New York

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    Radicals Try to Pressure NY DEC into Delaying Northern Access Pipe

    About 150 individuals masquerading as “organizations” have sent a letter to the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) requesting the DEC add an extra couple of months to a comment period for National Fuel Gas Company’s Northern Access 2016 pipeline project. A few weeks ago the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the long-delayed project (see NFG’s Northern Access Pipe in NY/PA Gets FERC Approval). The $455 million project includes building 97 miles of new pipeline along a power line corridor from northwestern Pennsylvania up to Erie County, NY. The project also calls for 3 miles of new pipeline further up, in Niagara County, along with a new compressor station in the Town of Pendleton. Although FERC has now given permission to build it, the State of New York, specifically the DEC, must issue stream crossing permits. Sound familiar? The DEC faced a similar task with the FERC-approved Constitution Pipeline and ultimately, under political pressure from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, made the decision to refuse granting Williams the permits it needs to build the Constitution. Anti-drilling fruitcakes hope to get lightning to strike twice, repeating the process with this project as they did with the Constitution. So, right out of their playbook, a bunch of radicals pretending to represent thousands of people (in reality 153 people) have sent a letter to the DEC attempting to pressure the DEC into extending a one-month comment period by an extra 60 days…
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    Crestwood Building Rail-to-Truck NGL Terminal in Orange County, NY

    Crestwood concept drawing for rail terminal in Orange County, NY – click for larger version

    As MDN was reading through the latest quarterly/full year 2016 update for Crestwood Equity Partners (formerly known as Crestwood Midstream), we discovered something fairly innocuous, but in our book, a big deal. Crestwood said the company is “developing a greenfield rail-to-truck NGL terminal in Montgomery, NY that will increase propane supply reliability across the Northeast markets. The terminal, which is expected to be placed into service in the summer of 2017, will be supported by product controlled by Crestwood from multiple producers in the Marcellus and Utica regions.” What?! How did that one slip by? Crestwood is in the process of building, and will open, a terminal to distribute propane–in Orange County, NY (not far from New York City). This is good news indeed–and we wonder how and why the antis haven’t been bleating about this project, the way they have been about Crestwood’s long-delayed propane storage facility along the shoreline of Seneca Lake (near Watkins Glen). No matter–we’ll take our small victories where and when we can get them. Disappointingly Crestwood makes no mention of the Finger Lakes LPG storage facility in their update. But the Marcellus does get a few mentions. Below are what we gleaned from the latest update on Crestwood’s Marcellus operations, along with more background on the forthcoming propane terminal in Orange County…
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    Anti-Fossil Fuel Hatred Metastasizes in Tompkins County, NY

    Anti-pipeline insanity has metastasized in Tompkins County, NY (i.e. Ithaca). Members of the Tompkins County Energy and Economic Development Task Force object to building seven miles of 10-inch natural gas pipeline in the Lansing area (suburb of Ithaca)–because the pipeline flows a fossil fuel. They have objected to the point that the local utility company wanting to build it, NYSEG (New York State Electric & Gas), has floated an alternative plan: Build a compressor station for existing customers, and no new customers are allowed to receive natgas service. Ever. Period. Talk about nuts! The tinfoil hat folks on the Task Force instead want NYSEG (or someone else) to invest in so-called alternative energy projects to meet the energy demand for new customers. That is, the Task Force is prejudiced against the type of energy residents prefer to use–to the point of forcing another choice on them. Only in the Communist Paradise of Ithaca…
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    10% of PA Farms Received Avg $154K in Lease/Royalties in 2014

    Some farms not only produce products like milk, meat, eggs and/or crops–some farms produce energy. Would it surprise you to learn that in 2014 (the most recent year with stats available), energy companies paid farmers a staggering $2.9 billion for the energy extracted from private farms? The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture posted a brief blurb from their Amber Waves magazine yesterday, recounting stats from a report released last November. The report, “Trends in U.S. Agriculture’s Consumption and Production of Energy: Renewable Power, Shale Energy, and Cellulosic Biomass” (full copy below) points out it’s not just oil and gas extraction that farmers receive income from. Some farmers lease their land for solar and wind generation. Some biomass. However, it was one particular chart and stat that caught our attention: About 9.6% of Pennsylvania farms received energy income in 2014. The average amount received, per farm? $157,000! Almost all of that revenue came from the Marcellus Shale…
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    Battle Begins to Get NY DEC to Approve Northern Access Project

