Regulation

CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Good News: Maryland Approves Dominion Cove Point LNG Plant
June 3, 2014June 3, 2014

First the Dept. of Energy approved it (see Celebrate! Dominion Wins DOE Approval for MD LNG Export Facility), then the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see FERC Final EIS: Cove Point Won’t Hurt Environment), and now, the Maryland Public Service Commission has approved Dominion’s plan to build a ~$3.5 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Cove Point, MD. Specifically, the PSC issued a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) last Friday. The certificate is needed to allow Dominion to install two 65-megawatt steam turbine generators that produce electricity. The waste heat from two combustion turbines, which are used to drive compressors to produce LNG, will be recycled to produce steam to drive the steam turbines. The PSC’s action is yet another important milestone/hurdle passed by Dominion on their inevitable way to building and operating the plant…
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Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Obama’s Climate Madness Metastasizes – EPA Kills Coal Electricity
June 3, 2014June 3, 2014

Get ready for rolling blackouts. We predict a run on candles at the local Walmart. We’re talking, of course, about President Obama’s EPA unilaterally forcing coal generating electric plants to shut down in the coming years because they can’t meet strict new carbon emission standards (coal is made from…carbon). All of the wind and solar and purple unicorns in the world won’t replace the electricity that’s about to go away thanks to the Obamadroids. Some of the slack will be taken up by natural gas–but it’s a hollow victory for natgas because electric power plants won’t be able to convert quickly enough and infrastructure won’t be in place soon enough to prevent mass electric outages. And no, we’re not kidding…
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CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Watch Who’s For & Against Change in DOE’s LNG Approval Process
June 3, 2014June 3, 2014

Last week MDN told you about the Dept. of Energy announcement that they’re changing the way they approve potential LNG (liquefied natural gas) export projects to non-free trade countries (see DOE Changes Way They Evaluate/Approve LNG Export Facilities). We said at the time that while we appreciate that the DOE wants to streamline and turn a two-stage process into a single approval process, we have some deep reservations about the change-up. So we noticed, with interest, that the anti-drilling Sierra Club praised the change, and the pro-gas Center for LNG (CLNG) expressed deep reservations, not unlike our own, which verifies our own thinking and skepticism about this policy change…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide VA | Virginia

Virginia Reviews Fracking Regs with Eye to Allow Shale Drilling
June 2, 2014June 2, 2014

This Wednesday the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) will have a first meeting to look at the state’s existing rules on fracking. A panel of state officials, a representative from the drilling industry, and “others” (environmentalist wackos?) will assemble in Richmond to review the regulations on the books now, and make recommendations on things to change in anticipation of drillers who have expressed an interest in drilling in some of Virginia’s shale plays. No, the shale drillers are interested in is not the Marcellus (found along the western fringes), but instead is the Taylorsville Basin, located south and east of Fredericksburg, VA (see Virginia Inches Closer to Shale Drilling in Taylorsville Basin)…
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Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV DEP Launches New Website to Assist with Storage Tank Law
June 2, 2014June 2, 2014

As MDN previously reported, the coal industry accident in West Virginia where a chemical tank leaked, temporarily polluting the drinking water for 300,000 WV residents not only affected the coal industry, but the natural gas drilling industry too. In the closing hours of the most recent WV legislative session, lawmakers passed a new storage tank law that affects gas drillers (see Impact of WV’s New Chemical Tank Law on Marcellus Drillers). The WV Dept. of Environmental Protection has just launched a new website to assist drillers and others affected by the new law…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Obama Report “Praises” Fracking Ahead of Ominous EPA Carbon Rules
May 30, 2014May 30, 2014

Every body hold your breath–literally. And get ready to turn the lights out or be forced into rolling blackouts. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is about to release guidelines for how much carbon you exhale and in the process assassinate states rights. That will happen with the release, on June 2, of new EPA “guidelines” (i.e. jackbooted regulations) for how much carbon (the stuff you breathe out with every breath) can be emitted from electric generating power plants. The new rules are expected to harm–perhaps mortally–states like Pennsylvania, the second largest electric generator in the country…
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Albany County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Pivotal Court Date Next Week for Future of NY Fracking
May 30, 2014May 30, 2014

Next week will prove to be one of the most important weeks in the entire debate over whether or not fracking will ever come, in a significant fashion, to New York State. MDN editor Jim Willis is often asked, “When will New York see fracking begin?” Our answer for the past year-and-a-half has been the same: When the Dryden/Middlefield town ban cases are finally decided. Next Tuesday oral arguments in those twin (and joined) cases will be heard in Albany…
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CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

DOE Changes Way They Evaluate/Approve LNG Export Facilities
May 30, 2014May 30, 2014

