Regulation

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Michigan | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Spectra Energy | Statewide MI | Statewide OH

Spectra Energy Files Formal FERC Application for NEXUS Pipeline
November 23, 2015November 23, 2015

Pop the cork on the champagne bottle! Last Friday Spectra Energy and its partners filed their full, formal application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to get the federal agency’s approval for the NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline project. The NEXUS is a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. It is a critically needed pipeline to move Utica and Marcellus Shale gas from an over-saturated market in the northeast to markets in the Midwest and Canada. Below is the official good news press release from Spectra Energy announcing the filing…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Kinder Morgan Files Formal FERC Application for NED Pipeline
November 23, 2015November 23, 2015

Friday was a big day for pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica. Spectra Energy filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline (see our companion story today). In addition, Kinder Morgan filed their formal application with FERC to build the massive $5 billion expansion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline system from Pennsylvania into New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and back into Massachusetts where it will end near Boston–called the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) project. All pipeline projects face irrational opposition, but the NED project faces some of the fiercest opposition, including an anti-fossil fuel crusade against NED by the Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (see Anti-Drilling MA Attorney General: We Don’t Need No Pipelines). The battle is about to reach fevered pitch now that Kinder Morgan has filed the official application…
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Allegheny County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Slavishly Supports Obama’s CPP Takeover
November 23, 2015November 23, 2015

Once again the editorial writers from the Democrat, left-leaning Pittsburgh Post-Gazette show their true Democrat colors. President Obama, as we have reported, has made a breathtaking dictatorial power grab with his EPA’s so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP), a plan that not only screws coal royally, it screws natural gas too (see Obama Stabs Natural Gas Electric Plants in Clean Power Plan). The plan is so bad, 26 states (MORE THAN HALF) are suing to stop it (see 26 States Ask Federal Court to Shut Down Clean Power Plan Now). But America’s most liberal governor (Tom Wolf) and his Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (John Quigley) support the natural gas-killing CPP (see PA Anti-Fossil Fuel Groups Praise Wolf/Quigley for Supporting CPP). And now the Post-Gazette feels it necessary to try and twist public opinion in favor of this horrible plan too…
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Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Obama Releases Timeline for Fed Power Grab of O&G Regulation
November 23, 2015November 23, 2015

It’s time for the individual states of these United States of America to tell the federal government to screw itself–and REFUSE to comply with directives from the totally out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency and Obama’s so-called Clean Power Plan. Some 26 states (over HALF) have sued to stop the plan (see 26 States Ask Federal Court to Shut Down Clean Power Plan Now). The lawsuit isn’t slowing down the Dictator in Chief, Barrack Hussein Obama, whose administration on Friday released a timeline for a final push next year to take away more rights and freedoms granted under the Constitution by forcing the CPP down the throats of states who won’t comply. Obama and his various departments are going to illegally regulate oil and gas (something the Constitution leaves to the individual states)–unless we stop him. We say the states should rise up and refuse to comply and, if necessary, create a Constitutional crisis–if that’s what it takes…
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Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research

EIA Stats Reveal Obama CPP Plan to Lower CO2 Isn’t Needed
November 23, 2015November 23, 2015

Why in the world is Obama pushing so hard to regulate oil and gas when carbon dioxide emissions, ACCORDING TO HIS OWN ADMINISTRATION, are going down?! Today the U.S. Energy Information Administration, part of the Dept. of Energy (an executive branch agency), issued a post on their website chronicling the decrease in CO2 emissions coming from energy from 2005-2013. Why are CO2 emissions going down? One word: shale. We might add a second word: fracking. The planet is getting healthier (if you believe in global warming nonsense) because of shale energy–and yet Obama wants to throttle it! Maddening…
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Industrywide Issues | McKean County | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Putnam County | Regulation | Warren County | West Virginia

EPA Fines PA Gas Plants for Accidents that Haven’t Yet Happened
November 20, 2015November 20, 2015

It’s something straight out of the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has fined the owner of five Pennsylvania natural gas processing plants and one West Virginia plant (six plants total) $50,221 for spills and leaks at the plants–that never happened. The EPA says Elkhorn Gas Processing hasn’t done enough to prevent such incidents from potentially happening, and therefore the EPA is shaking them down and making them pay for possible future violations. Perhaps it’s more like The Godfather than the Minority Report? Talk about an abuse of power! Do you need any further evidence that the Obama EPA is totally out of control?…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA

Herding Cats: DEP Sec. Quigley Unhappy with Pipeline Task Force
November 19, 2015November 19, 2015

