Regulation

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    Kidder Twp Approves Zoning for PennEast Compressor Station

    A little good news to share about the PennEast Pipeline project–a $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. Last month PennEast got some bad news–a further delay from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in delivering a final environmental review. The review was supposed to be done last August, but got pushed to this December. Then in November, FERC announced it would be next February before the final review is delivered (see FERC Delays PennEast Pipeline Final Review – Again). That review is the big nut to crack. However, there are many smaller regulatory issues along the way that are also important. One of those is getting permission to build a few compressor stations along the pipeline’s route. One of those locations, in Carbon County, PA, has just approved PennEast’s plan to site a compressor station there…
    Read More “Kidder Twp Approves Zoning for PennEast Compressor Station”

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    Rover Pipeline to FERC: Please OK the Project NOW, by Dec. 31

    Rover Pipeline is turning up the heat on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Rover is a $3.7 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. It is a critical piece of sorely needed infrastructure for the Marcellus/Utica industry. In July, FERC issued a favorable final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project (see Big News: FERC Grants Final EIS for ET Rover Pipeline). The only thing left is for FERC to issue the certificate that allows the project to commence. Here’s the problem for Rover: If they don’t begin clearing trees in January, they won’t be able to have the tree-clearing done in time for bat season–when federally-protected Indiana and northern long-eared bats begin to roost in those trees. Rover (indeed all pipeline and drilling companies) can’t harvest trees after March 31. The moratorium on tree-cutting lasts until Oct. 31. So Rover has three months to clear trees, and if they don’t get it done then, the project will get delayed by another full year. So Rover sent a letter to FERC on Friday asking/cajoling/pleading with FERC to issue the certificate. However, Rover is currently on the excrement list at FERC over demolishing an historic house in Ohio without getting “Mother May I?” permission first (see Rover Pipeline in Hot Water Over Demolishing Historic House in OH). We wonder if perhaps that’s one reason why FERC is dragging its feet…
    Read More “Rover Pipeline to FERC: Please OK the Project NOW, by Dec. 31”

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    Chesapeake, VA City Council Approves NatGas-Powered Electric Plant

    In September MDN wrote about a new natural gas-fired electric plant being planned for Chesapeake, Virginia (see New NatGas-Fired Electric Plant Proposed for Chesapeake, VA). Macquarie Infrastructure filed an application to build the new plant in Chesapeake, Virginia’s third most populous city (located near Norfolk). Even though Macquarie is funding it, they’re using a subsidiary called Matex Virginia Power to build the 1,400-megawatt plant. In October, the project got a name–Great Bridge Energy Center–and also received an important approval from the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area Review Committee (see NatGas-Fired Electric Plant Proposed for Chesapeake, VA Advances). Great Bridge Energy Center, which will no doubt be fired with Marcellus Shale gas, continues to make excellent progress. Yesterday Chesapeake City Council voted to approve a use permit and rezoning request for the plant. In other words, City Council just gave this project their stamp of approval…
    Read More “Chesapeake, VA City Council Approves NatGas-Powered Electric Plant”

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    KM Files to Reverse Louisiana Pipe, Send Marcellus Gas to Gulf

    Seems like every few weeks we read about yet another pipeline either getting built, or reversed, in order to send Marcellus/Utica gas to other parts of the country. The latest one that surprised us (hadn’t heard of it before) is Kinder Morgan’s plan to add bidirectional capacity to their Kinder Morgan Louisiana pipeline (KMLP) to flow gas to Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG export facility. KMLP is a pipeline in Louisiana–how does reversing it get Marcellus gas to Sabine Pass? As you might have guessed, KMLP connects with other pipeline systems, including Columbia Gulf Transmission and ANR Pipeline. Both of those pipeline systems, which flow Marcellus gas, are adding bidirectional capacity as well. When it’s all done, (more of) our gas will head to Sabine Pass for liquefaction and then export to other countries. How cool is that? Here’s an update on KMLP changing directions…
    Read More “KM Files to Reverse Louisiana Pipe, Send Marcellus Gas to Gulf”

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    Sierra Club Targets Marcellus Pipe Projects Using Antitrust Laws

    The litigious and environmentally radical Sierra Club, backed by Big Green money from billionaires like Tom Steyer, is attempting to block two important pipeline projects in the Marcellus: Dominion’s $5 billion, 594-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), a natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina; and DTE Energy/Spectra Energy’s NEXUS Pipeline, a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. It’s no secret groups like the Sierra Club have tried to stop such projects. But their latest strategy in opposing these two projects is worthy of examination. The Clubbers are claiming that ACP and NEXUS have an unfair competitive advantage over alternative energy sources, like wind and solar, and therefore should be stopped. That is, the Sierra Club is attempting to use U.S. antitrust laws dating back to the late 1800s in an attempt to claim these pipelines are anti-competitive and therefore should be canceled. Talk about chutzpah…
    Read More “Sierra Club Targets Marcellus Pipe Projects Using Antitrust Laws”

