Waters of U.S. Case on Hold Until U.S. Supreme Court Weighs In
In May 2015 Obama’s rogue Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) along with the Obama U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) released a finalized rule clarifying what “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) means vis a vis what can be regulated under the federal Clean Water Act (see EPA Power Grab: Redefines Waters of the U.S. to Include Everything). Essentially the rule change redefines everything down to muddle puddles (we’re not exaggerating) as subject to the federal Clean Water Act. In October 2015 a federal judge stopped WOTUS from going into effect, while it’s litigated (see Sixth Circuit Court Stops EPA from Implementing WOTUS Anywhere). It took a year, but in November 31 states along with other entities filed briefs with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opposing the rule (see 31 States Ask Court to Dump Obama WOTUS Rule as Unconstitutional). Right after that, 21 U.S. Senators and 67 House of Representatives members (Congresspersons) filed a “friend of the court” (amicus) brief urging the court to vacate the EPA’s WOTUS rule (see 21 Senators, 67 Representatives Join Case Against EPA WOTUS Rule). However, the 6th Circuit Court hearing the case has temporarily stopped the case, until the U.S. Supreme Court decides if the 6th Circuit has the right to be the court hearing the case…
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Although antis have tried to block major pipeline upgrades in the northeast/New England region, Spectra Energy continues to have success with building and completing its projects. Recently Spectra’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) project, which built ~37 miles of new pipeline and half a dozen new compressor stations along the Alogonquin Gas Transmission pipeline, went into service (see 
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the Buffalo-based utility giant with both a drilling subsidiary (Seneca Resources) and a midstream/pipeline subsidiary (Empire Pipeline) filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in March 2015 for a pipeline project they call Northern Access 2016 (later renamed to simply Northern Access Project, dropping the “2016” part). The $455 million project includes building 97 miles of new pipeline along a power line corridor from northwestern Pennsylvania up to Erie County, NY. The project also calls for 3 miles of new pipeline further up, in Niagara County, along with a new compressor station in the Town of Pendleton (see 
On Monday the New Jersey Pinelands Commission, which oversees a stand of scrub pines in South Jersey, held a public hearing to listen to comments on a plan to build a 22-mile pipeline through the scrub pines, burying it alongside the road so as to not disturb any spindly trees. The pipeline will supply clean-burning natural gas to a power plant currently fed by coal, cleaning up the air and lowering CO2 emissions. But dunderheads in the area are still opposed–largely incited by radical environmental groups like the NJ Sierra Club and the odious Food & Water Watch, who spread lies about the project. So many people turned up for the meeting, it maxed out the meeting room of 260 and some had to wait outside in the rain (which didn’t sit well with the pampered snowflakes). Predictably many who showed up wanted to go on record as opposed to the project. Isn’t that always the case? It’s easy to motivate people to attend a meeting when they’re against something–much harder to attract people who support something. At any rate, the surprising thing about yesterday’s meeting were the many people who turned out to support the pipeline. Also predictable, at least one anti (from the odious Food & Water Watch) couldn’t contain herself and had to be ejected for disrupting the meeting…
President Trump is wasting no time in correcting the mistakes of the Obama Administration. Yesterday Trump signed a pair of Executive Orders meant to restart and advance the XL Keystone Pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline projects. The orders include a requirement that the pipes manufactured for the projects be manufactured right here at home, in the U.S. The orders in no way require the projects to get completed, they are simply meant to help clear regulatory hurdles so the projects’ builders can get moving again. Predictably the action is making radical fossil fuel haters apoplectic…
PennEast Pipeline is a very important $1 billion, 118-mile, primarily 36-inch pipeline that will get built from Dallas (Luzerne County), PA to Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington (Mercer County), NJ. It will feed local utilities and power generation plants along its route. In April 2016 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which oversees permitting for the pipeline, told PennEast the agency would extend the amount of time they are taking until December 2016, rather than the original target of August, to complete their environmental review (see 
Yesterday the U.S. Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a final “rule” (actually 31 pages of rules, which we’ve included below) in the Federal Register, which will become law (i.e. official regulation) on March 24th. The new “rule” requires pipeline operators to report incidents or accidents by phone within one hour of when they become aware of the incident/accident. It also steps up drug and alcohol testing requirements for workers. Here’s the latest in unlegislated laws to come down from on (Washington, DC) high…
Well that didn’t take long. Immediately, as soon as Donald J. Trump was sworn into office on Friday at noon, key changes were made to the official White House website. Among them: the page touting man-made global warming nonsense (i.e. “climate change”) came down, and up went Trump’s “America First Energy Plan” instead. Trump’s plan? Support shale, dump Obama’s so-called climate plan, and refocus the EPA. Slap me! Am I dreaming? Will I wake up and find Lord Obama is still in charge? Or worse yet, that Hillary is President? No! Trump won, and the best possible outcome is now happening for American energy (including shale energy) and the American people. A true “all of the above” strategy from Team Trump. Below is a copy of Trump’s energy plan and some of the hysterical reaction by radical environmentalists…
MDN has previously reported on a $900 million natural gas-fired electric generating plant coming to Orange County, NY (see 
Two weeks ago MDN told you about an effort in Virginia to ensure new changes in Virginia’s environmental regulations that require “mandatory disclosure of fracking chemicals, baseline water testing and monitoring, and spill prevention and response planning” would still protect trade secrets–the exact combinations of chemicals used by drillers when fracking (see 
Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voted to approve and issue a certificate to Columbia Pipeine’s Leach XPress and Rayne XPress pipeline projects. This is fantastic news for the Marcellus/Utica region. MDN has covered these projects from their beginning. In August 2014 Columbia, then a subsidiary of Nisource, committed to building the two projects that will flow Marcellus/Utica gas to the Gulf Coast (see 
One of the issues that isn’t going away is the demand by landowners in some Pennsylvania counties, like Bradford, for lawmakers in the state to pass a bill that guarantees them what they believe they are already guaranteed–a 12.5% minimum royalty, based on a 1979 law that states they should get such a royalty. We’ve extensively covered what we call a civil war between two parties who are otherwise friendly toward each other–landowners and shale drillers. Last year the issue came to a head with House Bill (HB) 1391 (
The (for now) taxpayer funded PBS StateImpact Pennsylvania is so “in the tank” and biased for radical environmentalism, they are a reliable mouthpiece for Big Green. Want to know what Big Green thinks? Just read StateImpact. Which is how we know Big Green is now very worried that the incoming Trump Administration will stop implementation of the ill-conceived Delaware River Basin Conservation Act. We wrote about the Act when it was still just a bill (see