Radical Enviro Groups Suffer Big Court Defeat re Cove Point LNG
Anti-drilling zealots attempting to stop the Cove Point, Maryland LNG (liquefied natural gas) from going online have failed in court, again. And they failed big time. MDN reported in April that a group of Big Green groups, including the Sierra Club, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the Patuxent Riverkeeper, EarthReports Inc. and Earthjustice colluded together to sue in federal appeals court to try and stop the project (see Green Groups Ask DC Judge to Stop Construction at Cove Point LNG). On Friday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled against the groups. The argument they raised (and keep raising) is that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) did not take into account so-called cumulative effects in permissioning such a facility. That is, because there is an export facility, that means there will be more drilling and fracking, and that means more air pollution, etc. The court rejected that claim and said in their decision (full copy below) that FERC is not required to consider such cumulative affects. Indeed, FERC’s charter prohibits them from considering such effects. This is a crushing defeat for Big Green–people and corporations who seek to profit from uneconomical solar and wind projects by unfairly crushing the competition (natgas)…
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Look! Up in the air! It’s a bird…it’s a plane…it’s a,a,a,a…energy drone? Yep. Drones used to inspect pipelines, keep an eye on refineries, processing plants and compressor stations–drones used for just about anything related to the oil and gas industry–have just been approved by Congress. The oil and gas industry is delighted…
Good news for Marcellus/Utica drillers. There are signs that a Youngstown, OH-area injection well that has been shuttered since 2013 will re-open. You may recall the sad story of D&L Energy, a Youngstown, OH operator of several wastewater injection wells. D&L’s owner was Ben Lupo, who also owned sister company Hardrock Excavating, operating both companies under the D&L Energy Group umbrella. In September 2012, Lupo instructed a Hardrock employee to dump untreated frack wastewater down a sewer drain that emptied into the Mahoning River. Lupo and the driver were found out in early 2013 (see 
The Obamadroids are once again ganging up on the semi-independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Last week the Obama Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed comments with FERC critical of the Williams/Transco Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project (see 
South Fayette (Washington County), PA is one of seven selfish PA towns that sued the state after the Act 13 law was enacted in 2012 (see 
The news is now months old that Halliburton and Baker Hughes ended their attempt to merge. The reason they called it off was because of opposition from the Obama Department of Justice (see 
In July 2012 MDN told you about a one-year study of air quality in and around Chartiers Township in Washington County, PA being conducted by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (see 
We’ve previously reported on a number of LNG (liquefied natural gas) export projects planned for the eastern shore of Canada. There are four to five such projects, depending on how you count them. However, one of those projects–Bear Head LNG in Nova Scotia–seems to have the most momentum. Such projects needs loads of permits and approvals before the first shovel ever hits the dirt. It seems like Bear Head has most of its ducks in row, ready to begin. Importantly, both the U.S. (because the gas will come from the U.S.) and Canadian regulators have signed off on the project. But there are, as we are learning, still more permits and approvals needed. Bear Head just scored another important approval. The government of Nova Scotia has just granted Bear Head its approval of their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Management Plan. Silly, we know. Adults with brains have to pretend that leaking CO2 or methane into the atmosphere is somehow endangering Mother Earth. But these are the games that people play in order to get business done. The Bear Head LNG project is important for the Marcellus/Utica because our gas will feed it via the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline, making it an important new market for northeast natgas…
PA’s very liberal Governor, Tom Wolf, has been obstinate in demanding onerous new drilling rules for the conventional, as well as unconventional (shale) drilling industry since he took office. Reworked drilling rules were done and ready to go under previous Governor, Tom Corbett. Then Corbett lost to Wolf, and Wolf demanded to change common sense rules everyone had already agreed to (see 
What happens to the regulatory environment for the energy industry, in particular oil and gas, should Donald Trump win the presidency? What if (perish the thought) Hillary Clinton wins? What can we expect under each administration? That was the theme for comments by Tom Sansonetti, partner with the Holland and Hart law firm, at the recent Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) 86th Midyear Meeting, held in Colorado Springs two weeks ago. The IPAA knows a number of people could not make the meeting and wants to disseminate Sansonetti’s comments, so they sent along a copy of his “what if?” analysis. We found it interesting and think you will too…
This pipeline project has been, until now, completely off our radar screen. As pipeline projects go, it’s pretty small. But building even a single square inch of new pipeline, or expanding a compressor station, is anathema to anti-fossil fuel nutters. So we expect this project will be in the headlines starting this week, with a pair open house meetings in the Philadelphia area (and one in Delaware) where the project will get built. The project is being built by Eastern Shore Natural Gas and is called the 2017 System Expansion project. In March 2015, Eastern Shore ran a non-binding open season to see if customers want more natural gas in the Delmarva Peninsula area (includes most of Delaware and portions of Maryland and Virginia). It looks like Eastern Shore’s customers expressed enough interest that they plan to move forward with an expansion project that will bring new sources of natgas from an interconnection Eastern Shore has with the mighty TETCo (Texas Eastern Company) pipeline near Philadelphia. Below we have details on the expansion project, and details for the open house meetings scheduled for this week in PA and DE…
In May MDN reported the great news that the Wayne Land and Mineral Group has filed a lawsuit against the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to contest the DRBC’s ongoing blockade of shale drilling in Wayne (and Pike) counties in Pennsylvania (see