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    Elba Island LNG Update: Non-FTA Exports Approved, Dump Truck City

    Elba Island LNG

    Kinder Morgan’s Elba Island, Georgia (near Savannah) proposed LNG export facility received a green light from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in June (see KM’s Elba Island LNG Export Plant Approved by FERC). Kinder has since started construction at the site. Further good news: the U.S. Dept. of Energy has just granted Elba Island permission to export LNG to non-Free Trade Agreement countries. What does the Georgia’s Elba LNG plant have to do with Marcellus/Utica? The Williams Transco pipeline runs through Georgia. Kinder owns and operates the 200-mile Elba Express pipeline, which connects the LNG facility to the Transco. Currently Elba Island imports LNG, getting it to market via the Transco. However, Williams has been on a mission to send Marcellus gas south–including to Georgia (see Marcellus Gas Heading to Georgia via Transco Pipeline). Marcellus Shale gas will, via the Transco, be at least some of, if not the primary, source for gas exported from the Elba Island facility. After getting FERC approval, Kinder began work on the expansion project last month. Currently some 325 dump trucks come and go every day at the site (7,800 per month!). Below is the news about DOE granting permission for non-FTA exports to Elba, along with an update on the frenetic pace of activity to build the new facility…
    Read More “Elba Island LNG Update: Non-FTA Exports Approved, Dump Truck City”

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    Shell Seeks to Horse Trade Air Pollution Credits for Cracker Plant

    In June 2015, a full year ahead of Shell’s final investment decision (FID) to build a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant complex in Beaver County, PA, the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection issued the project air quality permits–which was a “critical” requirement for Shell before making their decision (see Shell Receives Air Quality Permit from PA DEP for Cracker Plant). Two months later, two litigious Big Green environmental groups with deep pockets–the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council and the Washington, DC-based Environmental Integrity Project–tried to scuttle the project by appealing the DEP’s issuance of the air quality permits (see Big Green Groups File to Block Shell Cracker Air Quality Permit). Fortunately the DEP blew off the Big Green appeal. However, the issue of air pollution is not yet totally resolved. In order for Shell to build the plant–a plant that will have a fair amount of emissions–they need to buy pollution credits from other plants. That is, if other plants are installing new air pollution controls, or shutting down, Shell can buy their emissions allotments, and use them for the cracker project. In the end, it’s all about controlling how much of the nasty stuff, like volatile organic compounds (VOCs) gets pumped into the air in a given region. But there’s a problem. Shell can’t find enough VOC credits to buy, so they’re proposing a deal with the DEP to buy a different kind of credit instead–NOx or nitrogen oxides. Will the DEP allow Shell to horse trade NOx for VOCs? That’s the billion dollar question…
    Read More “Shell Seeks to Horse Trade Air Pollution Credits for Cracker Plant”

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    PA Drillers Don’t Have to Plug Old Wells Before Fracking, For Now

    On Oct. 8, after five years in the making, Pennsylvania adopted new shale drilling regulations (see PA’s New Chapter 78a Drilling Regs Go into Effect Oct 8). Although the regs were ready at the end of the Gov. Tom Corbett Administration, Corbett fumbled the ball and the regs didn’t get adopted, which left them vulnerable to the incoming left-leaning Tom Wolf. Wolf’s people mangled the regulations under the Dept. of Environmental Protection Dictator/Secretary John Quigley, who got fired over unethical collusion with Big Green groups (see Smoking Gun: Copy of the Email that Got John Quigley Fired). Some of the good stuff remained, but onerous new elements were introduced. One of the onerous new regulations has to do with abandoned and orphaned wells. PA is dotted with hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells drilled since the first well drilled in 1859. The problem is that the state has only mapped and is aware of under 10,000 of those wells. If a driller happens to horizontally drill through one of those old wells, water and chemicals (more likely methane) can take an express elevator to the surface and come out where it shouldn’t–perhaps contaminating water supplies, among other unfortunate outcomes. The new Chapter 78a regulations attempted to handle the situation by requiring drillers to map and plan for how they will avoid that outcome–by avoiding and plugging any abandoned or orphaned wells up to 1,500 feet away. The problem for drillers is that they often do not own the lease rights and have no legal right to enter land up to 1,500 feet away to conduct surveys and plug wells–a catch 22 situation. And plugging a well isn’t cheap. Should drillers today have to pay for something someone else did decades ago? The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), on behalf of its shale drilling members, sued to stop abandoned well provision (along with several other provisions), which a judge agreed to do, at least for now until a full trial can decide the issue (see PA Judge Temporarily Blocks Some DEP Chapter 78a Drilling Regs). The judge put a temporary order blocking the abandoned/orphaned well provision in November, and upheld that block again in December. For the time being, Marcellus drillers do not have to map and plug old wells that don’t belong to them…
    Read More “PA Drillers Don’t Have to Plug Old Wells Before Fracking, For Now”

