Regulation

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    FERC Adds 14th Hearing, Extends Comment Period for NED Pipeline

    zombiesThe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has buckled to pressure from politicians to schedule yet another scoping hearing in New Hampshire (the third such hearing in tiny NH, the 14th overall), and extend the period for public comments, for the Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct pipeline project that would bring much-needed supplies of abundant, cheap and clean-burning Marcellus/Utica Shale gas to New England (see NH Gov Hassan Asks FERC to Schedule More Hearings for KM Pipeline). Scoping hearings, and written public comments, offer members of the public an opportunity to weigh in with specific concerns about a pipeline’s route. Concerns like, “It will cut through the middle of my hay field during the very time I need to harvest hay next year,” and “Can it please be re-routed away from my back porch–it’s currently planned to pass within 25 feet of my house.” Practical, valid, legitimate concerns folks may have about a project. Instead, small groups of anti-fossil fuel zealots show up to hijack scoping hearings. They’re essentially zombies reading from the same script: pipelines are evil, pipelines don’t create permanent jobs, pipelines don’t benefit the locals, pipelines might blow up, pipelines lead to more fracking, blah blah blah. Their statements are predictable because you hear them at every…single…hearing (we know, we’ve heard them!). Scoping hearings would be better renamed anti-fossil fuel freak shows…
    Read More “FERC Adds 14th Hearing, Extends Comment Period for NED Pipeline”

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    PA DEP Screws Up Water Test at Ten Mile Creek – Egg on Face

    egg on facePennsylvania anti-drillers from a local chapter of the Izaak Walton League, a so-called conservation organization, attempted a smear job on the Marcellus Shale industry–and it’s come back to bite them. The Izaak Walton gang has been testing water from Ten Mile Creek that runs through Washington and Greene counties in western PA for the past four years. Last year the League raised an alarm that there are high levels of radiation and other nasty things in the creek. The League immediately started pointing a finger at the Marcellus industry, accusing drillers of illegally dumping untreated wastewater in the creek (see Is Shale Wastewater Causing Radiation Spike in Ten Mile Creek?). The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) ran a test of the water in April 2014 and found from its own testing high levels of radioactivity. The problem is, the DEP ran the WRONG test, and therefore got erroneous results. A team of scientists from West Virginia University tested in the same location–six times–during July and August. They used the right test–and guess what? There are no elevated levels of radioactivity in Ten Mile Creek. Sounds to us like the Izaak Walton gang was telling a Ten Mile High story. The DEP has considerable egg on its face for screwing up the original test and scaring everyone for the past year. The DEP says they will retest for themselves, this time using a more accurate test…
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    Hilcorp Asks Permission to Drill 25 Feet from Unleased Landowner

    public hearingIvan and Kathy Dubrasky are anti-drillers located in Pulaski Township (Lawrence County), PA, just across the border from Ohio and close to Youngstown. They recently hosted a tiny anti-drilling rally at their property (see Tiny Protest (in PA) Claims to be Part of “Hands Across Our Land”). Although all of their neighbors signed leases with Hilcorp, the Dubrasky’s, as is their right, stubbornly refused to do so. They’ve screwed themselves out of money they could have had. Hilcorp is drilling multiple wells from a pad right across the street from the Dubraskys. Hilcorp would like to sink one of those wells about 25 feet from the edge of the Dubrasky property line. State law says a gas well must be at least 330 feet away from an unleased property line. If a well is any closer, inevitably some of the gas from under the unleased property will seep into the fracked well–no matter how careful you are. Hilcorp says they won’t perforate the pipe/well along their property line, so no Dubrasky gas will seep out. A hearing will be held on Sept. 16 to consider Hilcorp’s request–a request likely to be granted. The hearing should be interesting. No doubt there will be fireworks…
    Read More “Hilcorp Asks Permission to Drill 25 Feet from Unleased Landowner”

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    Williams Completes $300M Pipeline Expansion in Virginia on Time

