Monday evening the Mariner East 2 pipeline was down for routine maintenance at a pump station in Chester County, PA (near Philadelphia). When workers relit a pilot in a flare used to burn off excess gases, there apparently was some accumulated gas in the flare stack and it ignited, creating a loud boom. Nobody was injured, there was no danger. Yet that incident is now being labeled an “explosion” by anti-fossil fuel activists and their sycophants in the press.
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Category: Pennsylvania
PA Playbook for Closed Coal Plant Sites: Replace w/NatGas, Petchem
Pennsylvania state officials in the Gov. Tom Wolf administration (yes, lib Dem Tom Wolf) are drawing up plans, a “playbook,” for how to redevelop the increasing number of coal-fired electric generating plants that are closing in the state. Most of those plans boil down to this: redevelop those sites as natural gas-fired electric plants and/or petrochemical plants. Both are tied directly to PA’s prolific Marcellus Shale. Who knew there was such common sense inside the Wolf Administration?
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DC Court Upholds FERC Authority in Approving Atlantic Sunrise Pipe
In March 2017, radical green groups, including the Sierra Club, Lancaster Against Pipelines, Lebanon Pipeline Awareness, Allegheny Defense Project, Clean Air Council, Concerned Citizens of Lebanon County, and Heartwood, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in an attempt to block construction of the $3 billion Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project in Pennsylvania (see Radical Green Groups File Fed Court Case to Stop Atlantic Sunrise).
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Opposition Begins to Williams PA Leidy South Compressor Station
Last Friday MDN told you that Williams has just filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the “Leidy South Project” to expand Transco capacity in Pennsylvania (see Williams Files Leidy South Project with FERC to Expand PA Transco). The project includes building two new compressor stations. Residents who live near the proposed site for one of the two, in Schuylkill County, are opposed to the plan.
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“Study” Says PA Fracking Makes Pregnant Women Depressed
Another so-called “study” has appeared bashing Pennsylvania Marcellus fracking. This one is co-authored by a global warming Kool Aid drinker affiliated with the Post Carbon Institute, making the claim pregnant women in Pennsylvania have a 4% higher chance of becoming anxious and/or depressed if they live near fracking activities. How these people are not laughed out of any room they walk into is beyond us.
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Williams Files Leidy South Project with FERC to Expand PA Transco
Last December MDN brought you news of a new Transco pipeline expansion project, the Williams “Leidy South Project,” to expand Transco capacity in Pennsylvania (see Williams Unveils “Leidy South Project” to Expand Transco in PA). The good news is that Williams has just officially filed a full application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build Leidy South.
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PA Gov Magically Finds $ to Fix Philly Schools w/o Severance Tax
In March, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf traveled to an elementary school in South Philadelphia with the message that only a severance tax on Marcellus Shale production stands in the way of cleaning up lead paint problems that are poisoning the little kiddies at the school (see Gov. Wolf’s Campaign of Lies re Severance Tax Continues in Philly). We were, rightly, incensed. If children are being poisoned by lead paint in Philly schools, find the money somewhere and fix the problem–NOW. It seems we weren’t the only ones thinking that way. Wolf has magically found $4.3 million to fix the problem…without a severance tax.
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Tenaska’s Westmoreland Gas-Fired Plant – Generating Power & Money
We love happy endings, and this story has one. Despite claims by anti-fossil fuelers that the Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station in southwestern PA would spread disease and death if it got built, it’s been up and running since last December–producing power and generating money for both its builders and the community–and everyone is just fine. Cue the Pete Seeger song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” and replace “Flowers” with “Antis”…
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New Study Claims PA Fracking Stops Hikers from Having Good Time
Yet another cockamamie “study” (i.e. propaganda) about the negatives of fracking–this one done by the University of New Hampshire claiming a few hikers and outdoor enthusiasts in Pennsylvania will have to find someplace else to hike and enthuse…because of evil Marcellus fracking. The thing that really angers us is that Pennsylvania taxpayers paid for this “study”!
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Steel Nation CEO Pushes Back on Post-Gazette Cancer Stories
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues to get a lot of negative reaction to its grossly irresponsible series of stories attempting to connect shale drilling to several cases of childhood cancer in southwestern Pennsylvania (see Response to Pittsburgh Newspaper Smear Campaign re Child Cancer). The founder and CEO of Steel Nation, a company deeply involved in the Marcellus/Utica shale industry, is the latest to push back against the Post-Gazette‘s irresponsible series.
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CNX Drills Longest Marcellus Well EVER – Big Budget Cuts in 2020
CNX Resources, formerly the CNX Gas division of CONSOL Energy, released its second quarter update yesterday. The big news is that during 2Q CNX drilled the longest new Marcellus well ever…at 19,609 feet! The company reports production jumped 10%, from 123 Bcfe last year to 135 Bcfe in 2Q19, and net income jumped 216% from $61 million last year to $193 million in 2Q19.
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Philly Anti Pushes to Make Pipe Info Public that Terrorists Can Use
The actions of one man seeking access to confidential risk assessments and plans for the Mariner East pipelines in the Philadelphia area will, if successful, put information into the public domain that terrorists can potentially use. Note we don’t believe it is the intent of this man to grant access to sensitive information to terrorists. But that is the consequence, the outcome, the result of his actions–if a court now reviewing the case grants his request.
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Cabot: Spending Up (Some) in 2019, Spending Down (Big) in 2020
Cabot Oil & Gas is the only Marcellus/Utica driller that is profitable quarter after quarter and year after year. So the market pays attention to what Cabot does, because they’ve figured out how to make money in a low commodity price environment. Last Friday Cabot released second quarter numbers. CEO Dan Dinges talked about the balance of 2019 and even a bit about what to expect in 2020.
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DEP Permits for NWPA FM100 Pipeline – Marcellus Gas to Transco
In March we told you about National Fuel Gas Company’s (NFG) FM100 Project in northwestern Pennsylvania that will beef up and extend an existing pipeline network to flow an extra 330 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of Marcellus gas to Williams’ mighty Transco Pipeline (see NFG FM100 Pipe Project in NW PA to Feed Marcellus Gas to Transco). The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) published notices in last weekend’s PA Bulletin of their intent to issue permits for the project.
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New Infrastructure Training Academy Coming to Western PA
The Energy Innovation Center Inc. and Armstrong County Industrial Development Council (in western Pennsylvania) have formed a joint venture to launch the Critical Infrastructure Workforce Academy™ (CIWA). Located at Northpointe, an 800-acre business park in Freeport, CIWA will give students a 20-acre “classroom” to learn how to install, operate and maintain critical infrastructure–like natural gas pipelines.
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Rig Counts Heading Down in Most Shale Plays – What About M-U?
It’s hard to miss the stories in oil and gas (even national) media: Company after company, in particular oilfield services companies, are predicting a big slowdown in drilling during the second half of 2019. Over the past few days OFS companies including Schlumberger, Halliburton, Patterson-UTI, Superior Energy Services, Helmerich & Payne, and RPC have all predicted a coming decline (crash?) in drilling in the near future. What about the Marcellus/Utica region? Does the coming slowdown affect us too?
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