Transco’s Northeast Expansion Project Advances, FERC Hearings in Sept
In May Williams’ Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company (Transco) pre-filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a project called the Northeast Supply Enhancement project (see Williams Pre-Files with FERC to Expand Transco Pipeline in PA, NY). The new project is meant to increase pipeline capacity and flows heading into northeastern markets. In particular, Transco wants to provide more natural gas to utility giant National Grid beginning with the 2019-2020 heating season. National Grid operates in New York City, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Also in May, Williams ran an open season to lock up commitments for the Northeast Supply Enhancement project (see Williams Announces Open Season for Northeast Supply Enhancement). The open season worked. National Grid committed to all 400,000 dekatherms of extra gas the project will provide. Currently FERC has its ears on–accepting comments about the project, both in writing and (in September) via four public hearings…
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The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fined two CONSOL Energy subsidiaries, CNX Gas (the drilling division) and CONE Midstream (co-owned by CONSOL and Noble Energy) for coloring outside the lines when they built some gathering pipelines in four western Pennsylvania counties. CNX was fined $139,000 and CONE was fined $45,000 for veering off the path officially filed with the DEP. According to DEP spokesman John Poister, the numskulls didn’t pay attention and were sloppy (our words, his sentiment). Here’s the official announcement from the DEP, along with comments from Poister…
Last week MDN reported on the decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court to deny utility companies operating in the state to pass along potential costs of a new natural gas pipeline to electric rate payers–the people who would most benefit from such a pipeline (see 
Pennsylvania, like all states, is on a mission to combat the fairy tale of man-made global warming by reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (the stuff you exhale with every breath), and by reducing methane (i.e. natural gas) that escapes into the atmosphere. Global warmists have talked themselves into the belief that a little methane leaking here and there is worse than a supernova. Whatever. The Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) in PA is tasked with developing a plan to reduce CO2 and methane emissions in the Keystone State. They’ve just released a final version of their 2015 Climate Change Action Plan Update (full copy below). Among the suggestions from the brainiacs at the DEP is dressing up trucks in skirts (don’t ask)…
In January, three liberal Democrat county commissioners from Fayette County, WV, with the backing and help of the radical WV Mountain Party, voted to ban injection wells in the county (see 
We’ve commented on the impending election this November a few times. We try to keep our opinions about the disastrous Hillary Clinton out of MDN as much as possible, realizing not everyone agrees with us. (Have we told you lately what a DISASTER she would be as president?) However, energy–in particular fracking and shale–is a key issue in the upcoming election. Nowhere is that more obvious than the official party platforms recently adopted at each national party’s convention (in Cleveland for the Republicans, and in Philadelphia for the Democrats). The National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO) has done us a favor. NARO, a non-partisan organization, has extracted statements from each party platform with respect to energy issues (see it below). IT IS STRIKING. The Republican platform is pro-fossil fuel and the Democrat platform is anti-fossil fuel. There is no other conclusion you can draw. The Democrat platform calls for bizarre policies like requiring energy from so-called renewables to power 50% of our electricity within 10 years–an impossible goal that would destroy our country’s economy. Folks, there is no other way of saying this than to say it: A vote for Hillary is a vote to end your own job (if you work in and around the energy industry). Are you insane? No, we didn’t think so. Prove it by voting for Trump…
Ten years is long enough for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) when it comes to an LNG (liquefied natural gas) project. Yesterday FERC pulled the plug on an application from Downeast LNG, telling them their application to build an import/export plant along the shoreline of Maine (in Washington County) has been rejected. In December 2006, Downeast filed applications “for the siting, construction, and operation of an LNG import terminal and associated pipeline take-away facilities in Washington County, Maine.” In July 2014, Downeast filed a letter requesting the Commission initiate the pre-filing process for the conversion of its proposed import project facilities into a bidirectional import/export LNG terminal and associated pipeline facilities. The facility would use Marcellus Shale gas to export–an important new market for our overabundant gas supplies. In August 2014, the FERC approved Downeast’s request to pre-file the bidirectional import/export project. As recently as June 2015, Downeast boasted of plans to begin building the facility in 2017 (see 
Just last week MDN warned that anti-drilling radicals running King George County, VA were contemplating a vote to ban fracking in the county (see 
In May MDN told you that the Penn Township (in Westmoreland County, PA) zoning board voted to refuse to grant a permit to Apex Energy to build a DEP-permitted well pad in the town (see 
We’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 
The 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 
There 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 
It 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 
In July MDN reported that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved Eastern Shore Natural Gas’ (ESNG) System Reliability Project (see