New York

  • | | | | | | |

    Battle Heats Up for NJ-NY Raritan Bay NatGas Pipeline

    Click for larger version

    In March of this year, Williams filed a full, official application for the Northeast Supply Enhancement project (see Williams Files with FERC to Expand Transco Pipeline to NYC, NE). The new project is meant to increase pipeline capacity and flows heading into northeastern markets. In particular, Transco wants to provide more Marcellus natural gas to utility giant National Grid beginning with the 2019-2020 heating season. National Grid operates in New York City, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. There are a number of components to the project, but the key component, the heart of the project, is a new 23-mile pipeline from the shore of New Jersey into (on the bottom of) the Raritan Bay–running parallel to the existing Transco pipeline–before connecting to the Transco offshore. The gas flowing through the new pipeline will power an additional 2.3 million homes in the NYC area. Pre-filing for the project was done in May 2016, and the official application, as we said, was filed in March 2017. However, anti-fossil fuel fanatics (like the Sierra Club) have just woken up and are now protesting against the project–because the pipeline will run through the bay…
    Read More “Battle Heats Up for NJ-NY Raritan Bay NatGas Pipeline”

  • | | | | | | |

    Broome “Titanic” County Desperately Needs NGA Virtual Pipeline

    Recently Broome County (NY) Executive Jason Garner sounded the alarm about county finances. He compared Broome County’s economic situation to the Titanic. The New York State Comptroller’s office issued a report in September 2016 that said Broome County has been in fiscal stress over the past three years. Thank you Gov. Cuomo for banning fracking–the one thing that could have pulled us out of the hole. With all of the bad news, you would think Broome County would be a cheerleader for a proposed “virtual pipeline” project from NG Advantage, planned for the Town of Fenton in a Binghamton suburb. In fact, Fenton approved the project (after a detailed review), and construction began in June (see NG Advantage Virtual Pipe “Done Deal” in Broome County, Antis Stymied). However, when the county weighed in on the NG Advantage project, back in May, it recommended against building the project (see NG Advantage Virtual Pipeline May be Coming to MDN’s Backyard). Isn’t that just like Broome County? We’re sinking (yes, MDN editor Jim Willis lives and writes MDN from Broome County), the County Executive sounds the alarm, yet the county wants to deny a project that will bring 150 full-time jobs and millions in tax revenue to county coffers. The irony was not wasted on NG Advantage, which issued this statement following Garner’s economic pronouncement that we’re sitting on the Titanic here in Broome County…
    Read More “Broome “Titanic” County Desperately Needs NGA Virtual Pipeline”

  • | | | | | |

    NG Asks Judge to Toss Case Blocking Virtual Pipeline in NY

    NG Advantage wants to build a “virtual pipeline” operation in ultra-liberal Broome County, NY, in a suburb of Binghamton. The location NG picked, after considering up to six locations in the region, was selected because of it’s proximity to major highways, proximity to the Millennium Pipeline, and availability of high-power electric lines. A virtual pipeline is nothing more than a compressor plant (series of compressor plants) that grabs gas from a pipeline, in this case the Millennium, and compresses it and loads it onto special tractor trailers that then deliver the gas to industrial customers like manufacturing plants, hospitals, and even small regional systems servicing homes. The location NG selected, in the Town of Fenton (within spitting distance of Hillcrest and Port Dickinson) was approved by the Town of Fenton after a detailed review. The area they selected is zoned industrial and is, in fact, a former dump site. However, residents from nearby neighborhoods (Hillcrest and Port Dick) were not aware of the project (so they claim) and when construction began to clear the dump site, and residents learned what was going to be built at the site, some of them demanded court action to oppose it. So far we’ve had two court cases asking county-level court (called “Supreme Court” in NY) to stop the project, which it temporarily did (see Court Halts Work on Broome Co. Virtual Pipeline, Residents Sound Off). MDN editor Jim Willis attended a meeting by NG Advantage held for area residents and he has to say the company is bending backward, forward, sideways, upside-down, back flipping–and in general doing anything and everything they can–to prove to residents that a few trucks an hour hauling natural gas is not the horror they have been led to believe it will be. But in an all-too-familiar pattern, the residents’ minds are made up and nothing short of shutting the project down will be acceptable. And so the fight now goes to court. Last week NG responded to the temporary restraining order, asking the judge to toss it out so they can get back to building the facility. If for some reason NG is blocked, the company will be out $23 million…
    Read More “NG Asks Judge to Toss Case Blocking Virtual Pipeline in NY”

