PennEast Celebrates Lawsuit Dismissal, Takes Swipe @ Riverkeeper
As we reported yesterday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed a year ago by THE Delaware Riverkeeper against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see Fed Judge Dismisses Dela. Riverkeeper Lawsuit Against FERC). The lawsuit aimed to shut down the entire agency by defunding it (see THE Delaware Riverkeeper Sues FERC, Tries to Close it Down). The lawsuit claimed FERC can’t objectively make decisions about projects like the Penn East Pipeline (running from the Wilkes-Barre area to New Jersey) because FERC derives some of its operating revenue from the projects it either approves or does not approve. In other words, Delaware Riverkeeper tried to shut down a national agency because they object to a single pipeline project. Liberal U.S. District Justice Tanya Chutkan found Riverkeeper’s arguments lacking, to say the least. It took a day, but PennEast released their own statement about Riverkeeper’s lawsuit going down in flames. It is an interesting response from PennEast and continues a trend in what we’ve previously noticed: PennEast has (finally) taken the gloves off and is pushing back hard against enviro-jihadists like Riverkeeper…
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Ryan Regec owns 78 acres in Schuylkill County, PA (eastern part of the state). He plans to subdivide the property into smaller properties and sell the building lots–but the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline is coming through a portion of the property, and Mr. Regec says that means he can’t subdivide and sell it the way he planned. Regec has, in the past, allowed surveyors from Atlantic Sunrise on his property–but recently has refused. Atlantic Sunrise (i.e. Williams) took him to court to force access to complete their surveys, and Williams just won. A judge for the U.S. Middle District Court in PA issued an order allowing Atlantic Sunrise access. A spokesman for the pipeline says the pipeline will only cut through a small portion of Mr. Regec’s 78 acres. Regec claims his subdivision plans will be destroyed. Who’s right?…
MDN friend Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGANY), recently wrote and sent a letter to President Trump. It’s a great letter. He highlights the plight of NY’s diminishing oil and gas industry and identifies the reason for it–Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his ban on fracking. Brad asks President Trump to “help restore” the o&g industry in NY. The implication is that Trump can restore it by restoring our Constitution right to frack. Will Team Trump listen and help? Below is a copy of Brad’s letter, and our concluding thoughts…
Last year an elaborate midstream drama unfolded before our very eyes. Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) pushed and prodded and poked and cajoled and insisted, and finally with the help of an inside corporate raider, forced Williams to agree to a buyout/merger (see 
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: 7 permits issued last week in OH Utica; PA gov’s mixed signals on shale gas; US shale drillers leaving thousands of oil wells unfinished; State Dept. to approve Keystone XL pipeline; Chesapeake Energy’s liquidity matters; Trump plans to reverse Obama climate change policy; China’s LNG imports on the rise; and more!
[NOTE: In the original version of this post, MDN incorrectly referred to the name as Center Point Terminal. It is, in fact, Center Port Terminal. Sorry!] One of MDN’s sharp subscribers emailed us with an exciting tip. On March 27 a public meeting will be held in Woodsfield, Ohio (Monroe County) about building a 485 megawatt gas-fired power plant–to be built on twenty acres of the 200 acre former Ormet site, now known as Center Port Terminal. That much we have been able to confirm. Our tipster also speculated this new power plant may be used to provide electricity to an ethane cracker. We have not, so far, been able to verify the cracker rumor. Here is what we do, and don’t, know about this new power plant project coming in Monroe County…
It took a whole year, but a federal court has just thrown out a frivolous lawsuit filed by Maya van Rossum, THE Delaware Riverkeeper, which attempted to defund the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Last year MDN reported on the lawsuit filed by Maya and company–a lawsuit which aimed to shut down the entire agency by defunding it (see 
MDN has previously highlighted the importance of last year’s Ohio Supreme Court decision with regard to the Ohio Dormant Mineral Act (DMA). In September 2016 the OH Supreme Court ruled in three DMA cases, saying all of the other cases come under those three (see 
New Jersey’s reliably lefty Democrat U.S. Senators, Cory Booker and Robert Menendez, played to their fringe, unhinged base of eco-nut supporters by sending a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission claiming the PennEast Pipeline project, due to run through a small portion of NJ, “may” cause problems with arsenic–as in releasing the toxic substance into drinking water supplies from digging trenches and erosion. It is a flat out, bogus, BS claim–and they know it. But they were put up to the letter-writing task by some of their Big Green donors, including ReThink Energy NJ and New Jersey Conservation Foundation. It’s nothing new that campaign contributions (i.e. bribes) buy you access. PennEast has responded that the issue has already been addressed in their application with FERC–there is a plan to monitor and protect against any potential disturbance of the ground that would cause arsenic levels to increase. That’s what responsible adults do. They respond in an adult-like, responsible manner. Unlike the other side…
In September 2012 EV Energy Partners/EnerVest put 539,000 Ohio Utica Shale acres on the auction block. It didn’t sell. In 2013 they announced they would begin selling sections piecemeal, a strategy that has netted a few sales since then (see 
Feed me, feed me! Let’s be honest. Aubrey McClendon (God rest his soul) almost bankrupted Chesapeake Energy. The company’s stock price took a nose dive when the price of oil and natural gas went over a cliff. Aubrey had the company leveraged to the eyeballs and it teetered on the edge of bankruptcy until last year, when CEO Doug “the ax” Lawler claimed the company was out of the woods. We won’t recount our disdain for how Aubrey was ejected from the company he founded (by evil corporate raider Carl Ichan). After leaving Chesapeake, Aubrey started a new company–American Energy Partners (AEP). That company, AEP, set up a number of subsidiary companies to target different shale plays. One of the largest was aimed squarely at the Ohio Utica. That company later left the AEP fold (under pressure from investors) and became an independent company, renaming itself as Ascent Resources. However, Ascent, just like pappa Aubrey, went on a money-raising binge. In March 2016 Ascent floated 2.2 billion common units (think shares of stock) to raise $500 million (see 
In January 2016, the Obama Dept. of Interior posted a new rule that will make it all but impossible for oil and gas drillers to drill on federal lands (see 
Back in January MDN reported that Denise Brinley, a special assistant to the Secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development, spilled the beans on an upcoming report PA had commissioned. Brinley said the report would be released “in the coming weeks” and it would show that Pennsylvania can easily handle another two ethane cracker plants (aside from the already under construction Shell cracker), and that Ohio or West Virginia could also handle another two cracker plants (see