The thin-skinned Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), John Quigley, showed his irritation yesterday with his own hand-picked 48 members of the Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force (see PA Gov Wolf Packs Pipeline Task Force with His Own Minions). Last week Quigley released a 355-page draft report supposedly compiled by the Task Force that will govern how rural gathering pipelines will be regulated (see PA Gathering Pipeline Draft “Recommendations” from Wolf Task Force). However, it seems the Task Force may not have authored the document after all. It appears to us that Quigley wants Task Force members to rubber stamp *his* proposed recommendations (i.e. regulations). At yesterday’s meeting, some Task Force members took issue with portions of the draft document, which had Mr. Quigley in a grumpy mood. Adding to Quigley’s grumpy mood was THE Delaware Riverkeeper herself, Maya van Rossum, who had to be escorted out of the meeting by Capitol police…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Coordinated Attack? MassPLAN Uses Riverkeeper Pipeline Delay Tactic
November 19, 2015November 19, 2015

In what appears to be a coordinated attack on new natural gas pipelines, the Massachusetts Pipe-Line Awareness Network (MassPLAN) is using the same delay tactic to slow down Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline project running from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts as was pioneered by THE Delaware Riverkeeper to slow down the PennEast Pipeline project running from Pennsylvania to New Jersey. Last month MDN exposed Riverkeeper’s sleazy strategy of encouraging thousands to sign up as “intervenors” with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)–even running “intervenor training” to show them how to do it (see Delaware Riverkeeper Scams FERC in Review of PennEast Pipeline). MassPLAN is using a chapter from Riverkeeper and has asked FERC to extend the time allowed to sign up as intervenors, so they can jam pack as many crazies as possible onto the intervenor roster…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA Chief Says Banning Coal/Oil/Gas on Fed Lands Not “Extreme”
November 19, 2015November 19, 2015

It shouldn’t surprise us, but it does. Drunk on her own power, Gina McCarthy, Administrator for the federal Environmental Protection Agency, says it’s not a radical or extreme position to ban coal, oil and gas production on federal lands. Do we need any further evidence that the Obama Administration means to harm this country economically? Here she is, Gina McCarthy, in her own radical words…
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Clearfield County | Energy Companies | Energy Corporation of America | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide VA | Virginia

Virginia Rejects Deal for DC-based Utility to Buy Marcellus Wells
November 18, 2015November 18, 2015

A Washington, DC-based natural gas utility company, Washington Gas (WGL Holdings), announced in May they had cut a $126 million deal with Energy Corp. of America to purchase a 96% interest in 22 Marcellus Shale gas wells in Greene County, PA and another 3 shale wells in Clearfield County, PA. The gas flowing from those wells would go to WGL’s customers in the State of Virginia, requiring state approval of the deal. The Virginia State Corporation Commission (VSCC) turned them down and nixed the deal. Why? VSCC said WGL’s assumptions about how much the wells will produce, and about the price of gas over the next 20 years, were not solid. Furthermore, the VSCC didn’t like that WGL is essentially shifting the risk of well production/prices onto the backs of rate payers. More deals like this are rumored to be coming down the pike. Will they get nixed too?…
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Forced Pooling | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Forced Pooling Bill Coming Around Again in 2016
November 17, 2015November 17, 2015

West Virginia landowners and mineral rights owners get prepared: the forced pooling issue is coming around again. After five years of trying, it seemed that a forced pooling bill was finally going to pass in West Virginia during the 2015 WV 60-day legislative session. But at the literal eleventh hour of the last day of the session, it failed (see The Real Story of Why Forced Pooling Bill Failed in WV). In April we told you that the forced pooling bill may get a vote this fall, although that never materialized (see WV Forced Pooling Bill HB 2688 May Get Another Vote This Fall). However, yesterday legislators got a look at a revised version of the bill that died earlier this year. The plan, as it currently stands, is to re-introduce it in January when the WV legislature meets for its annual 60-day session…
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Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia

Time to Support EQT Mountain Valley & Equitrans Pipelines @ FERC
November 17, 2015November 17, 2015

It’s time for you, pro-drilling supporters, to weigh in and make comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on your support for two important pipeline projects: EQT’s Mountain Valley Pipeline and EQT’s Equitrans Expansion project. The Mountain Valley Pipeline project is a new $3.5 billion natural gas pipeline running 301 miles (down from 330 miles) from Wetzel County, WV to Pittsylvania County, VA, connecting to the existing Equitrans pipeline along the way (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Files FERC Appl, Now Just Matter of Time). Mountain Valley will flow 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natgas and is projected to be built and in-service around the fourth quarter of 2018. The Equitrans Project will upgrade compressor stations, add approximately eight miles of pipeline connectors to upgrade capacity on the Equitrans Pipeline from southewestern PA into WV. The $100 million project, when completed, will expand capacity on the Equitrans pipeline by 600 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d). The Equitrans project is also due to be completed in 4Q18. Here’s the details for how you can show your support for these two important projects. But hurry, you only have until Nov. 26 to provide your comments/show support…
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Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research

The Right Road to Clean Power: Free Market & NatGas
November 17, 2015November 17, 2015

Whenever government gets involved with choosing the form of energy you should use–they screw it up. The utopian Obama Admnistration believes the lie that government knows best–that they are the smartest people in the room and therefore should tell you that coal is evil, solar and wind are good, and they want to force you to change how you get your energy. One of their arguments is too much carbon in the atmosphere comes from burning coal–and natural gas. The Obama Administration is attending the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris hellbent on forcing Americans to give up national sovereignty in the name of mythical global warming. Thing is, the free market (capitalism) always produces a better result than the cockamamie theories of egg-headed liberals like Obama and his ilk. Carbon emissions in the United States, unlike other countries of the world, has gone DOWN, not up. And it’s gone down bigtime. America’s shrinking carbon footprint is thanks to a change to natural gas–not in so-called renewables. Want proof? We have it…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | Indiana County | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania General Energy | Regulation | Wastewater

Anti Group CELDF Won’t Help Grant Twp Pay $1M Judgement
November 16, 2015November 16, 2015

Question: How will Grant Township (Indiana County, PA), a town with 741 people in it, pay a lawsuit it may lose awarding Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) $1 million? Going by the law of averages, less than half of the 741 people actually pay taxes (the other half are welfare slugs). So the question is, how can something like 200 families come up with enough money to pay such a large lawsuit? Answer: they can’t. The town goes bankrupt. That is the very real situation facing the residents of Grant Township. You may recall we’ve written about this before. Grant tried to block PGE from building a wastewater injection well in the township by passing an illegal law stirred up and proposed by the odious Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, or CELDF (see Fed Judge Overturns Grant Twp, PA Ban on Injection Wells). The town has now tried to reorganize in order to avoid the judge’s ruling (see Grant Twp, PA Reorganizes to Avoid a Court-Ordered Injection Well). PGE has sued the town claiming (truthfully) they’ve suffered at least $1 million in damages. That case goes to trial in March. If the town loses, the town pays. The cowardly CELDF has admitted they won’t contribute a penny toward the $1 million fine if the case goes against the town. Nice friends the people of Grant have made in the CELDF, wouldn’t you say?…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

The Incredibly (Stupid) Hulk Praises Cuomo for Port Ambrose Veto
November 16, 2015November 16, 2015

Last Friday MDN told you that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had once again bowed to political pressure from his lunatic left and vetoed a proposed off-shore LNG import facility called Port Ambrose (see NY Gov. Cuomo Vetoes Port Ambrose LNG Import Terminal). Not having much to do between Avengers movies, Mark Ruffalo (who plays Bruce Banner/Incredible Hulk) occupies his time by making the rounds at small anti-fracking protest rallies where adoring fans as vapid as he is engage in sickening hero worship–believing a professional liar (i.e. actor) actually knows something about fracking and should be believed. Hearing of Cuomo’s veto of the Port Ambrose project–a project that would have imported non-fracked gas from Trinidad, potentially displacing fracked Marcellus gas–Ruffalo issued the following statement from his Americans Against Fracking organization praising Cuomo…
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CNG/LNG | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Gov. Cuomo Vetoes Port Ambrose LNG Import Terminal
November 13, 2015November 13, 2015

A rather abrupt end for an issue that was just getting started. Liberty Natural Gas filed a plan back in 2010, prior to the Marcellus Shale revolution, to construct an off-shore LNG import (not export) facility off the coast of New York and New Jersey–in the ocean. A floating LNG facility called the Port Ambrose project. A pipeline would run from the off-shore terminal to Jones Beach, NY and from there would connect to a Transco pipeline lateral. The U.S. Coast Guard recently gave their blessing to the project (see Coast Guard Approves Port Ambrose LNG Import Terminal Near NYC/NJ). Liberty has tried to sell the project to New York and New Jersey anti-drilling nutters by saying the gas would come from Trinidad and wouldn’t be that nasty, fracked gas loaded with radon (see Liberty Says “Non-Fracked” Trinidad Gas Better than Marcellus Gas). Needless to say that was a whopping error on Liberty’s part–to smear the entire drilling industry in a vain attempt to garner favor with Kool Aid drinking global warmers, just to make a buck. Liberty’s “it’s not fracked gas” rationale didn’t stop the antis–they were just beginning to organize with protests and rallies–their version of a tailgate party at an NFL game. And now New York Gov. Cuomo has gone and ruined it for them. Cuomo, with the stroke of a pen, has vetoed the project. It’s dead. Done. Finished. Won’t happen…
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