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    24 States Ask Incoming Trump Admin to Dump CPP on ‘Day One’

    We’ve written plenty about President Obama’s so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP), introduced last summer, a plan to force electric generators to convert to using more “renewable” sources of energy–and less fossil fuels (see Obama Stabs Natural Gas Electric Plants in Clean Power Plan). The CPP outright assassinates coal powered generation, and wounds (but doesn’t kill) natural gas. It is Obama’s attempt at picking winners and losers in who and how we get our energy. Earlier this year 29 states and state agencies, including Ohio and West Virgina, filed an application with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking an immediate stay of the CPP (see 29 States Ask Supreme Court to Stop Obama Clean Power Plan ASAP). In a shock decision, the Supreme Court did just that. In September, the enormously complex CPP got its day in court–in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (see Obama’s Disastrous Clean Power Plan Goes to Court Today). Last week the attorneys general from 24 of the states opposed to the CPP wrote a letter to President-Elect Trump, RINO Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel and RINO House Speaker Paul Ryan. The letter (copy below) asks Trump to dump the CPP with an Executive Order on Day One when he takes office, and asks Congress to adopt legislation to prevent the EPA from such an egregious overreach ever again…
    Read More “24 States Ask Incoming Trump Admin to Dump CPP on ‘Day One’”

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    Hooyah! Trump Picks Former SEAL Ryan Zinke as Sec Interior

    Rep. Ryan Zinke

    Donald Trump has made another outstanding pick to join his cabinet. Trump will nominate Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, a retired Navy SEAL, avid outdoorsman, and noted conservative, to become the next Secretary of Interior. He would be the first Interior Secretary from the state of Montana. Zinke said in a statement that he is honored to be selected, and that he intends to make the Interior Department “great again” under President Trump–a statement meant to tick off the libs (and it does). Radicals from the Sierra Club and other fringe groups hate his guts–which means we love him. Hooyah!…
    Read More “Hooyah! Trump Picks Former SEAL Ryan Zinke as Sec Interior”

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    PA DEP Sec. Believes in Global Warming (Amidst Record-Cold Days)

    Patrick McDonnell Acting Secretary, DEP

    By all accounts Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, Pat McDonnell, is doing a reasonably good job (see Gov. Wolf Nominates Pat McDonnell to Head PA DEP, Finally). He’s certainly much less confrontational than his predecessor (see Smoking Gun: Copy of the Email that Got John Quigley Fired). However, McDonnell professes to believe in man-made global warming. He recently said that addressing “climate change” remains a “top priority” for the Gov. Wolf administration. Whatever. What’s somewhat disturbing is that PA intends to go well beyond federal guidelines when it comes to restricting “carbon-causing” activity in the state. However, what we find amusing is that as McDonnell mouthed his words about global warming, we are in one of the coldest of cold snaps to hit the northeast in several years. Way below the average temp for this time of year. Ah, Mr. Secretary, tell us again how human activity is causing Mom Earth to toast…
    Read More “PA DEP Sec. Believes in Global Warming (Amidst Record-Cold Days)”

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    Potter Twp Declines to Approve Permits for Shell Cracker, For Now

    The Potter Township Board of Supervisors convened a public hearing on Tuesday afternoon at 3 pm that ended up going until 1 am Wednesday. The intent was to approve Shell’s request for permits to begin construction on the multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant. That didn’t happen. Instead, the supervisors decided to hold another hearing Wednesday night. They did, and that hearing went for over an hour, in closed-door session. At the conclusion, the supervisors made a couple of requests from Shell, which Shell agreed to. However, the supervisors are still not ready to approve the permits and instead asked for more paperwork to be filed–by both Shell and the radical, anti-fossil fuel Big Green group Clean Air Council (from Philadelphia). It seems the antis are attempting to stop this project cold–which should have the good citizens of Beaver County (indeed the entire northeast) outraged. At any rate, we’re sure the permits will be forthcoming–but now it won’t happen until sometime in January…
    Read More “Potter Twp Declines to Approve Permits for Shell Cracker, For Now”

