FERC’s Glowing Draft Review of NEXUS Pipeline; Antis Respond
On Monday MDN brought you the great news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has given the $2 billion, 255-mile interstate NEXUS pipeline a glowing draft environmental impact statement (see Spectra’s NEXUS Pipeline Gets Favorable Draft EIS from FERC). NEXUS is a critically needed pipeline to move Utica and Marcellus Shale gas from an over-saturated market in the northeast to markets in the Midwest and Canada, via a pipeline that traverses the state of Ohio. We have now what we didn’t have on Monday–a copy of the FERC draft EIS (see a full copy below). You can’t read it and not see the meticulous detail and work that has gone into researching such a project. To falsely claim, as do anti-fossil fuel nutters, that FERC is simply a “rubber stamp” for Big Oil & Gas is not supported by documents like this one. Although the review is glowing, there is one teeny, tiny criticism/suggestion from FERC recommending an alternative route near Green, Ohio. The anti-drilling group CORNballs (our name for CORN, or COalition to Reroute Nexus), is glomming on to that tiny crack of the door and plans to drive a Mack truck through it…
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Last week MDN reported that a previously trumpeted so-called research study of air quality near fracking sites in Ohio had been retracted (see 
It’s been some time since we’ve heard anything about/from the Ashtabula Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) plant project that Velocys says it will build in Ashtabula, Ohio. As a quick tutorial for those who may not know, GTL converts natural gas, a hydrocarbon, into other hydrocarbons, like diesel fuel, gasoline, solvents and (for Ashtabula) waxes. An abundance of cheap natural gas in the Marcellus/Utica is one of the prime motivators for establishing a GTL plant in the area. But although we’ve heard plenty of talk about such plants, none of them seem to get built–including the Ashtabula plant. There has been progress on the Ashtabula project. Early in 2015 Velocys filed for a permit, which was subsequently granted (see 
This is how it works with adults, those who wear “big boy pants.” A few weeks ago the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) told Energy Transfer that their Rover pipeline, a $3.7 billion, 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada, and Columbia Pipeline that their Leach XPress pipeline, running from Marshall County, WV through Ohio to Leach, KY, that a small section where the pipelines cross must be reworked or it’s a “no go” for both projects (see 
Earlier this month MDN shared with you the news that Munroe Falls (Summit County), OH had filed yet another frivolous lawsuit against Beck Energy to prevent drilling–after already losing a similar case before the Ohio Supreme Court (see 
Relief is on the way for some Ohio landowners who want to see drilling on or under their land, but have been held up because their land border state-owned land belonging to the Ohio Dept. of Transportation (DOT). Apparently the DOT (and/or the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources, or ODNR) has been reluctant to pool or unitize land under DOT control to allow shale drilling. OH Gov. John Kasich has just signed House Bill (HB) 390 into law–a new law that gives the the ODNR 45 days to pool DOT-controlled land into units so drillers can begin drilling under it. Although the bill forces units to be issued, it allows drillers up to two years to begin their drilling after the units are issued, given the low prices in the market right now…
A few days ago MDN told you about the fruitless efforts by anti-drilling zealots in Youngstown, OH in delivering a petition for a sixth vote on a frack ban measure for the November ballot (see 
Last December MDN ripped the mask off a group of extremely partisan, virulently anti-drilling Democrats who call themselves the innocent-sounding Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative (see 
There was lots of cracker talk at the first Northeast U.S. & Canada Petrochemical Construction Conference & Exhibition in Pittsburgh yesterday. According to NGI’s ace reporter for Shale Daily, Jamison Cocklin, excitement over the Shell cracker announcement from a few weeks ago was “palpable” at yesterday’s event. There was plenty of talk about the Shell cracker–but the talk coming from the event that interests MDN is talk about both the PTT Global Chemical cracker planned for Ohio, AND the Braskem cracker planned for West Virginia. These other two world class cracker plants (similar in size and scope to Shell’s project) “remain on track.” Now that is news!…
How many times will the antis who pretend to be concerned about people’s health, but really are irrationally afraid of emitting carbon (although they do it with every breathe), demand a vote on a frack ban in Youngstown that nobody wants? So far the loons have managed to fabricate enough signatures to get a frack ban measure on the ballot five times, most recently in November 2015 (see 
Don’t worry, you stupid farmers in Belmont County, OH. A really really smart liberal from Yale University (who believes in the fairy tale of man-made global warming) has arrived in your midst and is willing to pay you big money–$20 (yes, twenty dollars)–to participate in a “study” with a pre-determined outcome that you’re being poisoned by fracking. The latest laughable “research study” by a small group of Yale “researchers” is underway in Belmont. The researchers are looking for 100 local yokels who are willing to tell them how they’ve been harmed by fracking, so the researchers can plaster the Yale name on yet another fraudulent study funded by Big Green organizations. We’ve seen this movie before. In 2014 Yale researchers released a similar study of 180 people in Washington County, PA, funded by Heinz Foundation and other Big Green funders (see 
Two major pipeline projects have just received a big red light from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), pending changes to their plans. Energy Transfer’s Rover pipeline, a $3.7 billion, 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada, along with Columbia Pipeline’s Leach XPress, running from Marshall County, WV through Ohio to Leach, KY, got word from FERC that a small section where the pipelines cross must be reworked or it’s a “no go” for both projects…
On Monday MDN brought you the latest quarterly production numbers for the Ohio Utica Shale, direct from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (see