Williams Pre-Pre-Files for Southeast Supply Enhancement Project
Last November, MDN brought you the news that pipeline giant Williams had given the green light to proceed with a new Transco pipeline expansion project called the Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (see Transco Expansion to Add 1.4 Bcf/d Capacity to Flow M-U Gas South). The project was estimated to flow an extra 1.43 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) of Marcellus/Utica molecules southward along the Transco pipeline system, delivering those molecules to states in the southern U.S. Since last November, Williams has upped the capacity to 1.587 Bcf/d (essentially from 1.4 to 1.6). Here’s the new news: On Feb. 1, Williams filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to open a pre-filing review. In essence, Williams pre-pre-filed, giving us lots of new details about the project.
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Yesterday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled a whopping $48.3 billion budget that threatens to bankrupt the state. Among the line items in Shapiro’s bizarre spending plan is a $1.1 billion increase in funding for K-12 public schools, and just $10 million to help the state’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) try to fix its broken permitting system. Yes, the DEP gets an extra $10 million, which amounts to 0.0002 (or two one-hundredths) of the overall budget, to help fix the broken permitting system. Meanwhile, teachers’ unions (who voted for Shapiro) get a bribe of an extra $1.1 billion (0.0227 or 2.3%) of the bloated budget.
Duke Energy is a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., and is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Last summer, Duke announced plans to build a new gas-fired power plant in Person County, NC. The company recently announced it wants to double it — build a second big gas-fired plant at the same location (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: EPA’s new methane rule blocks environmental progress in PA; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Trade assoc. data shows Texas O&G employs almost 500,000 people; NATIONAL: We are having the wrong debate about Biden’s decision on LNG; INTERNATIONAL: Oil rises as traders weigh Red Sea risks against Fedspeak; Venezuela oil industry fears losing ground if USA revives sanctions; GlobalData says North America leads long term LNG deals; AMLO goes against fracking in constitutional reforms; Dryad says Red Sea threat has significantly escalated; Sweden closes investigation into Nord Stream pipeline blasts.
Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw recently announced the introduction of legislation to repeal the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax enacted through an executive order by the Wolf Administration in 2019. RGGI, a multi-state compact, would increase electricity rates for PA consumers, cut energy and manufacturing jobs, and lead to the closure of Pennsylvania power plants. It would be an unmitigated disaster for the Marcellus industry. PA Republican Senators sued to block the measure and won in Commonwealth Court. Current Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro then appealed the lawsuit to the PA Supreme Court, where it still sits (see 
Last November, Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG), a company that invests in non-operated oil and gas assets (they let others do the drilling), announced a deal to enter the Utica Shale (see 
TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, is a huge pipeline company headquartered in Canada. TC owns and operates the Columbia Gas Transmission and Columbia Gulf Transmission pipeline systems in the Marcellus/Utica region. Yesterday, TC announced that it plans to move its regional headquarters from Kanawha City (a neighborhood in Charleston, WV) to downtown Charleston and build a new $60 million building in the process. TC said the existing 110,000-square-foot former CASCI building will be demolished and replaced with a new building, with construction expected to be complete in 2025 and employees moving in by 2026.
The pressure on Joe Biden to renounce his so-called pause on approving new LNG export projects is growing white-hot intense. On Friday, Jan. 26, Biden announced he has put “a temporary pause on pending decisions of Liquefied Natural Gas exports” (see 
There is a mountain of controversy over Biden’s pause on approving new LNG export permits to non-free-trade countries (see our story today, Intense Pressure on Biden from All Sides to End LNG Approval Pause). Even though the Dept. of Energy (DOE) has said it will not issue any new export permits for the next year for the 17 projects currently in the pipeline that have requested such permits (while it conducts a so-called review), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will likely continue to work on those projects.
In late 2015, MPLX (i.e., Marathon Petroleum) bought out and merged in the Utica Shale’s premier midstream company, MarkWest Energy, for $15 billion (see 
In January, MDN told you about a long-closed landfill that seeks to reopen in Liberty and Pine Townships, in Mercer County, PA (see 
On Friday, MDN told you that several New York Democrat legislators were introducing a new bill to ban the use of carbon dioxide (CO2) in any process to extract natural gas or oil in the Empire State (see 
Last Thursday, members of the Pennsylvania Senate, including PA State Sen. Gene Yaw, and members of the Ohio General Assembly met in Columbus for a hearing on energy reliability, sustainability, and affordability. The hearing consisted of two panels, one focused on state and national energy impacts and another on consumer and generational impacts. PJM, the organization that manages the mid-Atlantic power grid consisting of 13 states and the District of Columbia, testified. Indeed, the main thrust of the meeting seemed to be how to keep the growing PJM grid from crashing into blackouts because of an overreliance on unreliable renewables like solar and wind.