Report: New York City Needs More NatGas Pipelines, STAT
New York City needs more natural gas pipelines–and it needs them BAD. That’s the upshot of a newly released report from the New York Building Congress, a trade group representing some 450 other building-related trade groups with 250,000+ members. The report, titled “Electricity Outlook: Powering New York City’s Future” (full copy below) says NYC needs more pipelines built before the Indian Point Nuclear plant closes in 2021–both for electric generation (to replace Indian Point’s electricity) and because of the prohibition coming on heavier fuel oil used for wintertime heating. Interesting (and mind-blowing) fact: 81.5% of the electricity flowing in the five boroughs of NYC comes from natural gas-fired electric plants. The report calls for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to promptly approve Transco’s Northeast Supply Enhancement Project, when FERC has a quorum, which will flow more PA Marcellus gas to NYC and New Jersey. The report also calls on officials to approve Millennium Pipeline’s expansion request in Upstate. Of course the irony is not lost on those of us who live in Upstate New York–the irony being that we could be the ones providing at least some of that natural gas to our cousins in the City, if sleazeball Gov. Andrew Cuomo hadn’t banned fracking. So yes, New York needs more natural gas and needs it asap, but New York has banned the production of it–so we’ll have to get it from places like Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia instead. Bad for us, but good for them…
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Not long after Michael Krancer was appointed Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection in 2011, he “requested” (which was more order than request) that municipal sewage treatment plants still accepting and processing Marcellus drilling wastewater stop the practice. At the time there were 15 plants accepting Marcellus wastewater. Under pressure from Krancer, they ended the practice in May 2011 (see 
While we wrote about a Penn State research study today that appears legitimate, but seven years too late (see New Penn State Frack Wastewater “Study” Beats a Dead Horse), there is another recently published Penn State study that is also legit that is not yet a huge issue, but certainly has potential to be a big deal. Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has found that invasive, non-native plants are making significant inroads with shale gas development in Pennsylvania, with negative consequences for PA forests. How so? The invasive, non-native plants are hitching a ride on gravel and equipment used to create roadways in forested areas, and once those plants take root, they crowd out local, native plants. The study, titled “Unconventional gas development facilitates plant invasions” and published in the Journal of Environmental Management, concludes that more monitoring and early detection can help put a lid on the problem…
The Potential Gas Committee (PGC), a private non-profit organization loosely affiliated with the Colorado School of Mines, performs a comprehensive study of potential supplies of natural gas in the United States every two years. In April of 2013 MDN reported the committee’s findings of just how much gas is down there (see 
We’re not quite sure how to present this news. In some respects, we want to roll around on the ground laughing. In other respects, we’re angry at the semi “racist” overtones of a new “research” paper. We’ll report, you decide. A couple of researchers from the University of Maryland’s Dept. of Economics have published a so-called “working paper” via the National Bureau of Economic Research that finds a link between fracking and more babies. The paper, titled “Male Earnings, Marriageable Men, And Nonmarital Fertility: Evidence From The Fracking Boom,” says for every extra $1,000 of money earned by those working in the fracking industry, the pregnancy rate goes up by 6 births per 1,000 women. However, marriage rates don’t go up. The researchers say that people in rural pockets of Texas, Oklahoma, California and Pennsylvania who are connected to the fracking industry are “reproducing at a rate that far exceeds the national average.” In other words, those ignorant rednecks can’t get enough sex–IF they have lots of money coming in. However, those same rednecks feel no need to marry the women they knock up. Rednecks find it perfectly acceptable to shack up. That’s the MDN summarized version of the research…
Something that we find to be an outrage is not even getting a passing acknowledgment by mainstream media: most of the climate data collected and pedaled by NASA, NOAA and UK’s Met Office is (our word) falsified. Let us explain. When collecting data, there will be times that a given data point (say a temperature reading) seems incorrect. Usually scientists will discard such “outlier” data, or make adjustments to compensate–so the outlier data doesn’t throw off what would otherwise be accurate. Climate scientists often apply “adjustments” to surface temperature thermometers (i.e. change the readings) to account for “biases” in the data. A new peer-reviewed study titled “On the Validity of NOAA, NASA and Hadley CRU Global Average Surface Temperature Data & The Validity of EPA’s CO2 Endangerment Finding” (full copy below) takes a close look at the adjustments made by NOAA, NASA and the UK in their global average surface temperature (GAST) datasets–and concludes the adjustments nearly always revise temps up. That is, the researchers are showing bias themselves. It is this revised (we call it falsified) data that is then used to proclaim the past three years are the warmest on record in the modern era. The peer-reviewed study, which was done by former rocket scientists, former EPA employees, economists, weather scientists and others, finds the “cyclical pattern in the earlier reported data has very nearly been ‘adjusted’ out of temperature readings taken from weather stations, buoys, ships and other sources.” That is, the warmers who work at NASA, NOAA and in the UK didn’t like the numbers they were getting (they didn’t like reality), so they put their finger on the scale and changed the result. It’s a lie. And now it’s exposed for the world to see…