    Williams Southside Expansion project
    Click image for larger version

    How in the world did this happen?! Williams, which operates the mighty Transco, the largest natural gas pipeline in the United States, has just completed and put into service the Virginia Southside Expansion project. The project, which was put into service to the day they predicted it would be (September 1st) as predicted in their original transmittal letter to the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission back in December 2012, consists of 91 miles of new Transco pipeline laid next to existing pipeline across Virginia (from Pittsylvania County to Brunswick County); 7 miles of new pipeline in Brunswick County; new compressor stations; and other assorted upgrades. The $300 million project will flow 270,000 dekatherms per day (dth/d) of new natgas supplies, enough gas to serve 1.6 million households, but primarily built for the purpose of fueling Dominion’s new 1,300 megawatt electric-power generating plant Brunswick County. The project will also serve increasing local distribution demand in nearby North Carolina. Aside from the fact that anti-fossil fuel nutters have been relatively silent about this project, the interesting thing to MDN is that some of the upgrades come outside of Virginia–in New Jersey and Pennsylvania where portions of the existing Transco mainline were upgraded to be bidirectional, meaning Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale gas will now be able to flow southward…
    Read More “Williams Completes $300M Pipeline Expansion in Virginia on Time”

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    NY Gov Cuomo Asked About Secession Rally, Lame Response

    I see your lips movingA very old and trite but true saying: Q: How do you know when a politician, like NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is lying? A: When he opens his mouth. Our illustrious man-child governor was in Syracuse yesterday to drop off a bag of money with $50 million, and an impertinent reporter had the gall to ask His Lordship about the secession rally held in Chenango County on Sunday (see Southern Tier Pro-Drillers Rally to Secede from New York State). Lord Cuomo responded: (a) things aren’t as bad as they seem, (b) things are getting better in the Southern Tier, (c) there’s still work to do, and (d) I’ve exhausted my own ideas, it’s now up to those poor dumb hicks in the Southern Tier to help themselves. That’s the gist of his comments…
    Read More “NY Gov Cuomo Asked About Secession Rally, Lame Response”

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    FERC Approves Important Utica-to-Gulf Coast Pipeline Reversal

    approvedLast October MDN told you about an exciting project from Boardwalk Pipeline Partners’ Texas Gas Transmission pipeline that will reverse the flow from the Louisiana Gulf Coast all the way to Ohio (see Texas Gas Seeks to Reverse Flow of Pipeline from OH to LA). The $110 million project, called the Ohio-Louisiana Access Project, would turn Texas Gas Transmission’s pipeline bidirectional and will not involve any new pipeline construction. It will provide an important new way for Utica and Marcellus drillers to get their gas to markets in the Midwest, South, and even to other countries via exports of LNG. As is typical, anti-fossil fuelers flooded the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with negative comments about the project because it will encouraging more fracking. Undeterred, FERC approved the project last week, responding to antis (as they have before) by telling them FERC’s charter does not allow it to consider the source of gas or “climate change” or any of the other cockamamie things antis are worry about. FERC decides on projects based on how a project will affect the people and environment where the project gets built… Read More “FERC Approves Important Utica-to-Gulf Coast Pipeline Reversal”

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    Mass. Approves Plan for Utilities to Buy Gas from New Pipeline

    gnashing teethWeeping. Wailing. Gnashing of teeth. Ripping clothes and sitting in sackcloth and ashes. That’s some of the reaction from lunatic anti-fossil fuelers in Massachusetts after the Mass. Dept. of Public Utilities (DPU) approved long-term contracts for three utilities–Berkshire Gas, National Grid and Columbia Gas–to buy natural gas supplies from the hated, evil Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct pipeline. That is, the three utilities will buy more gas from Kinder IF the pipeline ever gets built. We’re still a long way from backhoes digging up ground to lay new pipeline, but we’ve just taken a big step forward with this decision by the DPU. What’s next for the loons of Mass? Yep–you guessed it. They’re planning to take the DPU to court…
    Read More “Mass. Approves Plan for Utilities to Buy Gas from New Pipeline”