    Déjà vu all over again? Last Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a long-delayed project–National Fuel Gas Company’s Northern Access 2016 pipeline project (see NFG’s Northern Access Pipe in NY/PA Gets FERC Approval). The $455 million project includes building 97 miles of new pipeline along a power line corridor from northwestern Pennsylvania up to Erie County, NY. The project also calls for 3 miles of new pipeline further up, in Niagara County, along with a new compressor station in the Town of Pendleton. Although FERC has now given permission to build it, the State of New York, specifically the state’s Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), must issue stream crossing permits. Sound familiar? The DEC faced a similar task with the FERC-approved Constitution Pipeline and ultimately, under political pressure from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, made the decision to refuse granting Williams the permits it needs to build the Constitution. Williams sued and sometime this spring NY will almost certainly lose the case (see Bloomberg Predicts Court Will Strip NY’s Right to Stop Constitution). We hope the DEC doesn’t repeat their tragic “Constitution” mistake with the Northern Access project. Last night, and again tonight and tomorrow night, the DEC is holding public hearings on the project in western NY. Interestingly, last night the crowd that turned up was about evenly split between those against the project, and those for it…
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    NFG’s Northern Access Pipe in NY/PA Gets FERC Approval

    NFG’s Northern Access 2016 Pipeline map – click for larger version

    National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the Buffalo-based utility giant with both a drilling subsidiary (Seneca Resources) and a midstream/pipeline subsidiary (Empire Pipeline) filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in March 2015 for a pipeline project they call Northern Access 2016 (later renamed to simply Northern Access Project, dropping the “2016” part). The $455 million project includes building 97 miles of new pipeline along a power line corridor from northwestern Pennsylvania up to Erie County, NY. The project also calls for 3 miles of new pipeline further up, in Niagara County, along with a new compressor station in the Town of Pendleton (see NFG’s Marcellus Pipeline from NWPA to NY Hits Resistence). In July 2016, FERC issued a favorable Environmental Assessment, paving the path for full approval (see NFG’s Northern Access Pipeline Gets Favorable FERC Review). NFG had hoped to have the project done and in-service by November of this year. However, due to foot-dragging by FERC, NFG recently announced the project would get delayed (see FERC Delay Pushes Back NFG’s Northern Access Pipeline Project). Perhaps that announcement was premature? On Friday, FERC approved the project and granted NFG their certificate to build it, although NFG is still saying the new/delayed schedule is the schedule they will stick to in building it…
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    300 Turn Out to Oppose Pilgrim Oil Pipe in Kingston, NY

    In November 2015, MDN told you about Pilgrim Pipeline Holdings, developing an East Coast pipeline to carry refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel, heating oil, and jet and aviation fuel northbound from Linden, New Jersey to Albany, New York (178 miles). In addition, a second Pilgrim pipeline will carry crude oil from Albany south to NJ and other locations. Two pipelines, side by side, liquids flowing through them in different directions (see Will Pilgrim Pipeline be Allowed to Settle in the NY World?). The oil that would flow south from Albany comes from trains delivering crude from the Bakken Shale play–a double evil in the sight of radical anti-fossil fuelers. So they turned up the pressure on the spineless Andrew Cuomo (see NY Antis Hope Gov. Cuomo Will Halt Pilgrim Pipeline’s Progress). The pressure worked (he’s so predictable). In September the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation and the state’s Thruway Authority, working together, informed Pilgrim they will need to submit to a detailed anal exam, called a full environmental review, before obtaining approval. Anti-fossil nutters rejoiced that the project has been slowed (gives them a chance to kill it). Even with a delay, fossil fuel haters are still worked up about the possibility that those rascally Pilgrims will slip across the continent, laying a pipeline in their wake. So, just like other oil pipeline projects, antis began invoking the sacred name of the great Dakota Access Pipeline killing gods to rain down death and destruction on the innocent Pilgrims (see Indians No Friends of the Pilgrims (as in Pipeline)). The antis continue to agitate and invoke the name of Dakota Access Pipeline, doing so at a packed session in Kingston, NY where antis spread lies about the pipeline…
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    Japanese Company Building NatGas Power Plant in (Yes) New York