Last year MDN brought you the story of researchers who found microbes (bacteria) living nearly two miles down in Utica Shale wells. They dubbed one of the never-before-seen bacterial “lifeforms” in the well Frackibacter. We immediately labeled it a different name: Frackenstein (see 
Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, has done us all a huge favor. Yesterday we brought you a post by EIA’s Today in Energy that points out in 2016 some 81% of all the energy we used in the US of A came from fossil fuels (see 
Here’s a fact: Fossil fuels have provided more than 80% of total U.S. energy consumption for more than 100 years. Here’s another fact: Fossil fuels provided 81% of America’s energy consumption in 2016–last year. What about all those precious so-called renewables? They provided a little over 10% of our energy needs. However, don’t confuse “renewables” with “solar and wind,” because renewables also include biomass and hydro. If you look only at wind and solar, they provided around 2.5-3% of our overall energy needs last year. When some crackpot claims we could just flip a switch and begin using all renewables anytime before the next 100 years, you know they’re delusional. Ain’t, gonna, happen. You read it here first…
A new study from ICF International (commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute) reveals some truly mind-blowing numbers. The natural gas supply chain–those companies involved in providing goods and services to the industry–generated $550 billion in economic activity in 2015. More than half a trillion dollars! That’s almost 3% of the country’s GDP. From a single industry. Staggering. Equally staggering: Because we are finding and extracting natgas here at home, American consumers will have saved more than $100 billion on the cost of natural gas by 2040. That’s a private (non-governmental) $100 billion invested in our economy over the next 25 years. The 268-page study, titled “Benefits and Opportunities of Natural Gas Use, Transportation, and Production” (full copy below) projects total employment related to the natgas industry will reach 5.9 million people by 2040. Can you even begin to wrap you brain around this?! The report contains information and data for how natgas benefits EACH of the 50 states. This is a professional study by a professional firm, not just rah rah unsupported pablum like you get from radical environmentalists. These are real numbers you can believe. Frankly, the numbers tell one of the most incredible stories of the 21st century…
The Trump Dept. of Energy (DOE) wants to make better frackers. What does being a “better” fracker mean, and how is the DOE further that cause? The DOE is doling out $20 million, of which $18 million will be used on research to “address critical gaps in the understanding of reservoir behavior and optimal completion, stimulation, and recovery strategies for unconventional oil and gas.” That is, figure out how to frack cheaper, faster and in a way that impacts the environment less. And the government is willing to spend some coin to help figure it out…
Anti-frackers like Josh Fox (maker of the propaganda film Gasland) have long relied on a single, flawed research “study” that purported to make the case that the entire country could, if it wanted to, switch over to using 100% renewable energy sources by 2050. The study, titled “100% clean and renewable wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) all-sector energy roadmaps for the 50 United States” (full copy below), presents “roadmaps for each of the 50 United States to convert their all-purpose energy systems (for electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, and industry) to ones powered entirely by wind, water, and sunlight (WWS).” This week a group of 21 independent experts, including the former associate director at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a NOAA researcher who specializes in renewables, issued a devastating rebuttal of the earlier “renewable roadmap” study–saying it has “significant shortcomings,” using “invalid modeling tools” with “modeling errors” and makes “implausible and inadequately supported assumptions.” In the rebuttal study, titled “Evaluation of a proposal for reliable low-cost grid power with 100% wind, water, and solar” (full copy below), the authors rip the earlier “renewable roadmap” study to shreds, exposing the lie that fossil fuels can be phased out within our lifetimes. It’s simply not possible. And it’s time that lie is debunked in the public square. But don’t look for mainstream media to give one drop of ink to this study. It doesn’t fit their renewables-are-nirvana-and-fossil-fuels-are-evil narrative…
The legal beagles of top energy law firm Babst Calland recently released their seventh annual energy industry report called, “The 2017 Babst Calland Report – Upstream, Midstream and Downstream: Resurgence of the Appalachian Shale Industry; Legal and Regulatory Perspective for Producers and Midstream Operators.” This latest annual review chronicles the comeback of the Marcellus/Utica and what challenges lie ahead. In an MDN exclusive, we have the first seven pages of the 74-page report (see below), along with details on how you can request a full copy. Worth the read! Here’s an overview…
Here’s a quote that nearly made our eyeballs drop out: “In the PJM queue, there’s roughly 130 planned gas-fired power plants scheduled to enter service through 2021 totaling 76 GW under various stages of development across a large part of the market that includes Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey.” Did you catch that? Some 130 natural gas-fired electric generating plants–most (if not all) of them fed by Marcellus/Utica gas, will go online in the next four years, generating 76 gigawatts of electricity. It is an enormous opportunity for our industry. Where did we read that stat? In a new report published by our friends at Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI). The report is called “Pipelines & Power: How New Infrastructure Could Uncork the Marcellus-Utica Natgas Bottleneck.” The opening article in the report contains the quote above (on page 2). This 20-page report is jam-packed with great information, like that quote. Actionable, useful, important information. Let us tell you a little more about NGI, about the report, and how you can get a copy…