FERC Chair Phillips Surprises, Moves to Quickly Advance 3 Gas Pipes
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) under the chairmanship of Richard “Dick” Glick moved like molasses when it came to approving new pipeline projects. Glick’s favorite move was to require a full environmental impact statement (EIS) for even small projects that do nothing more than add more compressors or looping pipe (laid next to existing pipe). Glick is now gone, thanks to Sen. Joe Manchin. Willie Phillips is the Acting Chairman. In a surprise move, Phillips has converted what would have been full EISs for three small but important pipeline projects (all of them affecting the Marcellus/Utica) into much faster and less onerous environmental assessments (EAs), shaving a full nine months off the time it takes to approve these projects.
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Leftist top-down bureaucracies never work. NEVER. Socialism never works. Communism never works (at least in the long term). They all spring from the same poisoned root–arrogant elitists believe they know better than you how to run your life. They extinguish freedom. Example: The Bidenistas want to make decisions for you about which forms of energy you can and can’t use. They dream about a future where dirty, filthy fossil energy is no more. And they allocate trillions of dollars to make it happen. Then what happens? These egg-headed toads sit around and talk about it–and NEVER distribute the money! They hold endless Zoom calls. They require grant forms filled out in triplicate. And then, no money gets distributed. Welcome to Bidentopia.
Two weeks ago, the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee held a public hearing on energy access and affordability. As part of that hearing, Marcellus Shale Coalition president Dave Callahan gave testimony that a problem we’ve highlighted for years is still out of control. The state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) (a) takes WAY too long to issue new permits for shale projects, (b) when it does issue permits, it is inconsistent in the standards used, depending on which area of the state, and (c) the ongoing permit delays and inconsistency are costing the state jobs.
We simply don’t understand the disturbed minds of the environmental left. Take the recent actions by the leftists at Damascus Citizens for Sustainability (DCS), which is suing the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) after the DRBC adopted most of the rules sought by DCS to permanently block fracking and anything to do with fracking from the Delaware River Basin region. The radicals got 95% of what they wanted, but because it’s not 100%, they are suing in federal court to force the DRBC to start over and achieve 100% of their demands. This is seriously, pathologically, disturbed. We will explain.
Last week Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the Fed will “stick to its knitting” and will NOT wander off the trail into political issues like man-made global warming (i.e. climate change). The purpose and focus of the Federal Reserve is to control inflation via interest rates, thereby strengthening the economy and creating jobs. Powell will not allow the Fed to get caught up in global warming policymaking by forcing banks to require the companies to which they make loans to bow down before the ESG gods. Frankly, we’re surprised and delighted at Powell’s steel backbone on this issue.
In February 2022, Equitrans Midstream announced it had filed a new pipeline expansion project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see 
Freeport LNG, which has been offline since an explosion and fire in June 2022, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to begin the restart procedure this past Sunday (see 
Last April, MDN introduced readers to the developing issue of landowners being approached to lease “pore space” rights (see 
Is the coal industry and natural gas industry in West Virginia friends? Or enemies? Or perhaps “frenemies”? We suppose it depends on the issue. In our book, the coal industry has largely been an enemy of the natural gas industry in WV because natgas-fired power plants threaten to displace coal-fired plants (see 
After the shocking news that U.S. Senator Joe Manchin had sold out his state and the entire country by agreeing to support the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) bill last summer, the details began to come out about just how bad this bill really is for the oil and gas industry. First and foremost, it slaps a new tax on natural gas production (see 
The clown judges who occupy the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus) appear ready to reject a water permit granted by the Virginia State Water Control Board to help finish up the 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Three judges from the 4th Circus were appointed back in 2017 to hear appeals by Big Green groups against the project. All three judges are profoundly bigoted and prejudiced against natural gas pipeline projects. Yesterday, the three clowns heard oral arguments from the foreign-backed Sierra Club (and its cronies) arguing the Control Board’s approval of a permit to cross streams and wetlands violates the federal Clean Water Act.
On January 18, 2022, Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company (ESNG, a subsidiary of Chesapeake Utilities Corporation) filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to construct and operate a new natural gas-fired compressor unit and ancillary facilities at its existing Bridgeville Compressor Station in Sussex County, Delaware (called the Southern Expansion Project). Right away, the odious radicals of Food and Water Watch filed an official protest. It took nearly a year, but (as we’re just learning now) on Dec. 16, FERC issued full approval for the project. The new compressor unit will flow an extra 7.3 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of natural gas to new residential, commercial, and industrial customers along the Delmarva Peninsula.
On January 18, every single Republican member of the Pennsylvania State Senate signed (and sent) a joint letter to newly-minted Gov. Josh Shapiro urging him to take steps “immediately” to undo PA’s entrance into the insane Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax, a plan forced on the state by Shapiro’s wacky predecessor Tom Wolf. During the campaign, Shapiro prevaricated on whether or not he would pull PA’s plan to enter RGGI.
Joe Manchin, the rather pathetic, has-been U.S. Senator from West Virginia, is sitting his bum in Davos, Switzerland, wining and dining and hobnobbing with leftist elites from around the world at the World Economic Forum. Manchin, you might recall, sold out the United States by voting for the Green New Deal, renamed to Build Back Better, and further renamed to the Inflation Reduction Act (see