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    Ohio EPA Seeks “Pre-Comments” on Compressor Station Permit Plan

    speak nowCompressor stations in Ohio, needed to flow natural gas through numerous new pipelines being built, require a permit from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in order to get built. The Ohio EPA considers each application independently, a laborious and long process. In an effort to streamline that process, the Ohio EPA is accepting comments during a “pre-comment” period from now until September 18 on a plan to issue general permits for compressor stations. A general permit is, essentially, a cookie cutter approach. If midstream companies agree to the provisions in the general permit, they will use certain types of equipment and certain standards, allowing the permit process to speed along much faster. Once the pre-comment (in essence, give us your feedback) period is over, the EPA will issue draft “final” general permits for full public comment, which will run for 30 days…
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    PA DEP Nixes Plan to Use Drilling Cuttings for Tioga Airport Runway

    drill cuttings
    Drill cuttings seen through a microscope

    Clean Earth Inc., the biggest company along the East Coast that decontaminates contaminated soil (some 3 million tons a year) partnered with the Wellsboro-Johnston Airport in Tioga County, Pennsylvania to provide 400,000 tons of treated and safe drill cuttings to extend a runway at the airport. At least, that was the plan. But that plan has now been axed by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection which says, after conducting survey after survey, including public hearings, that they don’t have enough enough information, that Clean Earth’s application is “incomplete” and that Clean Earth has “withdrawn” the application (i.e. told to withdraw it or else). What’s next? If you dig more than 10 feet down, you won’t be allowed to use the rock and dirt you dig for building purposes? That’s about what has happened in this situation. Folks, this is rock and dirt. A drill bit, with a bit of non-toxic drilling mud to lubricate the bit, eats away at rock and dirt. The rock and dirt coming out of the hole is what is called drill cuttings. The cuttings are always tested to be sure there’s no radioactivity in the rock and dirt. The drill cuttings are then combined with Portland cement and there is nothing, no way, anything can “leak” out of it, including glow-in-the-dark radiation. And yet people are willing to believe any fairy tale horror story. Folks near the airport rose up in fear that the dirt used for the runway would be “contaminated” and would contaminate them…
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    FERC Delays New England Pipeline to Allow More Public Comment

    expect delaysYet another delay for Kinder Morgan’s proposed Northeast Energy Direct project–an extension of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline from the shale fields of northeastern Pennsylvania through New York, into Massachusetts, then New Hampshire before ending near Boston. It is a $6 billion project with 177 miles of new (greenfield) pipeline construction meant to alleviate the severe shortage of natural gas in New England. Last Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the government agency in charge of permissioning the project, issued a memo stating they have extended the deadline for public comment on the plan. A new deadline has not yet been decided. The delay delights anti-fossil fuelers…
    Read More “FERC Delays New England Pipeline to Allow More Public Comment”

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    PA Democrat In-fighting re Member of Wolf’s Pipeline Task Force

    The UninvitedThis story is amusing–PA Democrat infighting over the composition of the PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force. You’ll recall we brought you Wolf’s announcement that the PennFuture Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley, would head a new task force to oversee (i.e. slow down) the development of local shale gas gathering pipelines (see Disaster on the Horizon: PA Gov Wolf Creates Pipeline Task Force). In July the DEP announced the list of 42 members of the Task Force, one-third of whom work for Wolf in state government jobs (see PA Gov Wolf Packs Pipeline Task Force with His Own Minions). What we didn’t know is that apparently there was at least one anti-fossil fueler who is so extreme, not even PennFuture’s own John Quigley wanted him on the task force. Scott Cannon, from Luzerne County, PA, was originally invited to be a member of the task force. Cannon is well known as an anti-driller in NEPA, running around with a video camera shooting anti-fracking propaganda films. It seems Cannon’s name somehow got on the list to be invited, and then, suddenly, he was uninvited. All signs point to Quigley, a fellow liberal Democrat, as the one who did the uninviting…
    Read More “PA Democrat In-fighting re Member of Wolf’s Pipeline Task Force”

