INGAA Files Lawsuit Challenging PHMSA’s New Pipeline Safety Regs
In May, the PHMSA issued a proposed new rule that would slap onerous and very expensive new requirements on pretty much all natural gas pipelines in the country, including 2.7 million miles of gas transmission, distribution, and gathering pipelines; 400+ underground natural gas storage facilities; and 165 liquefied natural gas facilities (see Biden DOT Issues New Partisan Methane Rules for All Gas Pipelines). The country’s top trade organizations representing the midstream (pipeline) industry filed comments pointing out major flaws in the new rule (see Major Pipeline Associations File Comments Against New PHMSA Regs). One of those organizations, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), filed a lawsuit earlier this week in federal court challenging the new rule.
Read More “INGAA Files Lawsuit Challenging PHMSA’s New Pipeline Safety Regs”
In May, MDN told you that since taking office in January, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has been a major dud — someone who doesn’t know how to lead (see 
After more than three years of “study,” the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) issued an order yesterday meant to signal gas utilities that they don’t have a long-term future in the state. With Order 20-80, the DPU aims to “guide the evolution of the natural gas distribution industry to clean energy” with an eye towards the state’s goal of getting to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 while supposedly protecting ratepayers and ensuring energy reliability. The 20-80 order accomplishes neither goal but instead sentences Massachusetts to a cold and dismal future without natural gas.
On August 17, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) posted an Interim Final Environmental Justice Policy to guide DEP’s permit application reviews and outreach efforts in environmental justice areas throughout the Commonwealth (see 
EPA Administrator Michael Regan used a considerable amount of fossil energy and emitted billows of carbon dioxide to jet over to Dubai to participate in the COP28 confab. On Friday, Regan released his agency’s latest attempt to illegally regulate the oil and gas industry (something Constitutionally left to the individual states to regulate). Regan released a final rule that was “two years in the making” to force the U.S. oil and gas industry to cut methane emissions by using budget-busting new technologies and onerous (frequent) inspections. A long-time energy attorney says the new regulations are likely to be challenged in court.
In July 2022, MDN brought you news of a possible frac-out, or “inadvertent return” that happens when drilling mud pops out of places where it’s not supposed to — places outside the borehole being drilled (see 
Last week, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that he will appeal a decision by the Commonwealth Court that blocks PA’s entrance into the obscene Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme (see 
More progress to report on finishing the 94% completed (now likely closer to 97% completed) Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. MVP needs to cross under Interstate 81 in Montgomery County, VA, and it’s no small challenge to drill under the highway because it’s solid rock. On Oct. 13, MVP (being built by Equitrans Midstream) filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to drill 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on the I-81 crossing. Last Tuesday, FERC approved it, although the approval comes with a few strings attached, like using special lights and monitoring noise levels.
We spotted an article appearing on the PBS-backed Allegheny Front website supposedly reporting a story about Pennsylvania lawmakers looking for “best practices” to adopt in regulating the soon-coming hydrogen hub projects the state will see. PA will see some investment in hydrogen from two different hydrogen hub projects led by neighboring states (West Virginia and Delaware). The article wants you to think that PA lawmakers are reviewing and considering various regulations they might use to protect the public in this uncharted new territory of hydrogen energy. The real thrust of the article, however, is to push a leftist narrative that the hydrogen hubs should avoid using natural gas as the feedstock to produce hydrogen.
On November 16, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) agreed to Dominion Energy subsidiary Virginia Electric and Power Company’s petition requesting that FERC declare Dominion’s planned LNG production, storage, and regasification facility in Greensville County, VA, would be exempt from FERC jurisdiction under section 7 of the Natural Gas Act (NGA). The project includes a 25-million-gallon LNG storage tank, 15 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of liquefaction capacity, 500 MMcf/d regasification capacity, pretreatment facilities, and associated station yard piping.
The irrational leftists who inhabit the Biden administration can’t help themselves. They HATE fossil fuels and are doing everything they can to destroy the fossil energy industry using the regulatory power of the Executive Branch. Biden may or may not be aware of the situation (he’s so clueless). Regardless, the Bidenistas have their sites set on damaging fossil fuels with “a battery of rules in the coming months” — at least six significant new regulatory actions to “control” methane emissions.
The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), the nonprofit that oversees the state’s electricity system, has warned New York State for YEARS of coming blackouts if peaker plants in New York City are forced to close in 2025 (see 
Stupified and dumbfounded. Those are the words that come to mind when reading of a so-called climate pact agreed to by Joe Biden with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping in California last week. And then we got really, really angry. Biden is consciously (or perhaps unconsciously?) choosing to sentence our country to energy dependence on our #1 enemy in the world by forcing our country away from using fossil energy in favor of unreliable, so-called renewable energy. China is also pledging to scale down fossil energy. Of course, China is lying. We have proof.
In December 2017, MDN told you about a second proposed natural gas-fired power plant planned by CME Energy for Oregon (Lucas County), Ohio (see