CPV Marcellus-Fired Power Plant in Cambria Now Under Construction
An important construction update for the CPV Fairview Energy Center in Cambria County, PA.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pennsylvania | Pike County | Regulation | Tennessee Gas Pipeline | Wayne County
FERC Rejects Riverkeeper Rehearing Request for TGP Orion Project
A year after Delaware Riverkeeper filed a request for a rehearing of an approval for the Orion Project, FERC rejected it.
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PA DEP Says $2.5M Will Fix Chronic Drilling Permit Delays
What will it finally take to fix the chronically slow shale permit approval times in PA? Just $2.5 million.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA
FERC Tolling Order Counters Big Green Attempt to Stop PennEast
FERC once again had had to employ a “tolling order” to beat back efforts to stop an important pipeline project…
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PA DEP “Streamlines” Stream Crossing Permit Used by Pipelines
The Pennsylvania DEP is launching revamped forms drillers and pipeliners fill out for stream crossing permit requests…
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Beaver County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Shell
Shell Tries to Calm Troubled Ambridge Water Authority re Pipeline
Shell wants to build a 97-mile ethane pipeline to feed the mighty $6 billion cracker plant its building in Beaver County, PA. Shell chose not use eminent domain but instead negotiated with (paid big bucks for) rights of way along the pipeline’s path. Earlier this month additional details came out about the proposed project when the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) published an application from Shell for stream crossing permits. When the details became known, the Ambridge Water Authority (in Beaver County), an organization that oversees a reservoir that provides drinking water for ~30,000 people, expressed “strong opposition” to the route of the pipeline (see Ambridge Water Authority Strongly Opposes Shell Ethane Pipe Route). But wait. Didn’t Ambridge know the route back in October 2017, when Shell first filed an application for the project? Yes they did. However, the stream crossing permit application reveals details either not in, or not obvious, in the original application–details that the pipeline will go under three streams that feed the Ambridge reservoir. That got the board up in arms. In a statement, the Water Authority said, “we will do everything in our power to try and have the pipeline relocated outside of our watershed and away from our main, and only, raw water line.” Tuesday night the Authority held a regularly scheduled meeting. Shell sent along several officials to talk with members of the board, to try and calm the troubled waters at Ambridge, so to speak. Did it work? Not really…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Lehigh County | Pennsylvania | Regulation
Last In-Person DRBC Frack Ban Circus Held in Lehigh Valley
In September, MDN told you that the obsequious members of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) had slavishly obeyed their radical environmental masters by voting to move forward with a permanent ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin (see DRBC Votes Tomorrow on Permanent Frack Ban Resolution). The final ban language/regulation was dropped like a bomb by DRBC staff on Nov. 30 (see DRBC Drops Permanent Frack Ban Bomb – Public Hearings in January). The DRBC announced they would allow public comment, via written communication, through Feb. 28. They also planned four public hearings (i.e. freak shows) to allow antis the opportunity to parade before the microphones and make jerks of themselves (we’ve seen it many times). Antis said three months wasn’t enough time to crank up the form letter machine nor is it enough freak show opportunities, so the DRBC caved (yet again) to the only constituency they listen to: anti-drillers. The DRBC subsequently announced they would extend the public comment period from Feb. 28 to Mar. 30 and add another two freak show public hearings to the roster (see DRBC Schedules More Freak Shows on Proposed Frack Ban Regulation). Yesterday the final in-person session was held in the Lehigh Valley, at Lehigh Carbon Community College. What’s that? The Lehigh Valley isn’t actually IN the Delaware River Basin? You think that actually matters? The purpose was to locate the session somewhere that’s solidly against fracking. Yesterday’s session didn’t disappoint. Grab the peanuts and popcorn…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics
Time to Go on Offense and Sue PA Big Green Groups
