FERC Favorable EA for Millennium Pipeline Eastern System Upgrade
The Millennium Pipeline stretches ~244 miles from Independence in Steuben County, NY to Buena Vista in Rockland County, NY. The Millennium, which is supplied by local production and storage fields and interconnecting upstream pipelines, serves customers along its route in New York’s Southern Tier region and helps meet the energy needs of northeast markets. In August 2016, the Millennium filed an application for what it calls its Eastern System Upgrade (see Millennium Pipe Asks FERC to Approve Eastern System Upgrade in NY). The ESU would add 7.8 miles of extra looped pipeline in Orange County, upgrade a compressor station in Delaware County, build a new compressor in Sullivan County and make some minor tweaks to metering stations in Rockland County. The ESU will pump another $275 million into the New York economy with the end result of increasing the flow of natural gas for New York and beyond by fall 2018. Despite the best efforts by THE Delaware Riverkeeper to stop this (and all other) pipeline projects, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) on Friday for the project (full copy below). A favorable EA indicates the project is on track for a final approval this year. The projected in-service date is fall 2018…
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Pennsylvania State Rep. Jason Ortitay, Republican who represents of Washington and Allegheny counties in southwestern PA, last week introduced PA House Bill (HB) 1003 which would require the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to compile, organize and list all permits related to oil and gas drilling in two places: in one location in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, and on the DEP website. At first blush this seemed a bit odd to us. In the past MDN published a research report called the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook. In producing that work, MDN editor Jim Willis would regularly (3x per year) access DEP permit data–which is available from the DEP website. Granted, the information is not the easiest to find, and when you locate it, you must download it and suck it into a database to get any meaningful value out of it. However, on a basic level, permit data IS available to the public from the DEP website–right now. We read a copy of the proposed bill (see it below). MDN’s takeaway after reading the bill: This bill has more to do with “encouraging” the DEP to speed up permit approvals than it does with making information publicly available…
Positive economic signs continue to pop up with respect to Shell’s multi-billion dollar ethane cracker project in Beaver County, PA. Here’s the latest major economic impact from the project. A local developer has filed for a state grant to build a massive new housing project 2.5 miles from the cracker site. The new project calls for 450 housing units, retail space, a golf course, swimming pool and parking garage. What’s that? What happens after the cracker is built and the “temporary” workers, who would be living in this new complex for the next 5-10 years, leave? Great question! Answer: Turn it into a retirement community…
Events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus and Utica Shale, primarily pro-drilling events.
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Ethane cracker coming to TX won’t stop PTT cracker in OH; Ohio court rules royalty interests may be abandoned under DMA; pipelines are the safer way to transport; Shale Summit touts positive impacts; Cheniere’s Sabine Pass Train 3 ready; pipeline opposition is ideological, not rational; pretend conservatives for not-so-clean energy; and more!
Extremist environmental protesters who don’t want to hear any viewpoints other than their own (i.e., fascists who LOVE to suppress free speech), got a bit violent and ugly on Tuesday and shut down a meeting at Duke University (headquarters for insane environmentalism) where the Acting Chairwoman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Cheryl LaFleur, was scheduled to speak. Beyond Extreme Energy was one of the groups behind the illegal action. They have dogged FERC Commissioners for years. Perhaps some in the crowd were the same Beyond Extreme Energy lunatics that Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commissioner Rob Powelson previously called “jihadists”–because they show up at FERC Commissioners’ homes and threaten them (see 
In January the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave its final stamp of approval for Spectra Energy’s Atlantic Bridge project (see 
In March 2015, Williams announced that its Transco pipeline subsidiary had filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for its Dalton Expansion Project, which will expand the Transco and flow more Marcellus Shale gas from New Jersey all the way to Mississippi, primarily for electric generation plants, but also for local natural gas distribution by utilities (see 
Those who oppose fossil fuels try various arguments to convince the general public that extracting oil and gas is bad for the environment. They claim (without facts or proof) that drilling pollutes the water, it pollutes the air, it does permanent damage to the environment. When faced with lack of evidence, antis slip-slide into other arguments against drilling and pipelines. An undeniable benefit from the shale industry is jobs. That includes jobs building pipelines. You need an army of bulldozers, backhoes, truckers, welders and construction workers to lay a pipeline (see today’s lead story and the awesome video of the Rover Pipeline getting built in Richland County). Antis say, “But jobs building pipelines and power plants and processing plants are temporary. They’re illusory. No long-term benefit.” We’ll never forget the powerful statement given at a hearing about the proposed Constitution Pipeline from Francis Cooney, a 28-year member of the plumber and pipe-fitters union. He said this in response to the “those jobs are temporary” meme offered by antis that evening: “For 28 years every job I’ve had has been a temporary job! My temporary jobs have put two kids through Syracuse University” (see 
The nation’s electric grid is a complex system. You don’t ever think twice about–you flip a switch and the electricity flows, powering lights, appliances, etc. But ensuring the power is always there, always on when you need it, keeps a lot of people awake at night. The U.S. “grid” is actually a bunch of smaller grids. In the northeast there are several such organizations. One of them is called the PJM, a regional transmission organization (RTO) coordinating the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia (including PA, OH and WV). PJM, like other RTOs, faces challenges with ensuring there will always be enough electricity produced to meet demand. Over the past several years coal-fired electric generating plants have been closing. Natural gas, and in a much smaller sense renewables (wind and solar) have taken up the slack. Wind and solar are notoriously unreliable. The wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine. Natural gas needs pipelines to get where it’s going. There has been a concern that with coal disappearing from the generation mix, that an “over-reliance” on natgas and renewables will make electricity supplies problematic and unreliable. In an effort to address questions of reliability, PJM just completed and published a 44-page study titled, “PJM’s Evolving Resource Mix and System Reliability” (full copy below). What does the study find? Even with fewer coal plants producing electricity, PJM’s electric supplies, using more and more natgas and renewables, will be just fine…
We don’t use the word “jihadist” lightly or flippantly. A jihad is, according to Websters, “a crusade for a principle or belief.” Most of the time the media uses the term in reference to radical Muslims who perpetrate acts of terror and crime in a holy war to convert the world to Islam. We think there’s a close parallel to some (not all) extreme environmentalists. It is irrefutable that many in the environmental movement view their cause as a kind of holy war–against those they believe are harming Mom Earth. Against those who don’t or won’t “convert” to their philosophy on how best to protect the environment (i.e. dump the use of fossil fuels). Some of these extremists tip over into criminal and even terrorist activities. We saw it in the protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) project in North Dakota, when so-called protesters vandalized millions of dollars of equipment, set tires on fire, illegally blocked roads, and (one) even shot at police officers (see 
We found this story kind of funny. Apparently the word has gone out at the Trump Dept. of Energy that staffers, when preparing reports for the public, should avoid using the phrase “climate change.” Which is an asinine phrase, let’s admit it. By definition the climate changes. It changes every day and has since there’s been a climate. Anti fossil fuel zealots have tried to co-opt the phrase to mean “man-made global warming.” Because Mom Earth isn’t actually warming, it’s kind of hard to keep calling it “global warming.” So they invented the euphemism “climate change” instead. Team Trump has had enough of that kind of verbal dissembling. No more. Say what you mean and mean what you say. And so the egghead prima donnas who think they’re SO much smarter than everyone else are in full, fake outrage mode. They’re making fun of the adults in the room who have told them to straighten up and quit acting like petulant children…