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PA & TX Congressmen Tour Philly’s Marcus Hook NGL Facility
U.S. Congressman Dan Meuser (PA-09) joined Congressman Troy Nehls (TX-22) for a roundtable discussion and tour of Energy Transfer’s Marcus Hook facility near Philadelphia last week. Marcus Hook is where the mighty Mariner East pipeline system terminates. Mariner East flows natural gas liquids (NGLs), including ethane, propane, and butane, to the Marcus Hook refinery, where a fractionator separates them into their respective hydrocarbon streams. The various NGLs are then (mostly) loaded onto ships and exported. The entire system–the pipeline and the refinery–is a marvel. Meuser and Nehls were there to learn more about it.
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New research released by The Buckeye Institute models the impact that a new Clean Power Plan–which the Biden Administration is attempting to revive through the regulatory process–would have on jobs, the economy, and customers. In “The Economic Impact of a Potential New Clean Power Plan on Ohio and California” (full copy below), researchers with Buckeye’s Economic Research Center (ERC), using power usage data from government agencies in Ohio and California, found that customers in Ohio would see an increase of $810 on their electric bills per year and that customers in California would see an increase of $665 annually.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: California utilities propose charging customers based on income; California’s cautionary clean energy; NATIONAL: A new slew of EPA air rules add to Biden’s contradictory policies; INTERNATIONAL: IEA still predicts record oil demand in 2023.
The same three radicalized environmental groups that have repeatedly attacked the $1.1 billion Renovo Energy Center (REC), a Marcellus gas-fired power plant planned for Clinton County, PA, have finally won. The Clean Air Council, PennFuture, and the Center for Biological Diversity (all completely radicalized fossil fuel bigots) have repeatedly challenged permits for REC. Last week the builder of the project, Bechtel Corp., announced it is pulling out of the project which has been in the planning stages for eight years. The reason for canceling the project is because of “the ongoing appeals from environmental groups.” What a tragedy.
Last November, one of the ten natural gas storage wells at the Equitrans Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County (in Pennsylvania) began to leak. The well ended up leaking roughly 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of gas into the atmosphere (see 
Newly-elected Gov. Josh Shapiro, who (we must say) has appeared to be completely ineffective since taking office (which is not necessarily a bad thing), appointed a working group to help guide him on what he should do with respect to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax and the broader issue of global warming. The panel is super-secret. Only two people who belong to the working group have been named, the two co-chairs: one from the radicalized National Resources Defense Council and one from a PA state labor union.
Plastics come from oil and natural gas. You knew that, right? Without plastics, modern life would be 
Diversified Energy (formerly Diversified Gas & Oil), with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (other regions too), owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with 65,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. Last week the company issued its fourth annual ESG report, titled “Decarbonizing While Delivering” (full copy below). Across its 10-state operations, Diversified added more than $1 billion in GDP to various state economies, supported more than 8,600 direct and indirect jobs, and generated $500 million in federal, state, and local revenues. On the environmental front, Diversified Energy reduced methane intensity by 20% overall and by more than 30% in the Marcellus/Utica.
Natural gas pipelines use both gas- and electric-powered compressor units. In fact, around 10% of pipeline compressor stations are powered by electricity. Electrically-powered compressor stations on natural gas transmission pipelines have been identified as a possible contributor to gas shortages because they are vulnerable to electric outages during severe weather events. It turns into a vicious cycle. Lack of electricity to the compressor means flows along the pipeline slow or stop, starving power plants of the gas they need to produce electricity. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) recently published an article (study) suggesting possible solutions to fix the issue.
Yesterday the 303-mile, 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline project received a Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement from the U.S. Forest Service, clearing the way for the pipeline to get built through a piddly 3.5 miles of Jefferson National Forest. Ring the bells! Dance for joy! Blow the party noisemakers, right? Wrong. This is the third time this same permit has been issued. Nobody was impressed. We only found a single news story about it. The stock of Equitrans, the builder, moved up one penny on the news. Why the muted response? Because everyone has seen this movie before.
For a moment, we thought we were reading an article in