Yesterday MDN brought you the news that THE Delaware Riverkeeper and several residents from West Goshen, PA (in Chester County, near Philadelphia) had lost a court appeal that would have stopped Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 pipeline in the town due to a violation of a local zoning ordinance (see PA Town Loses Appeal to Block ME2 Pipe with Local Zoning Ordinance). Our coverage of that story was from the perspective that local town ordinances do not trump state oil and gas regulations. Which is true. However, MDN friend Tom Shepstone, writing on his always-excellent Natural Gas Now website, had a slightly different take on the importance of the lawsuit. There is a deeper, more insidious strategy at play by Riverkeeper that Tom picked up on in this lawsuit. He does a masterful job of exposing that strategy (using the PA Environmental Rights Amendment) in his post, which we reproduce below. Which is interesting, and everyone needs to be aware of what’s happening. However, it was Tom’s final solution/admonition that had us standing up and cheering. Tom concludes (as MDN has been advocating for years) that it’s time to take the fight to the opposition. Their strategy of endless, frivolous lawsuits is having a negative effect on our industry. It’s time we litigate them in return–and expose their fraudulent use of our tax system to shield their overt political activities. It’s time to sue them…
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Shell Gives “Transformational” $1M Gift to Pa. Community College
Shell Chemicals this week announced the donation of a $1 million gift to the Community College of Beaver County (CCBC). The gift will benefit the school’s process technology program and will be used to construct a new Shell Center for Process Technology Education building. CCBC President Chris Reber called it a “transformational gift” and an “extraordinary investment.” The gift will ultimately help train students to work for Shell and other companies that will benefit from Shell’s ethane cracker plant (being built in Beaver County). This isn’t the first huge gift for the process technology program at CCBC. In December, the Allegheny Foundation donated $1 million toward the first phase of the program’s expansion. Shell’s donation will fund the second phase. Aside from the big $1M announcement, Shell also awarded $2,500 (each) scholarships to 13 students in the CCBC process technology program. Shell has really stepped up to the plate in SWPA. They are investing in local talent and local institutions…
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Chester County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics
PA Town Loses Appeal to Block ME2 Pipe with Local Zoning Ordinance
Yesterday MDN brought you news that Uwchlan Township (Chester County, PA) has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop construction of the Mariner East 2 Pipeline (ME2) through portions of the town, claiming the pipeline violates a town ordinance for “setbacks”–how far the pipeline is located from buildings and other structures (see PA Town Sues Sunoco for ME2 Pipe Construction “Too Close” to Homes). As we said yesterday, while residents in Uwchlan may have legitimate concerns, they are trying to handle those concerns illegitimately–by claiming local ordinances have power over state regulations. It’s the other way around. State regulations trump local ordinances in cases like ME2. Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court agrees. Uwchlan isn’t the only town to try this approach. Two towns away in Chester County is West Goshen. We won’t bore you with the details, but suffice it to say West Goshen has tried a number of regulatory and legal actions to block ME2 in the town. One of those actions was a lawsuit brought by the anti-drilling, anti-pipeline THE Delaware Riverkeeper (Maya van Rossum). Riverkeeper, on behalf of a couple of town residents, took Sunoco to court to block ME2 on the basis that it violates a local zoning ordinance. Yesterday Commonwealth Court rejected that claim and reaffirmed what everyone (who knows and obeys the rule of law) knows: State regulations trump local ordinances. The misguided officials in Uwchlan have said they “will evaluate [their] enforcement action in coming days, in light of the Commonwealth Court ruling.” Indeed. If Uwchlan pushes forward with their case, it will be to certain defeat–a total waste of taxpayer money…
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Beaver County | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines
Energy Transfer Wants to Build New Compressor Station in SWPA
New Sewickley Township (Beaver County), PA In June 2015, MDN reported on an important new project in the Marcellus/Utica being built by Energy Transfer Partners (see ETP Announces $1.5B Revolution Pipeline/Plant Project in SWPA). The project, dubbed the Revolution Project, includes a 100-mile gathering pipeline system in Butler County, PA (lots of wet gas to move), along with a new cryogenic gas processing plant to be constructed “in western Pennsylvania”–which we later discovered is in Washington County, PA. The original plan was to have the cryogenic processing plant (in Washington County) up and running by 2Q17. That didn’t happen. We spotted a story from September last year which said it was due to go online “later this year”–meaning by the end of 2017. Is it online now? We don’t know/couldn’t find out. Possibly. What we do know is that the cryogenic plant will separate the wet gas into methane and NGLs, and that the NGLs will hitch a ride on the Mariner East 2 Pipeline all the way to Marcus Hook. That’s the plan. The pipeline itself that gathers and sends wet gas to the cryogenic processing plant has one compressor station to compress the gas and send it on its way. However, Energy Transfer wants to build a second compressor station to assist. And they want to build it now, as in right now, before summer, in New Sewickley Township (Beaver County)…
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PA’s Uneven Tax Treatment of Marcellus Industry vs. Amazon HQ2
What if a private company wanted to locate in a state, bringing with it 243,000 direct and spin-off jobs with an average salary of $93,000? And what if that company invested billions of dollars in the state economy? No doubt the state (and local municipalities) would offer up plenty of incentives to ensure they get the business. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia (and the State of Pennsylvania) are doing just that–offering up all sorts of incentives to attract Amazon to build its HQ2 project in the Keystone State–a project that promises a huge investment and thousands of employees. However, Amazon’s HQ2 will not employ 243,000 people and inject billions–not anywhere close. But there is an industry that is ALREADY doing exactly what we’ve outlined in the opening sentence. The Marcellus Shale industry has created 243,000 direct and indirect jobs (with an average salary of $93K per year) and has already pumped billions of dollars into the economy. And yet the State of PA and places like Pittsburgh and Philly are, in many ways, fighting against the industry! They don’t offer tax breaks, instead they offer new tax increases! What’s going on here? Why does PA treat Jeff Bezos and Amazon one way, and the Marcellus industry another? Why does PA pick “winners” and “losers” economically? That’s the important topic of a column we recently spotted by Lowman Henry, chairman and CEO of the Lincoln Institute…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Shell | Statewide PA
PA DEP Caves to Pressure, Extends Comment Period for Shell Pipeline
Once again, in what appears to be a pattern, the Pennsylvania State Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is caving to pressure from virulent anti-fossil fuelers. This time in regard to Shell’s proposed Falcon Ethane Pipeline project. Shell is working on an ethane “pipeline system” with two “legs” to feed the mighty cracker plant being built in Monaca, Beaver County (see Shell Working on 94-Mile Ethane Pipeline to Feed PA Cracker). Last October Shell filed an application with the PA DEP for the PA portions of the pipeline, some 60 miles of the total system (see Shell Files PA Application for Ethane Pipe to Feed Cracker Plant). The DEP advertised an official comment period for the project on Jan. 20, giving interested parties until Feb. 20 to file their comments–an entire month (see PA DEP Invites Public Comment on Shell 60-Mile Ethane Pipeline). However, one month isn’t enough time for anti-drillers to marshal the faithful to try and sink the project. FracTracker Alliance, an anti-fossil fuel organization, colluded with other groups to put the word out to flood the DEP with demands to keep the comment period open. The DEP folded, like a flimsy house of cards, and has now extended the comment period to April 17th along with three public hearings (circus freak shows), which will give the FracTracker faithful time to mount publicity and legal offensives to try and stop the project. If the pipeline doesn’t happen, work at the cracker plant stops. Which, of course, isn’t going to happen. But it illustrates the true aim of FracTracker and other virulent (way, way, WAY outside the mainstream) anti-fossil fuel groups…
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Chester County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Sunoco Logistics
PA Town Sues Sunoco for ME2 Pipe Construction “Too Close” to Homes
