Montgomery County

The anti-fossil fuel nutters in New York have finally lost a major battle they’ve waged against the shale industry for the past 5+ years. In June 2014, MDN told you about the Dominion New Market Project–a project that will build two new compressor plants and upgrade one other compressor station in upstate New York–to help flow more abundant, cheap and clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas from Pennsylvania (and beyond) into the northeast (see Dominion Asks FERC for New Compressors in Upstate NY, WV). The project is projected to cost $159 million and provide 112,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) of extra natural gas capacity along ~200 miles of existing Dominion pipeline across upstate New York. The existing Dominion pipeline runs through the Horseheads, Ithaca, Syracuse and Albany areas. In March 2015 MDN friend Andy Leahy wrote about the pitched battle antis waged against the project (see NY Antis Flood FERC in Fight Against Dominion’s New Market Project). The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Dominion’s New Market Project in October 2015 (see FERC Approves Expansion of Dominion Pipeline in Upstate NY). However, with a ban on fracking in NY, and with projects like the FERC-approved Constitution Pipeline being blocked by the politicized NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), it seemed like no pipeline projects or anything to do with shale energy would ever get approved–until we dump Cuomo. Then a miracle happened! At the end of 2016, the politicized DEC finally approved Dominion’s New Market Project and the construction of the compressor stations. MDN owes a huge debt of gratitude to Andy Leahy who unearthed what the DEC clearly wanted to keep quiet. Andy found a reference to the New Market Project approval in the left-leaning Politico and went nosing around and found documentation for the official DEC approvals (below)…
Read More “Miracle! NY DEC Approves Dominion’s New Compressor Stations”