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    PA DEP Increases Inspections, but Fewer Violations Issued in 2015

    looking under rocksWith fewer new wells being drilled in Pennsylvania, and more inspectors added to the roles at the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), as you might expect, there have been more inspections of existing/older gas and oil wells. In fact, the DEP has conducted 1,700 more inspections over the first seven months of 2015 than they did in 2014. The oil and gas division of the DEP has added 25 new employees in the past 12 months–even though drilling activity has gone down. Typical government boondoggle. You can’t hire people and give them nothing to do. Well, you can, but that doesn’t look good for a new governor. So the DEP has hauled out the magnifying glass to look under every rock on the well pad. And what have they found? Despite 16% more inspections of shale operations this year, the total number of violations has gone down–from 283 violations for the first seven months of 2014, to 205 violations for the first seven months in 2015. However, violations for conventional drillers over the same period have gone up…
    Read More “PA DEP Increases Inspections, but Fewer Violations Issued in 2015”

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    WV Commission Meets 2nd Time; New Shale Regs Under Consideration

    regulationThe 19-member West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Industry Safety Commission, a group created by an executive order from Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, met for the first time on August 13 (see WV Shale Drillers: New Safety Regs on the Way in 2016). The Commission has a November 16 deadline to propose new rules and regulations that will be considered in the 2016 WV legislative session. The group is not letting any grass grow under its feet. They met for a second time last Wednesday…
    Read More “WV Commission Meets 2nd Time; New Shale Regs Under Consideration”

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    Obama’s CPP Targets Not Just Coal, but NatGas for Termination

    get involvedIt is time to get involved in the fight to end climate change madness that has metastasized in the brains of lunatic Democrats like Barack Hussein Obama. Paul Driessen, senior policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) which sponsors the All Pain No Gain petition against global-warming hype, and a senior policy adviser to the Congress of Racial Equality, and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power – Black Death, writes in a new column that there ARE climate issues we need to fix: the climate of fraud, corruption, and policies that kill jobs, hope and yes, kill people too. Paul doesn’t hold back. He has analyzed Obama’s recently released Clean Power Plan (CPP) and finds that if Obama’s plan is allowed to stand, it will limit the use of natural gas in electric power plants by 22% above 2012 levels until 2022, and after that, it limits natgas to only a 5% increase. In other words, Obama wants to choose how the electricity you use gets generated, instead of letting the free market choose. It’s obscene. It’s tyranny. It’s dictatorial. And, frankly, it’s un-American. Here’s how Paul’s latest column begins…
    Read More “Obama’s CPP Targets Not Just Coal, but NatGas for Termination”

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    SWPA Town Requires Full EIS Before Drilling can Commence

    court gavelA potentially troubling development in Penn Township (Westmoreland County), PA. Apex Energy had a permit from the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection to drill a Marcellus Shale well in Penn Twp. An anti-drilling group called Protect PT filed a lawsuit against the town for allowing the well to be drilled with first requiring a full environmental impact statement (EIS)–something that drives up the cost of drilling a well. The town caved to pressure and withdrew permission to drill, so Apex also sued the town. A deal has been worked out. Apex will have to pay for and conduct an EIS, and then they will be allowed to drill. Other towns populated with anti-drillers are catching wind of it and eyeing it as a potential way to slow or stop drilling in their towns…
    Read More “SWPA Town Requires Full EIS Before Drilling can Commence”

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    Quigley Believes Study that PA Will Fry from Global Warming by 2050

    stupid people are dangerousA hilarious “Boo! Scared Ya” report has just been issued by the brainiacs at Penn State that says Pennsylvanians are all going to fry by 2050 because of mythical man-made global warming. Never mind these are the same people who have made the same predictions going back 25 years (average temps haven’t gone up now for 18 years and counting). Never mind these are the same people who can’t predict the weather next week, let alone 35 years from now. We’re just supposed to believe them because they have letters after their names, supposedly indicating they’re smart. One person has fallen for this erroneous garbage: the PennFuture Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley. Unfortunately Quigley has the power to make drillers’ lives miserable by enacting draconian regulations to control their activities because he believes in the fairy tale of global warming. That not only makes him stupid, it makes him dangerous…
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