Regulation

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    More Bleating from Radical Anti Groups re FERC PennEast Hearings

    goat bleatingWe’re sorry to beat a dead horse (or goat, in this case) to death, but we can’t help it. We have another shining example of far-left environmental radicals who are bleating about the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) change-up in the way they accepted public comments on the PennEast Pipeline project. We first reported the antis are up-in-arms two days ago (see FERC Alters PennEast Hearing Process to Reduce Antis’ Bleating). Yesterday we shared the spitting and sputtering done by THE Delaware Riverkeeper herself, Maya van Rossum (see THE Delaware Riverkeeper Mad – Can’t Bleat at FERC Hearings). Today it’s the radicals at the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association. Maaaaaaahhhh…
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    CSSD Makes Case for “Beyond the Minimum” Approach to Drilling

    CSSDThe Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) has fought stiff headwinds from the beginning. The organization was founded by a group of Pennsylvania shale industry people and environmentalists reaching across the isle to forge strict new standards both sides can live with. Environmental leftists, like Mamma Teresa Heinz Kerry and her Heniz Endowments, pulled support and have actively worked against the CSSD (see She Speaks! Teresa Heinz Kerry Talks re Endowments Firings, CSSD). Other so-called environmental groups like the William Penn Foundation also bailed. But new supporters stepped into the breach to step into their shoes (see CSSD Thrown a Lifeline from Richard King Mellon Foundation). On the industry side, only four companies have applied for and received CSSD certification to date: Chevron, Shell, CONSOL Energy and EQT. MDN has met and chatted with CSSD’s executive director Susan LeGross. She is an impressive leader for the organization. Susan has just penned an article appearing in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review making the case for the strict standards advocated by her organization. She takes the opportunity of renewed talk of shale drilling, spurred by Shell’s ethane cracker announcement, to make the case that it’s time to go “beyond the minimum” with shale drilling…
    Read More “CSSD Makes Case for “Beyond the Minimum” Approach to Drilling”

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    FERC Alters PennEast Hearing Process to Reduce Antis’ Bleating

    goat bleatingWe’ve sat through our fair share of public hearings and open houses for pipelines–from Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) hearings to state agency hearings to open houses sponsored by midstream companies (see Vicariously Attend FERC Scoping Hearing on Constitution Pipeline). The script is always the same. Anti-fossil fuel freaks show up and perform before the cameras and microphones. That’s what they are there to do–engage in a circus act. When they are denied such an opportunity, they complain (see Williams’ Smart Open House in Lebanon County Confounds Antis). FERC hearings are always the same–show up and sign up to speak, with 3 or 4-minute allotments for each speaker. And speakers are taken in the order in which they signed in. Those in the audience who are for or against typically applaud or issue boos and insults. We have often said FERC personnel should get hazard pay for sitting through 4-hour marathons of this nonsense. FERC has wised up. They held a public hearing last night in the Bethlehem, PA area for the proposed PennEast Pipeline project. Instead of a public forum, FERC set two private rooms with a stenographer in each. FERC recorded comments two-at-a-time, in private. And they saved themselves all of the theatrics by anti-drilling trolls. And of course, that didn’t sit well with the antis. Most of the antis who spoke were reading from cue cards prepared for them by THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum. The antis are so dumb they can’t even form their own thoughts about why they are against the project! Too funny…
    Read More “FERC Alters PennEast Hearing Process to Reduce Antis’ Bleating”

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    Elk County Town Wises Up, Abandons Effort to Block Injection Well

    I Give UpThere is a new development in the case of an illegal ban on injection wells passed by Highland Township in Elk County, PA. In 2013 the radical leftist PA-based group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) convinced ignoramuses in Highland Township to pass a so-called Community Bill of Rights. Seneca Resources, a driller with leases and an active drilling program in Elk, had planned to drill an injection well on their own property to dispose of their own flowback and produced water. The CELDF-inspired ordinance Highland Twp prevented it, and Seneca threatened to sue the town (see Seneca Resources Threatens to Sue PA Town over Injection Well). Seneca made good and filed to sue, but the town and CELDF tried to prevent the lawsuit. In March of this year, U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Paradise Baxter ruled that Seneca has standing to sue and allowed the lawsuit to go forward (see Judge Rules Seneca May Challenge Injection Well Ban in Elk County). Faced with losing the lawsuit and taxpayers owing Seneca big money, township supervisors voted to overturn the so-called Community Bill of Rights. Another crushing defeat for the CELDF…
    Read More “Elk County Town Wises Up, Abandons Effort to Block Injection Well”