    Somehow, someway, a new natural gas-fired electric plant is in the process of getting built–in anti-fracking New York State (see Orange County, NY Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant OK’d by Judge). Unfortunately it seems that part of the reason it slipped through and got an approval involved a corrupt (and very close) aide to NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo (see NY NatGas-Fired Electric Plant an Inside Job for Corrupt Cuomo Aide). We have news: a second natgas-fired electric plant is now planned in neighboring Dutchess County, NY. The 1,100 megawatt plant is majority owned by JERA Co., Inc., a Japanese company. We have the details below…
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    What Would it Look Like if Fracked Gas Stopped Flowing to NY?

    If we had a nickle for every time we’ve heard, read or written the sentiment, “If antis don’t want to extract ‘fracked gas’ anymore, why don’t they show us how it’s done”–we’d be rich! The point: without oil and gas, our modern way of life would cease. Stop. Kaput. No more. We are totally dependent on fossil fuels for our existence. Since New York Gov. Cuomo doesn’t seem to want nasty “fracked gas” coming into his state from Pennsylvania (witness his block of the Constitution Pipeline), perhaps PA and all other states sending natural gas to NY should shut the spigots off for a while. It’s fun to muse, what would happen if?… Well, we don’t have to wonder what would happen. We have a great example. In Central New York in January 1977 residents of Syracuse faced a blizzard and a shortage of natural gas. It got so bad factories, schools and other entities that use natural gas had to shut down. Here’s how it looked forty years ago in Syracuse…
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    Union Thinks Trump Will be Good for Constitution Pipeline

    Labor unions, typically big Democrat supporters, are increasingly in love with Donald J. Trump. Why? Because Trump (unlike Barack Obama) is actually pushing ahead with major infrastructure project improvements. He has a list of 50 such high-priority projects (see Hope: Atlantic Coast Pipe on Trump List of High Priority Projects). As we previously reported, Trump signed executive orders earlier this week to restart the momentum on two important pipeline projects: Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline (see Trump Signs Executives Orders to Restart DAPL, Keystone XL Pipes). Unions love it because projects like those two pipelines use union workers. Which has union workers in our neighborhood excited. Laborers’ Local 157 in Schenectady, NY believes Trump’s emphasis on pipeline projects will (hopefully) bleed over to the stalled Constitution Pipeline, a $683 million, 124-mile pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY carrying Marcellus gas. Not to douse their enthusiasm for Trump and the Constitution project, but the issue is in court and Trump won’t, according to a Constitution spokesman, be able to magically clear a way for the project to get started…
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    Anti-Fracking NY Pays to Train Soldiers to Work in Gas Industry

    This story is deliciously ironic. New York State under man-child Gov. Andrew Cuomo has refused to allow hydraulic fracturing in unconventional shale deposits, although there is still fracking in conventional wells (see After 6+ Years, Andrew Cuomo Bans Fracking in New York). Cuomo has gone so far as to try and stop important pipeline projects that will flow shale gas from Pennsylvania into New York, like the Constitution (see NY Gov. Cuomo Refuses to Grant Permits for Constitution Pipeline). So we find it ironic that state funding is now being used in Watertown, NY to offer a free six-week retraining course for active military and veterans, a course that trains them for jobs in…wait for it…the fracking industry. With backing from the New York State Regional Economic Development Council and Department of Labor, the Continuing Education Division at Jefferson Community College (JCC) and the Fort Drum Soldier for Life program are currently hosting “Natural Gas Bootcamp,” a six-week career skills training program, on the JCC campus. We can assure you there is no fracking anywhere near Watertown. The JCC will hold five such training boot camps this year. So Gov. Cuomo’s state-funded Economic Development Council is training workers who will promptly move out of state to get jobs in an industry the state bans. Brilliant…
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    Millennium Pipeline Sues Cuomo’s Corrupt DEC Over Expansion Delay