  • | | | | | | | |

    Northern Access Pipeline Court Case Further Threatens NY DEC

    NY DEC is on legal precipice

    A new threat against the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation’s authority over pipeline projects is coming from yet another federal court. Last month MDN brought you the huge news that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Millennium Pipeline against the NY DEC for delaying a decision to authorize a 9-mile pipeline Millennium wants to build from their main pipeline to an under-construction natgas-fired electric plant in Orange County, NY, called the Valley Lateral Project. Which may, at first blush, seem like a defeat. It was anything but a defeat. The justices, in their decision, said that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has the right and responsibility to step back in and issue the water crossing permits themselves, overruling the NY DEC, if FERC so chooses (see DC Court Tells Millennium FERC Can Override NY DEC Pipeline Delay). A second court case in a different federal court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, is now progressing. That case was brought by National Fuel Gas Company in April against the NY DEC for a similar reason: delay and denial of federal 401 stream crossing permits for NFG’s Northern Access Pipeline project (see NFG Sues NY DEC in Fed Court re Northern Access Pipe Rejection). That case is now advancing and the lawyers for NFG are quoting the decision from the Millennium case as precedent for a ruling by the 2nd Circuit Court that the DEC cannot arbitrarily stop a federally-permitted pipeline project…
    Read More “Northern Access Pipeline Court Case Further Threatens NY DEC”

  • | | | |

    Actor James Cromwell Going to Jail for Blocking NY NatGas Plant

    James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek

    It looks like Hollywood actor and anti-fossil fuel activist James Cromwell will get to enjoy prison food for a week. For the last couple of years, MDN has reported on a $900 million Marcellus gas-fired electric generating plant coming to Orange County, NY (see Orange County, NY Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant OK’d by Judge). The CPV (Competitive Power Ventures) Valley Energy Center project has been vigorously opposed by local anti-drilling ninny nannies, including Cromwell. Cromwell is a spoiled rich kid from Manhattan who happens to own a home near the plant. He’d prefer to keep Upstate pristine, as his own private playground. Cromwell enlisted some neighbors and six of them got themselves arrested in December 2015 for blocking construction at the site (see Actor James Cromwell Arrested Protesting NY Power Plant Site). No matter. The plant is now under construction, as we reported in March. Construction of the plant is “moving full-steam ahead” and is on track to go online in early 2018. What about Cromwell and the other criminal protesters? The wheels of justice grind slowly. In June of this year, Cromwell and his fellow criminals stood before a judge, after being found guilty for their actions, and were fined $375. The judge told them to pay up by June 29 or go to jail. Cromwell defiantly said he won’t pay, he *wants* to go to jail (see ‘Wayawanda Six’ Convicted of Illegally Blocking NY Power Plant Project). Cromwell is going to get his wish–and get to sample jailhouse cuisine. Three of the “activists,” including Cromwell, have just been ordered by a judge to serve a one week sentence in Orange County Jail for refusing to pay the $375 fine–which is about how much Cromwell pays for a tip at one of his Hollywood power lunches. Cromwell’s lawyer begged and pleaded and got a tw0-week extension. Pay by July 14, or off to the clink…
    Read More “Actor James Cromwell Going to Jail for Blocking NY NatGas Plant”

  • | | | | | |

    Court Halts Work on Broome Co. Virtual Pipeline, Residents Sound Off

    Tractor Trailer NG proposes to use at Fenton location – Click image for full size version

    MDN editor Jim Willis attended one of the information sessions offered by NG Advantage at the Port Crane fire hall last night. NG Advantage is making a concerted effort to dispel false rumors and misunderstandings on the part of neighbors who live near a proposed “virtual pipeline” site that is a series of compressor stations grabbing gas from the Millennium Pipeline in a Binghamton suburb, compressing it and loading onto tanker trucks. Jim knew it was going to be an interesting night when he arrived at 7:15 pm to find a packed previous session that began at 5 pm was still going strong. Jim wandered to the back of the facility (in the parking lot) to view one of the tanker trucks that NG hopes to have accessing the facility (see our pic). In fact, two of these trucks each and every hour of the day will enter and leave the facility, some 50 trucks per day, on average, according NG officials. As Jim approached the truck, a woman also walking in the same direction said loudly, “My God! Look how BIIIIIIGGGG it is!” Like she’d never seen a tractor trailer before (actually, it’s shorter than a standard trailer). Since no one else was close to her, Jim assumed she said it for his benefit–likely hoping he would join in and agree. Jim said nothing. The same woman grilled the NG rep standing there, asking how many trucks per day, etc. And then she said, “I’m against this–I’m just glad there’s now a stop work order,” which was the first we had heard the news (more on the stop work order below). The woman’s demeanor and her ebullience that the project is now halted was an early signal: Jim knew he was in for a long night of high emotion from local residents who don’t want the facility, largely because of truck traffic. Jim was right…
    Read More “Court Halts Work on Broome Co. Virtual Pipeline, Residents Sound Off”