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    New PA Drilling Regs Closer to Reality, Questions Remain

    questionIt has been a loooooong road to adopting new drilling regulations in Pennsylvania–for both conventional and unconventional (shale) oil and gas drilling. The process is rumored to have begun during the Jurassic Period, when dinosaurs were still dying to produce current oil and natural gas supplies, picking up steam following the 2012 Act 13 legislation that called for an update to drilling regs (under then Gov. Tom Corbett). More recently, with the prospect of starting the process over again for both shale and conventional regs, Gov. Tom Wolf cut a deal to accept “half a loaf”–accept new regs for the shale industry and start over again with conventional drilling regs (see PA Gov Wolf “Eager” to Sign Drilling Law Forced Down His Throat). New regs for shale are called Article 78a while regs for conventional are called Article 78. Shale drillers were hoping to tweak Article 78a regs before they became final. That effort failed (see Bill Tweaking Article 78a Shale Drilling Regs Dies in PA House). The process is this: the new regs (both Article 78 and 78a) get a final review by the state Attorney General’s office to be sure they are legal/lawful, and then get published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin and become official law. But questions remain. Last week the AG’s office approved the new rules with minor tweaks. Problem is, do you publish Article 78 along with 78a in the Bulletin? The Powers That Be will have a confab this week on Thursday to decide that question. Also, what will the shale industry do? Will they litigate to stop the publication of Article 78a without the tweaks they sought? Inquiring minds want to know…
    Read More “New PA Drilling Regs Closer to Reality, Questions Remain”

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    FERC Approves Plan to Deliver NatGas to Delaware Power Plant

    ESNGIn July MDN reported that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved Eastern Shore Natural Gas’ (ESNG) System Reliability Project (see 600 Days & Counting to Build a 7-Mile NatGas Pipeline in PA-DE). ESNG is a local gas utility serving the Delmarva Peninsula, which includes most of Delaware and portions of Maryland and Virginia. Their System Reliability Project includes 10.1 miles of new looping pipeline and a compressor station upgrade. Part of that pipeline has taken nearly two years to get approved, thanks to the insane objections of anti-fossil fuelers. It is good news that the project is moving forward. On the heals of that approval comes another FERC approval for ESNG: FERC has approved ESNG’s plan to deliver an extra 45,000 dekatherms per day of natural gas via its pipeline to service Calpine’s 309 megawatt electric generation plant in Dover, Delaware…
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    Atlantic Coast Pipeline Makes Progress, FERC Timing Announced

    ACP
    Atlantic Coast Pipeline

    More good news 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. In March MDN reported Dominion has agreements for 96% of the capacity along the 1.5 billion cubic feet per day pipeline (see Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline Makes Major Strides). Not only that, but 90% of the landowners along the pipeline’s proposed route have granted Dominion survey access and many of them have signed easements allowing Dominion to build the pipeline across their land. The new news is that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has set June 30, 2017 as the date by which the agency will issue their final environmental impact statement for the project. In other words, we now have specific dates for when this project will advance…
    Read More “Atlantic Coast Pipeline Makes Progress, FERC Timing Announced”

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    Fast Eddie Rendell Loves Fracking, Makes No Apologies

    Ed RendellFormer Pennsylvania Governor Ed “fast Eddie” Rendell made an off-the-cuff remark at a bull session at the Democrat National Convention last month that far-left media types tried to twist. He said, “I made a mistake in the rush to get the economic part of fracking delivered to Pennsylvania. We didn’t regulate well construction and…frack water as well as we should.” So-called reporters at propaganda outlets like StateImpact Pennsylvania immediately jumped on that and declared Rendell admitted to making a mistake, and getting it wrong, with fracking in the Keystone State (see Former PA Gov. Ed Rendell Talks Fracking at Politico/DNC Event). Here’s the problem with that twisted view: Immediately following that statement, he didn’t even take a breath but went on and said this: “We cured that in 2010 and we haven’t had any significant incidents since.” In other words, there were some initial bumps on the road, but PA quickly figured it out and got it fixed and since then, everything has been just fine. His words were *intentionally* taken out of context by lefty “reporters” and so Rendell is now firing back at them. Rendell has clarified his earlier “I made a mistake” comment and said he isn’t apologizing. In fact, Rendell said he’s a fan of fracking and gave the practice his full-throated support…
    Read More “Fast Eddie Rendell Loves Fracking, Makes No Apologies”

