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    Delco Antis Threaten Lawsuits to Stop ME2 Pipeline

    Even though a companion story today reveals that a local school district in Middletown Township, PA (near Philadelphia) is completely satisfied that the Mariner East 2 pipeline is safe (see Delco School “Extraordinarily Satisfied” with ME2 Pipeline Safety), there are still a few hardened anti-fossil fuelers in Middletown who refuse to consider reason. They are keeping up a losing battle against ME2. Their latest approach is to pressure (i.e. bully) town officials to unilaterally reject the pipeline through their jurisdiction based on town zoning codes about setbacks–the distance from the pipeline to surrounding structures. Like two other towns with similar codes (Thornbury and West Goshen), the antis in Middletown are threatening to (surpise!) sue if the town doesn’t do what they (the antis) selfishly demand by rejecting the pipeline…
    Read More “Delco Antis Threaten Lawsuits to Stop ME2 Pipeline”

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    Expensive Nuke Plants in OH, PA Launch Attack on Cheaper NatGas

    Nuclear power plants, which are heavily regulated, can no longer compete in the free and open market–so they’ve decided to seek new laws to protect their revenue stream. That is, they hope to use laws to do what they can’t do in the free marketplace–force electric ratepayers to fund their more expensive source of electricity, and erect barriers for natural gas-fired electric plants (i.e. “re-regulation” of the electric industry). It’s sleazy and disgusting, but it’s happening. The nuke lobby has been successful in places where there’s corruption–like New York and Illinois. Now the nuke lobby is trying it in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Will they fall next?…
    Read More “Expensive Nuke Plants in OH, PA Launch Attack on Cheaper NatGas”

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    Dominion Widens Its Economic Competitive Advantage, i.e. “Moat”

    Last July we were introduced to the concept of a “wide economic moat” (see Marcellus Shale Gives Dominion Unstoppable Competitive Advantage). What is it? According to Investopedia, a wide economic moat is, “A type of sustainable competitive advantage that a business possesses that makes it difficult for rivals to wear down its market share and profit. The term is derived from the water filled moats that surrounded medieval castles.” Makes sense. We call it being so far ahead of the pack no one else can catch up. Last July, a Morningstar analyst wrote about Dominion’s wide economic moat. The reason for that moat? “[N]otably the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Cove Point LNG facility.” That is, because of the Marcellus Shale. The Morninstar analyst is back, writing more about Dominion’s wide moat getting wider. Why? Certainly the Marcellus/Utica remains front and center. But the analyst also says Dominion’s purchase of Questar, with a pipeline network in the West, is helping too…
    Read More “Dominion Widens Its Economic Competitive Advantage, i.e. “Moat””

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    Interior Sec. Zinke Fumbles the Bumble – Endangered Listing for Bee

    As MDN has previously chronicled, on September 22, 2016 the rogue U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) published a proposed rule to list the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) as “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The rusty patched bumble bee is found in the Midwest and eastern parts of the U.S. If it gets listed, it will have SIGNIFICANT impacts on drillers and midstreamers (see “Endangered” Bumble Bee May Slow/Stop O&G Projects in Northeast). With just a few days left in Obama’s reign of terror, the Obama-influenced USFWS pulled the trigger and listed it (see USFWS Pulls the Trigger and Lists Bumble Bee as Endangered). But then a white knight rode in to town to (temporarily) save the day. The Trump Administration signed an order delaying the listing until March 21 (see Trump Administration Delays Listing Bumble Bee as Endangered). With the clock ticking, the oil and gas industry, along with farmers and others negatively affected by the listing, asked newly-minted Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to delay the listing until next year, to give everyone time to figure how they’re going to comply with this newest inanity from USFWS. There is no clear-cut guidance on avoiding the bee’s nesting areas and habitat–a huge loophole through which drilling’s enemies will drive a Mack truck (powered by cooking oil, of course). But then Zinke fumbled and dropped the ball. The listing has gone forward and is now in force. Was this because Zinke was new on the job and still surrounded by Obamadroids? Was it because Zinke has one foot in the Washington Establishment? Who knows?! One thing is for sure, the lowly bumblebee may accomplish what bats and lawsuits could not–slowing down and stopping drilling and pipeline work in the northeast…
    Read More “Interior Sec. Zinke Fumbles the Bumble – Endangered Listing for Bee”

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    IMG Midstream: Army of Tiny PA Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants

    MDN first told you about IMG Midstream in August 2014 (see 7 Small Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants Coming to NEPA). At the time, IMG was proposing to build seven “tiny” natural gas-fired electric plants–each plant producing on the order of 20-22 megawatts of electricity (enough to power 13,000 homes). IMG added a couple of more to their plans in November 2014 (see Details on IMG’s “Tiny” Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants in NEPA). The beauty of IMG’s tiny natgas electric plants is that they are really small–about the size of a basketball court; they produce almost no air pollution; and they are quiet. It’s a really cool concept. IMG’s very first tiny electric plant, in Susquehanna County, PA, went online in October 2015. The second plant, in Bradford County, PA, went online this past June (see IMG’s Tiny NatGas-Fired Electric Plants Take Off in the Marcellus). The former 9 planned plants ballooned with plans for 25 plants operating within the next five years! We spotted a recent article about IMG’s activities in southwestern PA and that got us to thinking. How are they doing with their plan to build 25 plants? So far, they’ve built 11 and are on the prowl for more locations. We have the latest update on IMG and their startegy of zigging (building small power plants) when everyone else is zagging (building large plants)…
    Read More “IMG Midstream: Army of Tiny PA Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants”

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    Are We Building Too Many NatGas-Fired Electric Plants?

    MDN has been highlighting Marcellus/Utica gas-fired electric plant projects from some time. Our lead story today is about IMG Midstream’s “tiny” power plants–a contrarian strategy of building small rather than large. We cover these projects because (a) they use a lot of natural gas, and therefore are an important new market/demand for our oversupply of natural gas here in the northeast, and (b) each of these projects results in millions (sometimes billions) of dollars of new investment in local communities where they get built. Electric generating plants are a feel good, good news story. However, we have to ask the question, Are we now overbuilding new power plants? On the surface it seems ludicrous to even ask the question. “Everyone knows” that coal generating plants are closing down and something (typically natgas) has to replace all of that generating capacity that’s closing down, right? Not so fast. The electricity market is complex. The market where most of the plants we cover are getting built is in the PJM grid, which covers all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. Natural gas and coal are not the only two choices to generate power. In fact, did you know that the #1 power generating source in PA is nuclear? An article from Bloomberg discusses a “glut of supply” in PJM which has led to prices falling throughout the region. So once again, are we building too many electric plants too fast? Will there be enough demand for all of the electricity we generate from new natgas-fired plants?…
    Read More “Are We Building Too Many NatGas-Fired Electric Plants?”

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    PA Independent Fiscal Office: Wolf Severance Tax Highest in U.S.

    Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) provides revenue projections for use in the state budget process along with impartial and timely analysis of fiscal, economic and budgetary issues to assist Commonwealth residents and the General Assembly in their evaluation of policy decisions. It’s only been around since 2010 and in the past we’ve wondered if it’s populated with liberal Democrats that don’t hew to the state mission of being objective in their analysis. However, our confidence in the organization has grown over the past year or so. Recent IPO predictions about Marcellus Shale impact fee revenues have been pretty accurate (see PA Independent Fiscal Office Predicts Impact Fee Revenue for 2016). And the IPO’s assessment of PA Gov. Wolf’s proposed severance tax last year was not flattering (see IFO: PA Gov. Wolf Proposes Highest Severance Tax in Nation). The IFO is back with another look at Wolf’s proposed budget, including his insistence on including a so-called 6.5% severance tax. The IFO points out in real terms, Wolf’s proposal is actually a 9% severance tax–the highest in the country! The IFO also points out a fact that few Democrats will admit in public–most of the tax will be paid by landowners (coming out of their royalty checks), and consumers using the natural gas extracted. The IFO says it’s a known fact that companies pass along taxes in higher costs to their customers (and in deductions from royalties). So while some poor, demented fools think they’re “soaking big, filthy, rich oil companies” and “making them pay their fair share” by implementing a severance tax, just the opposite happens. The little guy gets screwed. What ends of up happening is that money is taken from one little guy’s pocket and given to another little guy. It’s a con game, a shell game, and it’s time to put an end to it…
    Read More “PA Independent Fiscal Office: Wolf Severance Tax Highest in U.S.”

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    Virginia DEQ Plans to Give 2 Pipeline Projects Detailed Exam

    The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announced yesterday that it would require water quality certifications under Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act for each segment of both the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project (Dominion) and the Mountain Valley Pipeline project (EQT & NextEra Energy). Apparently the DEQ considered using the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit 12 process–a less rigorous review (saves about half a forest of trees in paper). But in the end, the DEQ said they were caving to political pressure from anti groups (our words), and instead put Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley on notice to get ready for a detailed exam. It will be painful. However, it’s not anything either company isn’t already used to/hasn’t done before. We wouldn’t say “it’s no big deal,” but neither is this a show stopper. The more relevant question: Is the DEQ ready to review the blizzard of paperwork that will come at them, IN A TIMELY MANNER? The real question is whether or not the DEQ is equipped to conduct the extensive review they’ve now demanded, and what happens if they can’t?…
    Read More “Virginia DEQ Plans to Give 2 Pipeline Projects Detailed Exam”

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    Bipartisan Support from WV, VA, NC for Atlantic Coast Pipeline

    In what has to be a major blow to the morale of anti-pipeline crusaders in West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina, the top elected state officials in the legislatures of all three states, both Republicans AND Democrats (16 of them in all), sent a letter on Tuesday to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting FERC approve the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. Dominion wants to build a $5 billion, 594-mile natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina. The leaders of all three state legislators have told FERC, we want this pipeline, we NEED this pipeline, please approve it. Today is the last day FERC will receive public comments on the project. Here’s who signed, along with a copy of the letter sent to FERC…
    Read More “Bipartisan Support from WV, VA, NC for Atlantic Coast Pipeline”

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    PennEast Files for Water Crossing Permits in NJ – Antis All Atwitter

    Today is, hopefully, a joyous day for the PennEast Pipeline. Today is the day that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is supposed to, after three delays, issue the project a final Environmental Impact Statement. If/when that final EIS is issued, the only step remaining, from the federal perspective, is a certification of the project. Typically a favorable final EIS is the big step, and the certification then is perfunctory–a given. We have to confess we are on pins and needles because the project has now been delayed three times, a red flag in our book (see FERC Delays PennEast Pipe 3rd Time, PennEast Spins as ‘Good News’). However, anticipating a favorable final EIS, PennEast applied with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for a Freshwater Wetlands Impact Permit. For some reason, the act of filing for that permit before receiving the final FERC EIA has anti-fossil fuelers in an outrage. They claim PennEast has jumped the gun, that they are behaving like the project is “inevitable” (which it is, by the way). Arrogant. And how dare these evil, filthy, fossil fuel-polluting companies DARE do something they (anti-fossil fuel nutters) don’t want them to do? That’s the “moral” outrage we’re seeing in New Jersey’s far-left “media” reporting on it. For us, it’s a routine application for a permit. For them, it’s the end of their contrived, perfect, snowflake world…
    Read More “PennEast Files for Water Crossing Permits in NJ – Antis All Atwitter”

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    New Analysis Shows Johns Hopkins Asthma “Study” was Junk Science

    Last July anti-frackers at the Johns Hopkins-Bloomberg School of Public Health expelled another bought-and-paid-for (by anti-drillers) “study” that implies the presence of fracking in Pennsylvania leads to causing, or making worse, asthma attacks (see Sham “Study” from Johns Hopkins Says Fracking Makes Athsma Worse). The study, “Association Between Unconventional Natural Gas Development in the Marcellus Shale and Asthma Exacerbations,” evaluated thousands of health records from the Geisinger Clinic in PA, looking for patterns between people showing up with asthmatic symptoms and correlating it to how close they live to shale wells being drilled. As we pointed out at the time, “The incredible thing about this latest run at smearing the miracle of fracking is this: the authors (most of them students) admit in their own study they only have theories, no proof that ties fracking to asthma.” At the time, Energy in Depth noted it seemed a bit odd that the researchers didn’t include a county by county comparison, to illustrate how asthma got worse in counties with drilling as opposed to those without. Now we know why. EID has done its own analysis, using PA Dept. of Health data, that shows asthma episodes in counties with the most shale drilling went DOWN, not up! Which blows the door right off the Johns Hopkins “study”…
    Read More “New Analysis Shows Johns Hopkins Asthma “Study” was Junk Science”

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    “Keep it in the Ground” Policies Would be a Disaster – New Study

    Let’s play “What if?” What if we followed the advice of the kooks who tell us to “keep it in the ground”–by which they mean we should immediately stop all extraction of fossil fuels–oil, gas, coal, etc. We’re told by the enviro left that renewables are here and ready now to take over the job of providing all of our energy needs. So what would REALLY happen if we stopped using all fossil fuels? The American Petroleum Institute commissioned a study of just that scenario. They released the study two days. Titled “The Impacts of Restricting Fossil Fuel Energy Production” (full copy below), the report reads like apocalyptic book of Revelation in the Bible. What would happen if there were no new private, state, or federal oil and natural gas leases; a complete ban on hydraulic fracturing; no new coal mines or expansion of existing mines; and no new energy infrastructure including pipelines? The U.S. economy would lose 5.9 million jobs. Our gross domestic product (GDP) would lose $11.8 trillion. Your household’s annual energy bill would jump by $4,552, per year! Crude oil prices would jump $40 per barrel, back to the bad old days of $100/barrel prices. (As an aside, because renewables really can’t take over the role of fossil fuels, we would become completely dependent on enemy countries in the Middle East for our oil.) Natural gas would jump from $3/Mcf to $21/Mcf. And your electric bill will go up by 56%. And that’s just for starters…
    Read More ““Keep it in the Ground” Policies Would be a Disaster – New Study”

  • Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Apr 7, 2017

    The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Why PA energy industry has not time to waste; cracker generating excitement in Beaver County; small ND town looks to create virtual natgas pipeline; ExxonKnew campaign tries to pedal more fake news; Cheniere will take all the gas it can get; why did frack sand stocks tumble in March; LNG suppliers propose flat rate pricing; and more!
    Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Apr 7, 2017”

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    Help Wanted: 15,000 Workers Needed for Rover Pipeline, STAT!

    [4/7/17 UPDATE: Since publishing this post, MDN has been flooded with calls and emails asking, “Where do I apply for a Rover job?” After reaching out to Rover numerous times, what we have learned is that Rover is using contractors, and union labor. There is no HR office at Rover to accept job applications. Job seekers must either find a job with a local contractor already working with Rover, or by heading down to the local union hall to see if they can help. MDN plans to publish another article next week with more details and strategies on finding a Rover Pipeline job. Stay tuned.]

    Some really big news coming from the Utica Upstream conference held Wednesday at Walsh University (in North Canton, OH). As we previously reported, Rover Pipeline got permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to begin construction on March 3rd (see FERC Green Lights Rover Pipeline Construction). And construction began, immediately. A local TV station recently did a flyover of one area where construction is happening, and the video is an awesome sight (see Video of Rover Pipeline’s Massive & Complex Construction in OH). Operating all of those bulldozers and backhoes, driving trucks, shoveling dirt, moving material from Point A to Point B–takes people. A LOT of people. So far Rover has hired 4,500 workers–but they need 15,000! And they need them NOW, as soon as possible, stat. What happens if they don’t get enough workers? They won’t make their deadline of completing the first phase of the Rover project by July 1st. What stands in the way of hiring another 10,000+ workers? In a word, drugs. Rover can’t find enough warm bodies who can pass a drug test, which is a sad commentary on society today…
    Read More “Help Wanted: 15,000 Workers Needed for Rover Pipeline, STAT!”

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    WV Force Pooling Lite Goes Down in Flames – Lawmakers Blame Pot

    We find this news somewhat surprising. The West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) has been pushing hard to get legislation passed in WV’s short legislative session on an issue we call “forced pooling lite”–WV Senate Bill 576 which addresses the issues of co-tenancy and joint development (see Analysis of New WV Bill SB 576 re Co-Tenancy & Joint Development). WVONGA pulled out all the stops. They organized a bus-in rally at the Capital where nearly 1,000 people showed up to support the legislation (see WVONGA Delivers ~1,000 at Rally to Support Co-Tenancy, Joint Dev.). It most certainly had an impact. The legislation passed the Senate last week and headed to the House (see WV’s “Forced Pooling Lite” Bill Passes Senate, Heads to House). We thought there was no way in Hades this bill would not pass and pass quickly. But then it hit a brick wall. Or should we say, it hit a “pot” wall. Word has leaked out that there isn’t enough time left in the current session to consider the bill because the House has spent so much time “dealing with the cannabis legislation.” That is, talking about pot smoking in the Mountain State. For medical purposes, of course (wink, wink, nod, nod). There’s been so much talk about pot smoking, forced pooling lite got lost in the fog. Could it still pass, at a later date?…
    Read More “WV Force Pooling Lite Goes Down in Flames – Lawmakers Blame Pot”