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    Trumps Picks Fossil Fuel Advocates for Sec State & Dept of Energy

    We’re sure you haven’t missed the news that President-Elect Donald Trump (we love saying those words!) has nominated current Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson (T-Rex for short) to become the next Secretary of State–and fourth in line to the presidency. Tillerson is a great pick, for many reasons. He’s been doing deals in some 50 countries across the planet, dealing with some nasty customers during that time. T-Rex knows how to get things done–and he knows how to be a diplomat. He deals from a position of strength, not of weakness as our current SecState (John Kerry) and previous SecState (Hillary Clinton) have done. T-Rex will command attention and respect across the planet. And he’s a oil guy to boot–how great is that! Equally great news is Trump’s pick to run the Dept. of Energy–former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. We’ve always liked Rick (we supported him over Romney in 2012). Perry was the longest-serving governor of Texas, the biggest oil producing state in the country. He knows oil and gas, and he knows how to lead. What a breath of fresh air! Here’s some background on Trumps two key picks who have deep o&g experience…
    Read More “Trumps Picks Fossil Fuel Advocates for Sec State & Dept of Energy”

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    Fracking in Canadian Utica Shale Takes Big Step Closer to Reality

    Little known fact: There is a Utica Shale layer in Canada–along the St. Lawrence River Valley–in the Province of Quebec. On and off over the years we’ve mentioned it, largely in connection with an ongoing moratorium on shale drilling in Quebec (see our stories here). Quebec’s moratorium is similar to the mortorium on shale drilling in New York State–that is, a total block, but not a permanent block. Here’s some really good news: the Quebec moratorium on shale drilling is about to come to an end! After debating an environmental bill all night Friday into Saturday, the Quebec National Assembly voted to pass Bill 106, ostensibly to support Quebec’s “clean power plan.” The bill includes a section that “lays out a framework for oil and gas development” in Quebec. Fracking will not begin immediately. The bill does, however, mean that new regulations will come along in early 2017 and after that, it’s an almost certainty that fracking will begin, in 2017, in the Canadian Utica. Cool! Here’s the news…
    Read More “Fracking in Canadian Utica Shale Takes Big Step Closer to Reality”

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    PA DEP Releases New Regs re Methane & Air Pollution at Drill Sites

    Yesterday 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. The onerous new regulations, not in effect yet (to be published “soon”) are prompted by bullying from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, an agency which is about to get gutted (see Master Stroke: Trump Selects OK AG Pruitt to Lead EPA). That doesn’t stop the Gov. Wolf’s DEP from plowing forward with new rules (copies below). As an interesting aside, MDN editor Jim Willis attended a conference yesterday in New York City where Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources, said more methane leaks from the gas lines under New York City each day than from ALL oil and gas drilling activity across the country! Yet the Wolf DEP, with a plank sticking out of its eye (methane leaking like a sieve from major cities), is going after the sawdust in o&g’s eye (tiny bit of methane escapting at well sites). Go figure. To be fair, DEP’s new regs do more than just try to force every last molecule of methane to be “captured” (nasty fugitive molecules causing Mom Earth to toast)–DEP will also go after a reduction in some other types of air pollution, including VOCs (volatile organic compounds). But capturing fugitive methane in a vain attempt to combat mythical man-made global warming is the main thrust of the effort. Once the DEP publishes the new rules in the Pennsylvania Register, the industry (and radical environmentalists) will have 45 days to comment before the new rules magically become unlegislated laws…
    Read More “PA DEP Releases New Regs re Methane & Air Pollution at Drill Sites”

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    FERC Allows KM to Begin Broad Run Expansion Project in KY

    Last week MDN brought you news about Kinder Morgan’s Broad Run Expansion Project will expand transportation capacity of natural gas on the existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline system. Antis tried to stop the project, but FERC rejected their pleas (see FERC Denies Anti Request to Stop KM’s Broad Run Expansion Project). The Broad Run Expansion includes the construction of two new compressor stations in Kanawha County, WV, one new compressor station in Davidson County, TN, and one new compressor station in Madison County, KY. Tennessee Gas also expects to increase compression capacity by modifying two of its existing compressor stations in Powell and Boyd counties in KY by replacing existing capacity with new, higher-rated horsepower compression units. The project will provide an extra 200,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) of transportation capacity along the same capacity path as the Broad Run Flexibility project, which was placed in service on Nov. 1, 2015. All of the additional gas will come from Antero Resources and their Marcellus/Utica program. On Wednesday FERC gave Kinder Morgan permission to upgrade the two existing compressor stations in KY, but (for now) that’s all–something called a “partial notice to proceed”…
    Read More “FERC Allows KM to Begin Broad Run Expansion Project in KY”