Big Green Fires Warning Shot at NY Gov. Hochul re Gas Pipelines
Big Green is NOT happy with the prospect that New York Governor Kathy Hochul is rumored to have “caved” and traded approvals for two natural gas pipelines—the Constitution and Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE)—in return for building a $5 billion boondoggle wind farm off the coast of Long Island. As we reported today in a related post (Williams Files Request Asking FERC to Reissue NESE Cert in NY, NJ), Hochul did cave and agreed to allow these two pipeline projects, provided they meet federal and state requirements. Prior to the news breaking (via the New York Times and other outlets), Big Green, comprising Food & Water Watch, the NRDC, NYPIRG, Frack Action, and Catskill Mountainkeeper, issued a joint press release warning Hochul that she should not allow these pipelines…or else. Read More “Big Green Fires Warning Shot at NY Gov. Hochul re Gas Pipelines”
In February, MDN told you about a proposed new bill in Ohio, House Bill (HB) 15, which makes significant changes to state energy policy to encourage the development of more in-state electric generation by making it easier (and more cost-effective) to build gas-fired power (see 
Electricity bills across Pennsylvania (and elsewhere in the PJM grid) are due to increase on June 1, when utilities reset a portion of their charges to reflect the current cost of energy. The increases reflect the rising cost of power on the regional transmission grid. Electric grids are complex to understand, but at their core, the grid manager (in this case, PJM) coordinates the flow of electricity within the grid and operates a wholesale power market where utilities purchase the electricity they deliver to their customers. Wholesale electric prices have spiked, and now utilities need to pass along those costs to ratepayers (don’t be mad at the local utility). The question is, why have wholesale electric prices spiked? Is someone (is PJM) at fault? 
Did you know that there are eight LNG export terminals currently in operation in the U.S. with a combined export capacity of 14.43 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d)? There are another eight LNG projects currently approved and under construction with a combined additional capacity of 17.43 Bcf/d. That’s right, all of the facilities under construction will more than double our current LNG exporting capacity! In addition to all of that, there are another 12 facilities approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) but not yet under construction. If they were to be built, add another massive 17.65 Bcf/d. Astonishing! We have maps with the names, locations,m and capacities for all LNG export facilities either in operation or planned. 
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal agencies conducting environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) must consider only the direct effects of a project rather than its broader impacts. The 8-0 ruling (highly unusual for a unanimous decision) follows years of lower courts demanding broader consideration of the effects of projects like LNG export terminals and energy-moving projects, such as rail lines and pipelines, to account for the climate effects of fossil fuels that move through them and will later be burned. 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Appalachian natural gas production climbs while Northeast demand stagnates; Our natural gas advantage built by rural hands; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: New York’s monstrous new wind farm threatens environmental disaster; Japanese utility set to sign LNG supply deal from U.S. Lake Charles project; NextDecade announces LNG deal with JERA from Rio Grande LNG Train 5; NATIONAL: Chevron exec says data center gas plans “moving very quickly”; Energy Secretary Chris Wright argues climate change isn’t a crisis; Why many are likely to soon be caught very natural gas short; Biden may not have known about detrimental climate policies of his administration; INTERNATIONAL: New study to measure real-world hydrogen emissions; Oil falls on weak US data and OPEC output fears. 
The effort by the Trump administration to build both the Constitution Pipeline and the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) Project continues to pick up steam. Just yesterday, we told you that there was a public disagreement between the White House and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul regarding whether she agreed to a quid pro quo deal to allow the two pipelines in return for restarting an offshore windmill project (see 
Rover Pipeline, a 713-mile natural gas pipeline, was designed to carry up to 3.25 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of Marcellus and Utica gas from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio to destinations in Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, and Canada. The project was completed and came online in late 2018 (see 
In 2021, PennEnergy Resources made a request to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to withdraw up to 3 million gallons of water a day from Big Sewickley Creek (Beaver County) and one of its tributaries for shale fracking (see 
We need a scorecard to keep track of all the ups and downs at the problem-plagued Freeport LNG export facility, located near Galveston, Texas. We don’t think it’s a stretch to say the plant, which is the third-largest LNG export plant in the U.S., has been down almost as much as it has been up since first coming online in 2019 (
Big Green, particularly the New Jersey chapter of the odious Sierra Club, persists in trying to convince the general public that unreliable renewables (solar and wind) are less expensive than alternatives like natural gas. That’s simply a lie (see 
One of the significant stories of 2024 in the Ohio Utica was about Austin Master Services (AMS), a radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry, Ohio, that handles fracking waste by transporting it for disposal. AMS ran into trouble when it ran out of money. The Martins Ferry facility in Belmont County, where waste is temporarily stored, had exceeded its permitted maximum of 600 tons of stored waste, resulting in a violation of its permit. The Ohio Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuit against the company in March 2024 to force compliance and to force the cleanup of the facility. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) stepped in to do the cleanup work. As of today, cleaning and testing are done. 
We’ve got a “he said, she said” situation between President Donald Trump and New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Last week MDN brought you the news that, following several conversations over the previous weekend between Trump and Hochul, that the President had agreed to allow New York to restart a $5 billion windmill project off the coast of Long Island, in return for allowing two pipeline projects to get built in the state, one of them the long-stalled Constitution Pipeline (see 
Columbia Gas Transmission LLC won its bid for a quick win against Ohio landowners in Hocking County, Ohio, who claimed the company breached certain agreements when deciding to plug a gas well. A federal judge granted summary judgment to Columbia because the landowners failed to show how the company didn’t follow its responsibilities outlined in the relevant lease. We have a copy of the full decision and a summary of it below.