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    FERC Approves 3 Spectra Energy Pipe Projects in Marcellus/Utica

    approvedThe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) for three Spectra Energy projects: Access South, Adair Southwest and Lebanon Express. The three are part of an expansion of the Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) pipeline. The combined projects will transport an additional 662,000 dekatherms per day (or 662 million cubic feet) of Marcellus and Utica Shale gas from Pennsylvania to Ohio, Kentucky and Mississippi. This is great news indeed!…
    Read More “FERC Approves 3 Spectra Energy Pipe Projects in Marcellus/Utica”

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    The Evil Empire Strikes Back Against Exxon in Court Case

    Empire Strikes BackYesterday MDN brought you the story of how New York’s disgusting Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, has been colluding “unlawfully” with other AGs, including the equally disgusting Massachusetts AG Maura Healey (see Letter Proves NY AG, Others “Unlawfully” Ganged Up on ExxonMobil). In June Exxon sued AG Healey–in U.S. District Court for the Northern District in Fort Worth, Texas, attempting to strike a blow against the monolithic and overreaching power of the government (see Exxon Fights Back Against Mass. AG’s Illegal Subpoena). Think of it this way: Exxon is the Rebel Force in Star Wars (the good guys), and Schneiderman/Healey are the Evil Empire (the bad guys). The Empire Strikes Back. Healey filed a motion in that Texas court on Monday asking the judge to dismiss Exxon’s case. In other words, she wants to smash Exxon’s right to free speech. If Exxon doesn’t agree that the fairy tale of man-made global warming exists, and that their product is polluting the planet, Healey wants the right to throw them in jail and take all their money. That’s what this is about. Unbridled, Nazi-like powers against private citizens and private companies by a state run amok…
    Read More “The Evil Empire Strikes Back Against Exxon in Court Case”

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    Bloomberg Predicts Court Will Strip NY’s Right to Stop Constitution

    Constitution PipelineWe have been making the point, loudly, for the past year, that IF New York State blocks the Constitution Pipeline, as they have now done, the state runs the very real risk of having the federal government strip away their right to make such decisions about any federally-approved pipeline project. We’ve previously warned that New York is in grave danger of losing their power by attempting to block the Constitution. We wrote the following in October 2015: When MDN editor Jim Willis attended the Shale Insight conference in Philadelphia in September, he listened to a panel discussion of midstream (pipeline) experts, including a former FERC commissioner. He got to ask a question and the question, roughly, was this: “The NY DEC is currently holding up the FERC-approved Constitution Pipeline. What if the DEC refuses to issue the necessary permits? What happens next?” The answer Jim got was, “It depends.” The bottom line seems to be that it’s likely FERC (and Williams) will need to take the DEC to court. The DEC frankly has no legal right to prevent a federally approved project from being built. That’s the bottom line. It may take a court to force the DEC (and Gov. Cuomo) to act, but in this matter the law is on our side. This is not a question of “if,” it is a question of “when” the pipeline will get built (see Time to Force NY DEC to Issue Permit for Constitution Pipeline). And now we get to brag about how prescient we were. Williams did indeed have to take New York to court, and now a Bloomberg analyst has written an article expressing essentially the same sentiment we expressed last year (see it below), saying Williams–the builder of the Constitution Pipeline–is “favored to prevail” in one (if not both) legal challenges they have filed. A victory by Williams will result in neutering New York’s authority to block this and other similar projects…
    Read More “Bloomberg Predicts Court Will Strip NY’s Right to Stop Constitution”

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    OH Gov Kasich Issues Edict to Drillers on Emergency Notifications

    edictOhio Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich is finally getting back to work after it has sunk in he’s not going to be the Republican Party’s nominee for president. One of the first things up on the agenda for Kasich: Issue executive orders. On August 9th Kasich issued Executive Order (i.e. Edict) 2016-04K which forces companies in the oil and gas industry to immediately report o&g emergencies to the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources’ (ODNR) Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management. The ODNR will then figure out who else needs to get notified and who should respond. Kasich’s Edict will expire in four months and is a band aid solution until the ODNR can adopt a formal, final rule…
    Read More “OH Gov Kasich Issues Edict to Drillers on Emergency Notifications”

