In FERC’s Game of Musical Chairs, NEXUS Pipeline Left Standing
When reporting on the flurry of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approvals from last Friday, before Commissioner Norman Bay resigned in a huff over losing the chairmanship of the agency (and leaving the Commission with only two Commissioners, not enough to vote on more projects), we noticed there was one major Marcellus/Utica pipeline project that didn’t receive a final approval: the NEXUS Pipeline project. NEXUS is a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. It is a critically needed pipeline to move Utica and Marcellus Shale gas from an over-saturated market in the northeast to markets in the Midwest and Canada. It is a joint venture between DTE Energy and Spectra Energy. In December FERC issued a positive final Environmental Impact Statement (see FERC Approves NEXUS Pipeline, Project on Track for 2017). The only thing left is for FERC to issue a certificate of public convenience and necessity, to begin construction. That didn’t happen on Friday, which means the project is now delayed until at least one more FERC Commissioner is nominated and approved by the U.S. Senate so the Commission regains a voting quorum. In a sense, FERC could only rush through so many projects at the last minute, and in a game of musical chairs, the music stopped and NEXUS was left standing–without a chair. Is lack of a FERC decision last week an indicator that the project is in trouble? What happens now?…
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A bright and enterprising graduate student at Penn State University cooked up an interesting research project for her graduate thesis. With all this talk about “fracked gas” having boatloads of radon in it, would using such radon-laden gas as the source fuel for a gas-fired electric plant pose a risk to those who live near it? In particular, could the gas-fired plants on Penn State’s own campus be posing a danger to students, faculty and staff that live and work on campus? Alison Stidworthy, a former graduate student in the Department of Meteorology at Penn State (and now employed as a site manager for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection), led the research effort, which was the topic of her master’s degree thesis (copy below). What did Alison find? High levels of radon do not leak from the plants and pose no health issues to those living and working nearby. Which makes perfect sense. How do you get rid of radon in your basement when it’s present? You vent it to the outside, where it quickly dissipates and becomes inert. Alison, along with several of her professors, recently published her work as a study in the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association...
Midstream and utility giant Dominion has ~26,400 megawatts of power generation, 14,600 miles of natural gas transmission/gathering/storage pipelines, and some 6,600 miles of electric-transmission lines. They are “a producer and transporter of energy.” Dominion, whose official name (on paper) is Dominion Resources, Inc., has decided to change its name. The new name will be Dominion Energy, Inc. Why? “In recognition of its focus on the evolving energy marketplace and to unify its brand following last year’s merger with Questar Corporation.” In addition to a new name comes (of course) a new logo…
We’ve caught a fair bit of criticism (kind, but firm criticism) from MDN subscribers about our views that global warming (a) doesn’t exist, and (b) if it does exist to any small degree, it’s certainly not something being caused by mankind and not something we can influence, even if we tried. Believing such things marks us as being radical, fringe, kooks, for many. Perhaps you’ll now reconsider. You might think if someone inside the epicenter of global warming science–the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were to announce to the world he has evidence that other scientists at the agency had faked data to support the theory of man-made global warming, it would be the lead article in every newspaper and the lead story on every newscast. Such a thing has just happened–a whistle-blower has stepped forward. Unfortunately our country is plagued with fake/manufactured news–CNN, The New York Times, Washington Post, ABC/NBC/CBS, etc. Not a single so-called mainstream news source has or will run the story that Dr. John Bates, the recently retired principal scientist at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, has admitted that others in the agency rushed the numbers and published unverified data in what is known as the Karl study, which was used “to discredit the notion of a global warming hiatus and rush to time the publication of the paper to influence national and international deliberations on climate policy.” The Karl study was released to influence world leaders ahead of the Paris Climate Agreement last year. Once again, scientists with a left-leaning political agenda have been caught, red-handed, faking the numbers–and our media is SILENT…
Did you watch the Superbowl on Sunday? What’s that? You didn’t?! Admission: We did not watch. We decided to “take a knee” this year and skip the Superbowl. You know, take a knee–like loser Colin Kaepernick, backup quarterback for the San Franciso 49ers. Every time he plays in a game he kneels when the National Anthem is played–in an act of obscene disrespect for our country. The NFL needs to get its house in order and we won’t watch until it takes care of papered jerks like Kaepernick. At any rate, we’re guessing a great many MDN readers did, in fact, watch (we won’t hold it against you). If you watched, you may have seen a 30-second commercial from the American Petroleum Institute called Power Past Impossible–an effort to highlight how natural gas and oil provide enormous value to Americans’ everyday lives. If you didn’t see it, or want to watch it again, we have it below…
You know those sleazebag companies that sell their products to two opposing sides in a war–just to make a buck? Here’s a new twist on it. How about a sleazebag with a lot of money to invest who funds anti-fossil fuel groups (by paying protesters to destabilize our country), and at the same time invests money in the very fossil fuel companies whose projects the protesters are protesting? Such a loathsome creature has a name: George Soros…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Cabot stocks pop following FERC announcements; Laurel Pipeline reversal to undergo judicial review; Texas to see more Marcellus/Utica gas heading south; Velocys launches first Fischer-Tropsch GTL plant; onshore rig count to double by next year; offshore driller still in the doldrums; US shale drilling picks up; and more!
Titan Energy, which used to be known as Atlas Energy/Resource Partners, is today listing what appears to be the rest of the acreage they still own on the Appalachian basin–some 494,229 acres–including rights for drilling in the Marcellus/Utica. An astonishing 100% of the acreage is HBP, or held by production–meaning there are working or drilled wells. Not all of it is shale-related. We suspect a good portion of the acreage is conventional (vertical only). However, there is a significant number of acres where Marcellus/Utica drilling can be done that the sale should pique the interest of competitors. The acreage is being offered in seven states: New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. In addition to rights in the Marcellus/Utica, rights are also available in the Upper Devonian, New Albany and Chattanooga shale plays. Here is the low down on the acreage sale, along with a reminder of who Titan (nee Atlas) is, and why this is an important sale…
Looks to us like Donald Trump’s faith in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur was well-placed. As we previously noted, Trump has put LaFluer in charge of the agency as Chairman, which caused the existing Chairman of FERC, Norm Bay, to resign in a huff (see 
In December the Bureau of Land Management proceeded with an online auction for BLM-controlled land in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (see