Energy Transfer Says Mariner East 2X Online by End of 2020
It’s been a loooong road getting the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline system, which includes building two pipelines side-by-side from eastern Ohio across Pennsylvania to the Philadelphia area, done. From what we can tell, ME2 is now done–with the possible exception of a few miles where smaller pipeline is being used until a bigger replacement is done. For all intents, ME2 is done. However, ME2X, a second pipeline being built next to the first, is not yet done. But it’s getting close! According to comments from Energy Transfer (ET) made during a quarterly conference call yesterday, ME2X will be in service by the end of this year, and the entire project will be done-done sometime in 2Q21. Finally!
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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finally got its butt in gear and issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) for an amended request by PennEast Pipeline to break the project into two phases–building the pipeline through Pennsylvania in Phase One, and through New Jersey in Phase Two. FERC was supposed to issue its findings on or by July 10. Finally, after two weeks with no report, no explanation, and no communication, PennEast goosed FERC on July 24 (see 
What is it with Democrats and the urge to tax everything–even things that breathe? They have a particular fascination with taxing carbon dioxide–the building block of life and the substance every living thing breathes out with every breath. The latest Democrat who wants to tax CO2 is Pennsylvania Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, Jr. (from Pittsburgh) who introduced Senate Bill (SB) 15. Costa falsely calls it a “cap and invest” plan. In reality and normal plain English, it’s a tax plan–taxing natural gas-fired power plants.
Pennsylvania State Sen. Gene Yaw, Majority Chair of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, is hammering ICF International, a consultant hired by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). The DEP has paid $874,000 (so far) to ICF for research relating to “climate change.” ICF is providing research used by the DEP to justify Gov. Wolf’s harebrained idea to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax scheme meant to drive natgas electric plants out of existence in the state. All in the name of saving Mom Earth. Ludicrous. ICF, supposedly impartial, appears to be anything but according to Yaw.
The dirty deed is finally done. It now officially costs more for a new shale permit to drill in Pennsylvania than in any other state in the country. In Ohio, it costs drillers $5,500 to file for and receive a permit to drill a new shale well. In West Virginia, the cost is $10,150. In Pennsylvania, it used to cost drillers $5,000 for a new shale well permit. As of Saturday, the price went up 250% to $12,500.
Over a year ago, in March 2019, MDN told you about a new Williams plan to beef up the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to deliver an extra 760 MMcf/d (originally 1 billion cubic feet per day) of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland (see 
We include this story on MDN because (a) it’s Friday and sometimes we get a little giddy and have fun on Fridays, and (b) to illustrate the lengths crazies will go to reduce the amount of “fugitive methane” that “escapes” into the atmosphere. Agriculture (farm animals) produce huge amounts of fugitive methane–a fact that the climate loons grudgingly have to deal with if they want to keep up the false pretense that the planet is catastrophically warming. So every now and again the crazies come out with truly insane plans to capture, or in this case restrict, the amount of methane cows fart and burp. Penn State is all proud of itself that it has determined the optimum “dosing” of a really big antacid tablet for Bessie…
Radical environmentalists (far outside the mainstream) are making one final push to pressure the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to expand an already onerous new regulation it is planning to implement. Last December the DEP’s Environmental Quality Board (EQB) approved new regulations that supposedly will capture every last molecule of stray methane that leaks from shale drilling operations (see 
It’s time for a victory lap. Pennsylvania Republicans, with the help of some brave Democrats (and former Democrats), passed and convinced Gov. Wolf to sign a bill into law that will grant tax breaks to companies willing to build brand new petrochemical plants in the Keystone State–plants that use huge quantities of Marcellus Shale gas. Wolf signed the bill yesterday, after vetoing a similar bill earlier this year. The normally chatty Wolf press operation barely mentioned his signature on the bill.
Pennsylvania’s hard-left Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, is doubling down on the fraudulent so-called grand jury report that bashes the state’s Marcellus Shale industry. Yesterday afternoon Shapiro spoke on a webinar sponsored by leftist fringe group PennEnvironment. Shapiro once again lied about fracking chemical transparency and threatened he will indict more shale companies. Shapiro is off the reservation and out of control.
In December 2018 Williams announced a new project to increase capacity along the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) in PA by an extra 582,400 dekatherms (582 million cubic feet) per day. Williams officially filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the “Leidy South Project” in August 2019 (see 
Yesterday MDN told you the full Pennsylvania State Senate, with an overwhelming bipartisan majority, voted on and passed a bill to grant tax break incentives to huge petrochemical plants willing to build new facilities in PA–facilities that will use Marcellus Shale methane (see 
Wow! That was fast! Last week we brought you the rumor that a bill to allow incentives for petrochemical plants willing to build new facilities in Pennsylvania (generating hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of investment in the state) appears to be back on after the bill was previously vetoed by Gov. Tom Wolf earlier this year (see 
It’s time to revisit a long-festering royalty lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy and Anadarko Petroleum filed by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office. The case has been through several layers of courts and finally ended up at the PA Supreme Court last fall (see 
Last week we brought you the rumor that a bill to allow incentives for petrochemical plants willing to build new facilities in Pennsylvania (generating hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of investment in the state) appears to be back on after the bill was vetoed by Gov. Tom Wolf earlier this year (see