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    Big Stakes: Gorsline Zoning Case Goes to PA Supreme Court

    theyre backGuess who’s back with a case now before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court? Yep, the odious nutters from Big Green Groups PennFuture, THE (arrogant) Delaware Riverkeeper, and the Peters Township gang. You may recall we reported last September of the humiliating defeat suffered by these groups in the “Gorsline” case (see Major Victory for PA Landowners/Drillers in Lycoming County Case). It was a Lycoming County zoning case before the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court. In Gorsline v. Board of Supervisors of Fairfield Township, anti-drilling neighbors, including Brian and Dawn Gorsline, Paul and Michele Batkowski and others (collectively “Gorsline”) sued to stop a conditional use permit granted by Fairfield Township to allow Inflection Energy to construct a well pad on the property of Donald and Eleanor Shaheen. The case was weak, but the lowest court in the PA court system–the Court of Common Pleas (i.e. county court)–said the ninny nanny neighbors had a right to strip away the Shaheen’s property rights to allow drilling on their own property. The PA Commonwealth Court obliterated the faulty reasoning of the lower court and, significantly, redefined how courts should interpret the results of the Act 13 zoning lawsuit that allows local municipalities the right to restrict shale drilling. Unfortunately the matter won’t rest there. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has taken up the Gorsline case on appeal. The PA Supreme Court has a 5-2 majority of left-leaning Democrats. Below we have a copy of the brief filed by PennFuture on behalf of the ninny nanny Gorslines, along with “friend of the court” briefs filed by THE Delaware Riverkeeper and Peters Township. Folks, this is a dangerous case the for drilling industry… Read More “Big Stakes: Gorsline Zoning Case Goes to PA Supreme Court”

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    Cove Point LNG Now 67% Complete, Atlantic Coast Pipeline on Track

    Dominion Cove Point Terminal
    Dominion Cove Point Terminal – click for larger version

    Last week utility and midstream giant Dominion issued their second quarter update and held an earnings/analyst call to discuss the update. Sometimes those earnings calls are a treasure trove of information you don’t see in the prepared quarterly update, especially in the unscripted Q&A that follows prepared remarks. Such was the case last week. Dominion’s CEO and President, Tom Farrell, along with other top brass from the company, offered up key insights into the Cove Point LNG export project, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, Blue Racer Midstream (a Dominion’s joint venture project), and the status of leased acreage for which the company owns Marcellus/Utica drilling rights. A smorgasbord of yummy updates! Here they are…
    Read More “Cove Point LNG Now 67% Complete, Atlantic Coast Pipeline on Track”

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    More on Trump’s Wrong Position on Local/State Frack Bans

    Donald TrumpLast week we pointed out the inconsistency of Donald Trump in his public comments during an interview in Denver on frack bans. Trump said he believes local municipalities and even states should be able to ban fracking if they don’t want it–even though he personally supports fracking (see Trump’s Disappointing Position on State & Local Frack Bans). Disclaimer: We feel we need to assert our support for Donald Trump. He is a vastly superior choice to Hillary Clinton. We are not a “bash Trump” website. However, when “our” candidate makes a misstep, we don’t look away and we don’t pretend it isn’t there. We have to deal with it honestly–and Trump is 100% wrong in his view on local bans. We explained why in our post last week. However, Paul Driessen, a senior policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), which is sponsoring the All Pain No Gain petition against global-warming hype, writes about Trump’s inconsistent view on frack bans far more eloquently that we do. Driessen says Trump’s comments reflect “common misperceptions” about fracking and its supposed harms. Here’s what Driessen said in a recent column…
    Read More “More on Trump’s Wrong Position on Local/State Frack Bans”

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    Hillary Clinton’s War on Fracking

    Hillary ClintonSince we’re taking Donald Trump to task over his wrong-headed thinking on local frack bans, we’d like to be an equal opportunity basher. Hillary Clinton’s position on fracking is far worse than The Donald’s position. If Hill has her way, she’ll end the practice. Oh, not with an Executive Order banning fracking, as Crazy Bernie promised he would do if he got elected. No, Hill is promising to enact new regulations (either via Congress or via Executive Orders) so strict, that “By the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place.” Her words. Although Hillary is a known and proven liar, we happen to believe those words coming from her mouth. First up for Hill, “fix” the so-called “Halliburton loophole.” In 2005 Congress passed new environmental standards for the Safe Drinking Water Act (managed by the out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency) and chose not to include the oil and gas industry in those standards because the EPA has no right to regulate the oil & gas industry–only the states can regulate the o&g industry under the U.S. Constitution. The proper recognition of not expanding the EPA’s authority (illegally) somehow has been twisted into a “loophole” for the industry, and Halliburton’s name was applied to the loophole in an attempt to smear then-Vice President Dick Cheney, who was previously the CEO of Halliburton. Hillary has resurrected the same old Democrat lie and smear campaign from years gone by. She says if she becomes Prez (God forbid), she’ll jam the EPA right up the o&g industry’s….operations….as far as she can…
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