  • | | | | | |

    NG Advantage Meets with Virtual Pipe Neighbors in Broome County

    NG Advantage is making a concerted effort to dispel false rumors and misunderstanding on the part of neighbors who live near a proposed “virtual pipeline” site that is a series of compressor stations grabbing gas from the Millennium Pipeline in a Binghamton suburb, compressing it and loading onto tanker trucks. As MDN reported yesterday, two different groups have now filed lawsuits to stop work at the site, one by a local elementary school (more than a half mile away) and one by residents living nearby, including a local Catholic church parish (see Church Asks NY Court to Stop Broome County CNG Virtual Pipeline). Last night officials with NG held a meeting for area residents (with more meetings scheduled for tonight) to answer questions and get the truth out about the facility. Two items in particular were front and center: (1) There are no emissions from the compressor station–it is a series of compressors (4 initially, up to 12 in all) that are powered with electricity, not diesel. So there are zero emissions from the plant. NONE. (2) The plant will be quieter than the Interstate highway it sits next to. If you are walking in the nearby Port Dickinson park (as MDN editor Jim Willis sometimes does), you will continue to hear the highway which runs overhead–but you won’t hear the compressor station. Neither will neighbors like the Catholic church hear it. Here’s a summary of last night’s meeting…
    Read More “NG Advantage Meets with Virtual Pipe Neighbors in Broome County”

  • | | | | | |

    Church Asks NY Court to Stop Broome County CNG Virtual Pipeline

    NG Advantage is building a new compressor station to tap into the Millennium Pipeline where it crosses the Chenango River near Port Dickinson, a suburb of Binghamton, in Broome County, NY (see NG Advantage Virtual Pipeline May be Coming to MDN’s Backyard). NG already has three businesses lined up to buy CNG (compressed natural gas) from the project. So-called virtual pipelines compress natural gas and load it onto tanker trucks, and then distribute the CNG to businesses that are not fortunate enough to be located near a natgas pipeline. It’s a cool concept that bypasses anti-drilling objections to pipelines. However, virtual pipelines have one negative side-effect for local residents: LOTS of truck traffic. The Town of Fenton Planning Board recently approved the project, and MDN can report (since we swung by the site) that bulldozers and backhoes are hard at work transforming the site, getting it ready to construct the compressor station. However, a local elementary school, more than half a mile away, decided to sue to try and stop the project (see NY School Saddles Taxpayers w/Legal Fees to Oppose Virtual Pipe). Now, a local Catholic church’s parish center, St. Francis of Assisi, has joined several nearby residents to launch their own lawsuit/petition asking a local court to halt construction…
    Read More “Church Asks NY Court to Stop Broome County CNG Virtual Pipeline”

  • | | | | | | |

    DC Court Tells Millennium FERC Can Override NY DEC Pipeline Delay

    An Appeals Court decision issued Friday has (in our opinion) HUGE ramifications for New York State and the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) that has been corrupted by political influence from Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It also has ramifications in other states with overactive environmental agencies too. It is hard for us to overstate how important we think this decision is. The NY DEC has been corrupted and politicized by one of the most corrupt governors New York has ever had: Andrew Cuomo. The Cuomo DEC has unilaterally decided not to issue 401 water crossing permits for several federally-authorized pipeline projects, including Williams’ Constitution Pipeline, NFG’s Northern Access Pipeline, and a teeny tiny 9-mile pipeline Millennium wants to build from their main pipeline to an under-construction natgas-fired electric plant in Orange County, NY, called the Valley Lateral Project. Millennium took the bull by the horns early on, when it was apparent the DEC was following the same pattern of delay and then deny, suing the DEC (see Millennium Pipeline Sues Cuomo’s Corrupt DEC Over Expansion Delay). On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed the lawsuit by Millennium, which at first blush may seem like a blow. But it was the reasoning and opinion of the judges in dismissing the case that may change everything in New York. The judges said there is no case because if, as Millennium says, the DEC is denying the water permits, FERC itself has the power to jump back in and simply override NY DEC and issue the permits. This is a BOMBSHELL decision. That is, it’s a bombshell if FERC (with a soon-to-be-in-place quorum) exercises its constitutional authority…
    Read More “DC Court Tells Millennium FERC Can Override NY DEC Pipeline Delay”

