DOE Rejects Sierra Club’s Request to Re-Hear Cove Point Decision
Radical environmentalists from groups like the Sierra Club, Chesapeake Climate Action Network and Earthjustice continue a full court press to try and stop Dominion’s Cove Point LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facility, currently under construction (more than a quarter done) along the coast of Maryland. These groups coordinate and collude to try and deny a single, legitimate business–Dominion–the right to conduct business. Sounds like something out of Stalin’s Russia or Hitler’s Germany–but no. It’s right here in the US of A. Here’s the radical’s strategy in a nutshell–throw as much feces against the wall as you can, and hope that some of it sticks. One pile of feces they’ve thrown is to file multiple lawsuits, in various courts (see Green Groups Ask DC Judge to Stop Construction at Cove Point LNG). Another pile of feces thrown is against the government agencies involved–the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Dept. of Energy (DOE). The strategy used by antis against the agencies is to beg and plead for “re-hearings” of decisions already made by the agencies. Last year FERC told the nutters to blow off (see FERC Says “No” to Anti’s Request for Cove Point LNG Re-hearing). The Sierra Club then went after the DOE–to ask them to reconsider their approval to sell Cove Point LNG to non-Free Trade Agreement countries–specifically India and Japan. Last week the DOE also told the Sierra Club to blow off…
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You can’t see we didn’t predict this outcome: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has made the political decision to not grant the Constitution Pipeline stream crossing permits, temporarily stopping the project from advancing. Cuomo’s lackeys at the totally humiliated and discredited Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) made the announcement on Friday, so-called Earth Day. Virulent anti-drillers erupted in spontaneous (and multiple) orgasms at the news. The DEC claims Williams, the builder of the Constitution, did not provide detailed information about pipe burial that the DEC had requested. This is a blatant, 100% lie. Gov. Cuomo is corrupt and is being led, as our friend Tom Shepstone points out, by the nose by Rockefeller money. Prosecutor Preet Bharara–are you paying attention? MDN now calls on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to bypass New York State, as is its right under the U.S. Constitution. FERC has the power to bypass Cuomo and the DEC and authorize the pipeline without NY’s stream crossing permits. Yes, hoops will need to be jumped through with various courts, but now is the time to permanently remove NY from such decision-making. The state has proven it is incapable of making independent, science-based decisions on the topic of oil and gas drilling and pipelines. Time to overrule the state and move on. Below we have the DEC’s pathetic political cover-up, along with various responses to the news…
PennFuture is a radical, anti-drilling group based in Pennsylvania. The group is the former employer of no less than two current, one former high-level deputies to PA Gov. Tom Wolf. Cindy Dunn was most recently PennFuture’s CEO. She is now the Secretary of the PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). John Quigley used to work for PennFuture. He’s now Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). John “legalize marijuana” Hanger was the Secretary of the PA Dept. of Planning and Policy for Wolf. Hanger recently left–the state–to join his wife and daughter in Massachusetts (see 
Earlier this week MDN told you that a judge refused to sanction a lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania Independent Petroleum Producers Association (PIPP) against implementation of new rules and changes to existing rules known as Chapters 78 & 78a (see 
Two shale industry members of last year’s ill-fated Pennsylvania Pipeline Task Force have pulled the curtain back to reveal what went on behind the scenes. The sausage-making. And it’s not pretty. Two important facts emerge for their disclosures: (1) most of the members of the task force didn’t (and still don’t) know their heads from their rear-ends when it comes to how the natural gas industry actually works, and (2) nothing useful will come from the 658-page report and its 184 recommendations. We previously predicted that outcome when we said, “Silly libs–they never learn. This initiative was never about actually getting anything done. It was always about the optics–to show that radical leftist Tom Wolf (and his lackey John Quigley) actually care about the hoi polloi” (see 
The Obama administration is trying to kill the oil and gas industry. Whether it’s intentional or not (we think it is), recently proposed new regulations from the lawless Environmental Protection Agency are bad news. Particularly the EPA’s quest to force drillers to capture every last molecule of methane so it doesn’t escape (see 
A recent meeting organized by the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), called a Congressional Call-Up, was truly eye opening. People attending the meeting were briefed on key federal issues impacting the oil and natural gas industry. Here’s the startling news: There are currently 44 separate actions by various executive branch (Obama) agencies targeting the o&g industry–meant to cripple it. It is breathtaking in scope. Those doing the briefing called it a “well-planned attack on virtually every aspect of oil and natural gas planning, production and use.” Depressingly, no one in Congress or the media seems to even notice–or if they do, they don’t care…
And then there were four. The Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) has fought stiff headwinds from the beginning. The organization was founded by a group of shale industry people and environmentalists reaching across the isle to forge strict standards that 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 
This Thursday the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) will take up the matter of approving recently proposed new drilling regulations from the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection. Conventional drillers in PA strong object to the new rules, Aricles 78 and 78a, and sued to stop the IRRC from reviewing them. They lost (see 
In March MDN told you about a lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania Independent Petroleum Producers Association (PIPP) against implementation of new rules and changes to existing rules known as Chapters 78 & 78a (see 
Last week MDN brought you the fantastic news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had approved Williams’ Transco Pipeline project called the Garden State Expansion–a pipeline project to connect gas that will come through the yet-to-be-built PennEast Pipeline to a yet-to-be-built pipeline in New Jersey called the Southern Reliability Link pipeline (see 
Pennsylvania State Rep. Martin Causer (R-Turtlepoint) testified before the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture in Washington, DC on Wednesday, April 13. Causer was there to tell the House Agriculture Committee that new pipelines are desperately needed in the farm country he represents. We have a copy of Rep. Causer’s masterful testimony below…
More trouble may be ahead for drillers in the Marcellus, Utica and beyond. Fitch Ratings has just released a report that says the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)–a federal agency–is set to downgrade the ratings of loans for many exploration and production (E&P) companies that are considered “high yield” (HY). If the outstanding loans these companies have (and most of them, if not all of them, have outstanding loans), the downgrade means it will be much more difficult for drillers to get their hands on new money. And if they can somehow get their hands on new money, it’s going to cost them a lot more to do it, i.e. higher interest rates. Word on the street is that banks are feeling the pressure from the Federal Reserve and the OCC and will “reduce most energy company credit lines by roughly 20-40 percent this month.” Ouch. Banks have pretty much quit financing coal projects. According to one source, “Crude oil and natural gas productions may not be far behind.” Here’s the low down…
Yesterday MDN brought you a copy of a fascinating new study published by the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA). The new study is titled “North American Midstream Infrastructure Through 2035: Leaning into the Headwinds” (see