Panda Power! New NatGas Electric Plant Planned for CT
Those willy pandas are on the prowl again. In August 2013, Moxie Energy of Vienna, VA sold the permits/rights to build a new Marcellus gas-powered electric generating plant in Bradford County, PA to Panda Power Funds of Dallas, TX (see Moxie Liberty Sells PA Electric Plant Project to Panda Power). The project was renamed from Moxie Liberty to Panda Liberty. A few months later, in December 2013, Moxie sold a second Marcellus-gas fired electric plant project to Panda, this one slated to be built in Lycoming County, PA (see Panda Power Buys Rights for 2nd Marcellus-Fueled Electric Plant). That project was renamed from Moxie Patriot to Panda Patriot. In June, Panda began operations at both plants (see Panda Power’s 2 PA Marcellus-Fired Electric Plants Complete!). With those two projects in hand, it’s time to look for new opportunities. Panda has found one–in Connecticut. Panda is proposing to build a 550-megawatt plant powered by natural gas in Litchfield County, near Danbury, CT…
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We’ve kept an eye on several LNG export projects along the Eastern shore of Canada (most of them in Nova Scotia) for some time. Why? Because they’re a huge potential market for Marcellus and Utica Shale gas. One of those projects, in Nova Scotia, is the Goldboro LNG project from Pieridae Energy. In February, the U.S. Dept. of Energy approved the plant for exporting to non-free trade agreement counties, back in February (see 
Marathon Petroleum, which purchased midstream company MarkWest Energy last year, continues to grow and expand–because of the Utica Shale. Marathon operates a refinery in Canton, OH that processes crude oil. Question: Did you know that 25% of the crude oil being processed at the Marathon refinery comes from the Utica Shale? No, we didn’t know that either! Marathon has made some big bets on the Utica. In fact, over the past two years, they’ve bet more than $1 billion on the Utica…
This is so unusual, it qualifies as news: Supervisors in Buffalo Township (Butler County), PA have approved a new compressor station to be built by Mountain Gathering–a subsidiary of XTO Energy. The reason it’s news is for how the approval process was handled. Town residents who live near where the station will be built understandably had some concerns. Those concerns were aired. Town officials visited other compressor stations built by Mountain Gathering. They had XTO officials in to answer questions. There was no bleating and blatting, no parading in front of cameras and microphones, no “die-ins” and radical protests. Just deliberative, calm, adult discussions. And at the end of it, the supervisors voted to grant permission for the compressor station to get built. Unusual!…
In September the Ohio Supreme Court finally ruled on a series of cases involving the state’s Dormant Mineral Act, or DMA (see 
We have, as long as we’ve been writing the MDN website, warned that the federal Environmental Protection Agency, particularly under B.H. Obama, is an out-of-control, lawless, aggressive cancer on the country. The EPA has repeatedly attempted to UNCONSTITUTIONALLY control oil and gas drilling–something only state governments have the right to regulate. The EPA has repeatedly sought to influence (i.e. control) o&g development via other means–like expanding the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and Waters of the United States (WOTUS). The latest evidence of EPA’s illegal overreach comes with EPA’s bullying of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). EPA is telling FERC to get its head screwed on straight with respect to an approval for two Marcellus/Utica projects–Leach Xpress and Rayne Xpress Expansion projects. EPA says FERC is ignoring mythological man-made global warming bullcrap in their review of the projects, and EPA is demanding a meeting with the top brass at FERC to bully them into submission…
When lunatic man-made global warming Kool-Aid drinkers feel like they’re being ignored, some of them tip over into criminal behavior in a bid to get noticed. It’s not just criminal, it’s terrorism. Terrorists were arrested Tuesday when they cut padlocks and chains at five remote flow stations (four different states) and shut down five oil pipelines coming from Canada into the United States. The terrorists turned off the valves at those stations–creating a dangerous situation. It was a direct attack against the United States and our energy infrastructure–yet it’s being treated (in the media) as, “Look at these devilish imps and what they did, aren’t they cute?” There’s nothing cute about it. The stated reason for the terrorist action is to oppose the “catastrophe of global warming.” Anti-fossil fuel madness has fully metastasized in their rather small brains…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Utica rigs drop by 3; Equitable Gas looks to expand beyond natgas delivery; NJ locals to weigh in on proposed compressor station; Driftwood LNG seeks DOE export permit; Cheniere gets permit to start LNG exports from second train; the insufferable Josh Fox humiliates himself in Britain; US to dominate global natgas markets; and more!
At last year’s Utica Summit III event held in Stark, OH, Tom Gellrich of consulting firm TopLine Analytics, a company that “closely follows ethane markets,” said he thinks the first ethane cracker to get built will be the Shell cracker plant in Beaver County, PA. He was right. Shell announced their official decision to move forward earlier this year. At that same event Gellrich said he thinks the Marcellus/Utica region will see three, possibly four, ethane crackers built (see 
In January, Invenergy announced their intention to build a natgas-powered electric plant in Elizabeth Township, in Allegheny County (see 
We hate to say “I told you so,” but we’ll say it anyway. If you live in New England, prepare yourself. You’re about to experience more price shocks for natural gas and electricity (4x more than the rest of the country, or higher). Why? Because you’re blocking new pipeline projects that would bring cheap, abundant, clean-burning natural gas to the region. The Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale sits a few hundred miles away–yet very little Marcellus gas is flowing to New England at this point. New England, more than any other region in the country, relies on natgas to power electric generating plants. Without extra supplies, especially in the winter months when natgas gets used for heating, electric generators are forced to pay obscenely high rates to stay in operation. Those obscenely high rates get passed along to ratepayers–businesses AND residences. Yet anti-fossil fuel wackos continue to try and stop new pipelines, sometimes criminally (see 
Yesterday MDN ran a story reporting that a landowner rebellion against post-production cost deductions from royalties is spreading beyond just Bradford County in northeastern Pennsylvania–to counties in southwestern PA (see 
Last Friday MDN reported that none other than the man-made global warmists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a research report admitting that cows and rice farms are the real cause of an increase in global methane emissions–NOT shale drilling (see 
Even the anti-fossil fuel Barack Hussein Obama can’t ignore the fact that natural gas saved his pathetic administration’s rear-end over the past eight years. Without shale gas, the economy would be further in the crapper than it is now. Last week the White House National Economic Council released a report titled “Revitalizing American Manufacturing” (full copy below) to commemorate Manufacturing Day. The report finds the U.S. economy added some 800,000 manufacturing jobs since 2010–largely due to the shale revolution and cheap natural gas…