  • | | | |

    True Colors of Politicized NY DEC Evident on Agency Website

    The Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGANY), sent an email last Friday to members alerting them to the profound bias evident for all to see on the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) website with respect to renewable vs. fossil fuel energy. It seems the DEC has been politicized by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and now reflects his energy bias in promoting so-called renewable energy sources over fossil fuel energy sources. As IOGANY points out in their email (and as we’ve stated many times), nobody is against renewable sources of energy. They (and we) are, however, against the state choosing sides and promoting some sources over others, when it doesn’t make sense environmentally nor economically. IOGANY’s observations are compelling–showing just how biased agencies like the DEC have become…
    Read More “True Colors of Politicized NY DEC Evident on Agency Website”

  • | | | |

    New Poll: Majority in NY, MA, CT, NH Support More Pipelines!

    An overwhelming majority of voters in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York support energy delivery of transportation fuels and the use of natural gas infrastructure – including the approval and construction of more pipelines in the region, according to a new poll from Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA). The CEA calls itself the “voice of the energy consumer.” CEA provides consumers with sound, unbiased information on U.S. and global energy issues. The scientific poll conducted by CEA of voters in the four states found that energy issues will affect how 86% of them vote in the next election. It also found 58% approve of “expanding pipelines to deliver transportation fuels for consumers and markets.” And you thought voters in New England and New York were all brain-dead leftists. Huh. Turns out the media is covering up the strong support that exists for pipelines and other energy infrastructure. Hello Gov. Cuomo! Are you reading this? Here’s a summary of the poll, along with the detailed poll results…
    Read More “New Poll: Majority in NY, MA, CT, NH Support More Pipelines!”

  • | | | | | |

    Dominion New Market Project Still on Track in NY, Antis Fume

    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–no new pipeline is being laid. The existing Dominion pipeline runs through the Horseheads, Ithaca, Syracuse and Albany areas. 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). And then a real miracle happened. The Cuomo-corrupted New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) approved the New Market compressor stations on Dec. 23, 2016 (see Miracle! NY DEC Approves Dominion’s New Compressor Stations). Needless to say, anti-fossil fuel freaks are freaked out that the project is now a reality. The lone compressor station that will get an upgrade (not being built from scratch) is located near Ithaca, NY, home of some of the nuttiest of the nutjobs. The antis who run the Town of Dryden (near Ithaca, where the compressor station is located) passed a “public utility moratorium” last summer (which expires this summer) in an attempt to stop the upgrade at the Dominion compressor station. However, Dominion has outsmarted the antis and continues to work on the upgrade, which is making the antis apoplectic, much to our delight…
    Read More “Dominion New Market Project Still on Track in NY, Antis Fume”

  • | | | |

    NYC Democrats Target Upstate with Proposed Ban on PA Frack Waste

    Every now and again anti-fossil fuel nutters in New York will pop up from whatever hole they live in to claim that the couple of NY landfills accepting drill cuttings (leftover rock and dirt) from PA shale drilling will result in an environmental apocalypse. One landfill in particular, in Chemung County, seems to be the focus of their ire (see NY Anti Drillers Apoplectic Over Soil in Chemung Co. Landfill). From time to time they attract the attention of some of NY’s less-than-bright legislators who float bills to ban “importing frack waste” into the haughty Empire State. They tried in 2014 (see NY Dem Senators Want to Ban PA Drill Cuttings from NY Landfills). Fortunately, the bill went nowhere. Earlier this year the anti-drilling group Environmental Advocates of New York published a 24-page sham “report” trying to rekindle momentum for a frack waste ban (see Anti-Drillers Try to Ban Drill Cuttings from PA in NY Landfills). Environmental Advocates appears to be in league with Democrats from the New York City area who have floated yet another bill to ban PA frack waste from entering NY. New York City just LOVES to tell us hicks in Upstate what we can and can’t do…
    Read More “NYC Democrats Target Upstate with Proposed Ban on PA Frack Waste”

