcf) of capacity along the pipe when it’s built. Holy moly! That will be 1 Bcf per day of Cabot’s gas going from Susquehanna County, PA to other states, outside the region. VERY smart move by Cabot. Below we have the news and feedback/analysis about the announcement…
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    FERC Gives Atlantic Coast Pipeline Thumbs Up, Antis Pitch a Fit

    On the last business day of 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a favorable final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline (see today’s companion story). Not to be confused with that project, also on the last business day of the year, FERC issued a favorable draft (not final, but draft) EIS for the $5 billion, 594-mile Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. This is a huge milestone and an indication that FERC will later issue a favorable final EIS, and then a certificate to allow the project to get built. FERC cautioned there is still more work to be done by Dominion to complete field surveys and submit proposals on certain issues that need to get resolved. However, the draft EIS says based on what they see so far, FERC has confidence that Dominion can minimize damage to the environment in building the pipeline. Of course the childish antis came out of the woodwork to begin bleating and blatting, as they so often do, that they pipeline will kill everyone and everything in its path. Typical…
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