We understand why folks in Uwchlan Township (Chester County, PA) may be upset with Sunoco Logistics and the Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline that’s crossing through their area. Last summer drilling work for the pipeline in Uwchlan created cloudy well water for some residents (see ME2 Pipe Work in Chester County Creates Water Well Issue for Some). The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently allowed Sunoco to resume work in the township (and elsewhere)–after Sunoco paid a $12.6 million fine (see PA DEP Allows ME2 Underground Drilling to Resume in Chester County). So yeah, residents have some concerns. However, they’re going about venting their frustration in the wrong way. Last week supervisors in Uwchlan Township voted unanimously to enforce an ordinance that requires pipelines like ME2 to be set back 1,000 feet from buildings. In some cases, ME2 is being built within 100 feet of buildings. While we appreciate Uwchlan’s concerns, the simple fact is, local municipal ordinances DO NOT override state regulations. In this case, it is the state DEP and Public Utility Commission that regulate the project. It is state law that trumps local ordinances–as it should be. By all means, wheel and deal and pressure and try to get Sunoco to change the route–but you cannot take the law into your own hands, which is exactly what Uwchlan is attempting to do…
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Williams 17/18 Update: Full Atlantic Sunrise Startup Slightly Delayed
Last week Williams, the largest pipeline/midstream company operating in the Marcellus/Utica region, released its fourth quarter and full year 2017 update. While the company lost $342 million in 4Q17 due to “non-cash charges related to Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017,” the company made a profit of $871 million for the year, up 100% from making $431 million in 2016. The company brought five big projects online in 2017–Gulf Trace, Hillabee Phase 1, Dalton, New York Bay and Virginia Southside II–which added an extra 2.8 billion cubic feet per day of capacity and led to record-breaking volumes of gas flowing along the Transco pipeline (see Williams Marcellus Buildout Leads to Record Transco Pipe Volumes). However, it was the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project that stole most of the limelight in last week’s update. Atlantic Sunrise is a $3 billion, 198-mile pipeline project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from northeastern PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County, PA. The pipeline will be ready in July, on schedule. However, an associated compressor station will take “a few months longer” than July, meaning the pipeline won’t be online until early fall sometime (not on schedule). Below is last week’s Williams update, a copy of the latest PowerPoint presentation, and excerpts from the analyst phone call…2/22/18 Update: Our original thought was that with a delay in the compressor station starting up, the entire pipeline would be delayed in starting up. Not true! We reached out to Williams for an explanation for how the pipeline could stay on schedule without the compressor going online initially. We got this statement back: “The gas that is placed into the system by producers enters the pipeline at very high pressures. In addition, we have existing Transco compression near the terminus of the line that is pulling the gas through the line. This push/pull dynamic is what allows gas to flow through the pipe prior to the full commissioning of the project’s compression.” So there you have it. While the full startup will be slightly delayed, the pipeline will still flow much of the volume intended–on schedule in July.
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Frac Sand Barge Facility Near Pittsburgh Gets $638K Grant to Expand
McKees Rocks barge facility While we don’t (yet) have hard numbers for how many shale wells were drilled in the Marcellus/Utica in 2017 versus 2016 and 2015, we’re pretty sure the 2017 number went up–a lot. Why do we think so? Because frac sand use went through the roof in 2017. Yes, drillers are using more sand to frack each well, so the numbers could reflect drilling the same number of wells using more sand–but we don’t think that explains it all. Not this much sand. McKees Rocks Industrial Enterprises operates a barge/transloading facility on the Ohio River in McKees Rocks (Allegheny County), PA. Jim Lind, operator of the facility, says sand shipments soared 200% in 2017 over previous years. Put another way, sand shipments doubled–at just this one facility! Sand is barged in to the facility from the Midwest, then loaded onto trucks and rail cars for delivery to Marcellus/Utica well sites throughout the region. Business is good. The barge facility needs to expand. Pennsylvania recognizes the facility’s value to the shale industry, so the state has just made a $638,015 grant to allow McKees Rocks to handle more barges at the same time at the 100-acre facility. That’s good for the Marcellus/Utica, and it’s good for the regional Pittsburgh economy…
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