    MDN has previously reported on a $900 million natural 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 is being opposed by local anti-drilling ninny nannies, including Hollywood star James Cromwell. No matter. It’s already under construction. Unfortunately the very worthy project is marred by corruption inside the Cuomo Administration (see NY NatGas-Fired Electric Plant an Inside Job for Corrupt Cuomo Aide). However, construction continues and the plant will get built. The problem now is getting a 7.8 mile pipeline, an off-shoot pipeline from the mighty Millennium Pipeline, built to the plant to supply the natural gas it will need to run. In November the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the short pipeline (see FERC Approves Pipeline to Orange County, NY NatGas Power Plant). However, as with the Constitution Pipeline, the Cuomo Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is intentionally blocking this pipeline using delays–no doubt at Cuomo’s direction. Millennium is not, like Williams did with the Constitution, sitting on its hands waiting for the DEC. The Millennium is aggressively pushing the DEC to grant the necessary water crossing permits and has just sued the DEC to make it happen…
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    Miracle! NY DEC Approves Dominion’s New Compressor Stations

    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)…
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    NY Nuke Power Plant Closing, Blames Fracked Marcellus Gas

    Indian Point Energy Center

    The Indian Point Energy Center nuclear power plant near New York City will close down by 2021–after safely powering New York City and Westchester County for more than 40 years. Our man-child governor, Andy Cuomo, has made it one of his missions in life to screw the Indian facility (does he have something against Indians?), because, he says, it’s too close to NYC and too decrepit and dangerous. Our out-of-control Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, has been hassling the facility with legal actions. And our friends at Riverkeeper have been suing the pants off the facility for years. New York State is so “business friendly” as the advertisements say, dontcha think? Anyway, Entergy, the owner of the facility, says all of those reasons are not why the facility is closing. Instead, it was cheap fracked Marcellus gas, says Entergy, that is closing the facility. The nuke plant just can’t produce electricity as cheaply as Marcellus-powered electric plants can…
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    SWEPI Auctioning 189K PA/NY Conventional Acres, 1,500 Active Wells

    SWEPI, formerly known as Shell Western E&P Inc., is the North American land-based drilling arm of giant Royal Dutch Shell. SWEPI has an active drilling program in the Marcellus/Utica region. Some of that active program has traditionally been in shallow, or conventional (not shale) drilling. Using a broker, SWEPI has put up a mammoth 189,000 acres of its conventional/shallow leases and wells for sale by auction. The leases and some 1,500 active oil and gas wells are located in Forest, Elk, McKean, and Warren counties in Pennsylvania, and Cattaraugus County in New York. The sale includes shallow rights (not shale rights) only. SWEPI claims there are another 10,000 potential well locations. Here’s the details…
    Read More “SWEPI Auctioning 189K PA/NY Conventional Acres, 1,500 Active Wells”

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    Indians No Friends of the Pilgrims (as in Pipeline)

    In November 2015, MDN told you about Pilgrim Pipeline Holdings, developing an East Coast pipeline to carry refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel, heating oil, and jet and aviation fuel northbound from Linden, New Jersey to Albany, New York (178 miles). In addition, a second Pilgrim pipeline will carry crude oil from Albany south to NJ and other locations. Two pipelines, side by side, liquids flowing through them in different directions (see Will Pilgrim Pipeline be Allowed to Settle in the NY World?). The oil that would flow south from Albany comes from trains delivering crude from the Bakken Shale play–a double evil in the sight of radical anti-fossil fuelers. So they turned up the pressure on the spineless Andrew Cuomo (see NY Antis Hope Gov. Cuomo Will Halt Pilgrim Pipeline’s Progress). The pressure worked (he’s so predictable). In September the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation and the state’s Thruway Authority, working together, informed Pilgrim they will need to submit to a detailed anal exam, called a full environmental review, before obtaining approval. Anti-fossil nutters rejoiced that the project has been slowed (gives them a chance to kill it). But Pilgrim spun the news as a good thing–saying they welcome the full environmental review to prove the safety and righteousness of their proposal. We’ve seen that movie before–remember the Constitution Pipeline? At any rate, fossil fuel haters are still worked up about the possibility that those rascally Pilgrims will slip across the continent, laying a pipeline in their wake. So, just like other projects (see today’s story about the Sabal Trail Pipeline), antis are invoking the sacred name of the great Dakota Access Pipeline killing gods to rain down death and destruction on the innocent Pilgrims…
    Read More “Indians No Friends of the Pilgrims (as in Pipeline)”