  • | | | | | | |

    NY School Saddles Taxpayers w/Legal Fees to Oppose Virtual Pipe

    We just knew getting a “virtual pipeline” facility built in ultra-liberal Broome County, NY was proceeding a little too easy. MDN recently told you about a proposed virtual pipeline (i.e. natgas trucking system) coming to MDN’s neighborhood. NG Advantage wants to build a new compressor station and tap into the Millennium Pipeline where it crosses the Chenango River near Port Dickinson, a suburb of Binghamton, in Broome County (see NG Advantage Virtual Pipeline May be Coming to MDN’s Backyard). NG already has three businesses lined up to buy CNG (compressed natural gas) from the project. So-called virtual pipelines compress natural gas and load it onto tanker trucks, and then distribute that gas to businesses that are not fortunate enough to be located near a natgas pipeline. It’s a cool concept that bypasses anti-drilling objections to pipelines. However, virtual pipelines have one negative side-effect for local residents: LOTS of truck traffic. The Town of Fenton Planning Board recently approved the project and although we thought it wasn’t quite yet a done deal, apparently it is a done deal, as a small group of antis learned earlier this week at a Town of Fenton meeting (see NG Advantage Virtual Pipe “Done Deal” in Broome County, Antis Stymied). However, that may not be the end of it. Antis (in New York as elsewhere) don’t fade away without a LOT of loud-mouthed opposition, and a LOT of legal action. Antis are now pegging their hopes to defeat this fossil fuel intruder on the actions of a local school district. The Chenango Valley School District operates the Port Dickinson Elementary school close to (half mile? quarter mile?) the proposed compressor station for the virtual pipeline project. The CV school board voted last night 8-0 to hire a law firm to fight the project, with no cap on how much in legal fees local taxpayers will have to pay for this folly. The clock is now ticking. It’s quite likely the project will get built before it ever sees its first court hearing–and antis know it…
    Read More “NY School Saddles Taxpayers w/Legal Fees to Oppose Virtual Pipe”

  • | | | | | |

    Exxon Takes Aim at NY AG’s “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” Witch Hunt

    On Friday, Exxon Mobil took the gloves off and went after the out-of-control New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Last year Schneiderman decided he would try to shake down Exxon for billions of dollars, claiming the company wasn’t being honest with shareholders about the threat of man-made global warming, which doesn’t actually exist. He said Exxon should have done more to warn shareholders that they invest in a filthy, rotten, human-killing Big Oil company–a company whose stock will someday implode. We’ve covered Schneiderman’s witch hunt from the beginning (see our stories here). Schneiderman tried to enlist the assistance of other attorneys general, including the fruity Maura Healy from Massachusetts. Some (like Healy) have stayed with him, others abandoned him when it became obvious Scheiderman was behaving like Captain Ahab in Mody Dick, hunting his own great white whale. Schneiderman originally said Exxon underplayed the threat of global warming. Recently, he changed it up and now says Exxon has overplayed the threat. He’s desperate. On Friday, Exxon, in responding to this latest change in tactic, said Scheiderman is making “inflammatory, reckless and false allegations.” You don’t get any more plain-spoken than that! This is now a bare knuckles fist fight. We’re betting on Exxon…
    Read More “Exxon Takes Aim at NY AG’s “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” Witch Hunt”

  • | | | |

    ‘Wayawanda Six’ Convicted of Illegally Blocking NY Power Plant Project

    James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek

    For the last couple of years, MDN has reported on a $900 million Marcellus gas-fired electric generating plant coming to Orange County, NY (see Orange County, NY Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant OK’d by Judge). The CPV (Competitive Power Ventures) Valley Energy Center project has been vigorously opposed by local anti-drilling ninny nannies, including Hollywood star James Cromwell. Cromwell is a spoiled rich kid from Manhattan who owns a home near the plant. He’d prefer to keep Upstate pristine, as his own private playground. Cromwell enlisted some neighbors and six of them got themselves arrested in December 2015 for blocking construction at the site (see Actor James Cromwell Arrested Protesting NY Power Plant Site). No matter. The plant is now under construction, as we reported in March (see Construction Update on CPV NatGas Power Plant Near Middletown, NY). Construction of the plant is “moving full-steam ahead” and is on track to go online in early 2018. So what about the criminal protesters? The wheels of justice grind slowly. This week Cromwell and his fellow criminals stood before a judge, after being found guilty for their actions, and were fined $375. The judge told them to pay up by June 29 or go to jail. Cromwell defiantly said he won’t pay, he *wants* to go to jail… Read More “‘Wayawanda Six’ Convicted of Illegally Blocking NY Power Plant Project”