The news came fast and furious yesterday from various quarters of the Obama administration. Almost lost in the shuffle was a major announcement from the Ernest “Hair” Moniz’s Dept. of Energy. The DOE plays a major role in deciding which (or whether) a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility is allowed to be built. Since 2010 some 25 LNG export facilities have been proposed, seeking DOE approval. How many have been approved? Precisely one–a new facility by Cheniere Energy for a facility along Louisiana’s Gulf Coast…
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Energy Companies | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | Washington County | West Virginia

Curious: Everyone’s Happy with WV Ban on Imported Drilling Sludge
May 30, 2014June 16, 2014

Earlier this week MDN told you that a couple of containers with drilling sludge (mud, leftover rock and dirt) from Range Resources containing low levels of radioactivity were sent to a landfill in Bridgeport, WV for disposal (see Range Radioactive Containers Sent to WV for Disposal). The WV Dept. of Environmental Protection caught wind of it and has banned any further out-of-state shipments of drilling sludge from disposal in WV…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

StateImpact PA Claims Another Scalp for their Anti-Drilling Wall
May 30, 2014May 30, 2014

Earlier this month MDN told you about the anti-drilling advocacy organization pretending to be a news organization, StateImpact Pennsylvania, and their crowing over their efforts to get a law firm to withdraw from representing Sunoco Logsitics and their Mariner East Pipeline project (see PA Reporter Gets Law Firm to Withdraw from Sunoco Pipeline Case). StateImpact is back with a new scalp to add to their collection. They’ve just cowed the chairman of the PA Public Utilities Commission, Rob Powelson, into resigning from the Greater Philadelphia Energy Action Team–a Chamber of Commerce organization aimed at promoting business and all forms of energy in the state…
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Energy Companies | Halcon Resources | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Trumbull County

Girard City Council Approves Pipeline Easement for Halcon
May 30, 2014May 30, 2014

Girard City (Trumbull County), OH Council members made a smart move. Earlier this month the Girard City Council voted to approve a right-of-way agreement that allows a natural gas transmission line to run through part of the Girard Lakes property. The 14-mile pipeline will service and run from Hilcorp Utica wells near Vienna to a fuel depot near Lordstown. Why was it a smart move?…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PEC Slams Bill Separating PA Conventional/Unconventional Regs
May 30, 2014May 30, 2014

Earlier this month MDN told you that three Pennsylvania state senators would soon introduce new legislation to separate regulations for oil and gas drilling between conventional/vertical only and unconventional/shale (see New PA Bill Would Separate Conventional/Unconventional Regulations). The new legislation was introduced, as Senate Bill 1378. At the time we said we believe the bill has good intentions, but we’re kind of skeptical. So MDN found it unusual (and somewhat distressing) that the anti-drilling Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) is on the same side we’re on!…
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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PEDF Sues to Stop Corbett Under (Not On) Forest Drilling Plan
May 29, 2014May 29, 2014

The benign-sounding Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) has as its mission of filing frivolous lawsuits against legitimate businesses (or governments) who want to engage in sensible and safe commerce that involves natural resources. Last Friday, May 23, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed an executive order that continues a ban on surface drilling in PA state forests but allows drilling under a little bit more of the forests if the drillers do so from adjacent private land (see Corbett Keeps New Surface Drilling Banned in PA Forests). Two weeks before Corbett issued his executive order, the PEDF filed a motion with PA Commonwealth Court to block his executive order…
Read More “PEDF Sues to Stop Corbett Under (Not On) Forest Drilling Plan”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Head of PA DEP Oil & Gas Division Departs
May 29, 2014May 29, 2014

Alan Eichler has worked in the Oil and Gas Management division of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the past 28 years. For a number of years Alan has been the head of the Oil and Gas Management division. Now he’s gone…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Corbett Keeps New Surface Drilling Banned in PA Forests
May 27, 2014May 27, 2014

Last Friday PA Gov. Tom Corbett issued an executive order that a) maintains an ongoing moratorium on any new drilling on the surface of PA public forests and parks, and b) allows for drilling under some public lands (very limited) if the drilling can be done from adjacent private land. You would think from the reaction from the usual reactionaries like PennFuture and PennEnvironment, that Corbett had sprouted horns, a pitchfork and a tail. In Middle Eastern cultures from centuries ago they would have ripped their shirts and thrown ashes on their heads–all because Corbett decided to take a sensible approach to raising another $75 million for the cash-strapped PA budget…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Snyder Brothers | Statewide PA | Taxation

High-Priced Strippers in PA: Semantic Gymnastics with Impact Fee
May 27, 2014May 27, 2014

Synder Brothers, a mostly conventional (vertical-only) oil and gas driller in Pennsylvania, is having a lover’s quarrel with the PA Public Utilities Commission over what a stripper is and isn’t. Er, a stripper well, that is. The outcome of that argument may mean Synder Brothers will have to pony up $500,000 for impact fees on wells they’ve drilled that are, according to them, “stripper wells.” And what, pray tell, is a stripper well?…
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