PA DEP Approves ME2 Plan to Finish Pipe Thru Marsh Creek Lake Area
Yesterday MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) along with the state Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) jointly fined Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project $4 million and is requiring it to perform another $4+ million worth of work at Marsh Creek Lake where construction last year caused an accidental spill of 8,000 gallons of nontoxic drilling mud (see PA Charges Mariner East Pipeline $8M+ to Fix Marsh Creek Lake). Lost in all the hoopla over the big numbers for fines and fix-it work is the fact (whispered by the DEP) that the DEP is agreeing to and allowing ME2 to complete its work in the Marsh Creek Lake area–the final major area of construction for ME2.
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Back in October Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is running for the Democrat nomination for governor in 2022, told trade union workers he didn’t like current Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a huge tax on carbon dioxide assessed on coal and gas-fired power plants (see 
It’s not often we get an inside look at the finances and customers behind a privately owned midstream (pipeline) company. Ratings giant Fitch Ratings has given us that inside look with Blue Racer Midstream, a natural gas gathering and processing pipeline company operating in southeastern Ohio and the panhandle of West Virginia. Yesterday Fitch affirmed Blue Racer’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘B+’ and its $750 million senior secured revolving credit facility (what we call a line of credit) at ‘BB+’. Fitch also upgraded Blue Racer’s senior unsecured notes to ‘BB-‘ from ‘B+’. Blue Racer’s Rating Outlook is Stable.
There was a healthy number of new permits issued in all three actively drilling Marcellus/Utica states last week. In Pennsylvania, 14 new shale well permits were issued across the state. In Ohio, five new shale permits were issued, four of them to a single driller (Ascent Resources) in a single county (Jefferson). West Virginia came roaring back after getting skunked with no permits two weeks ago. WV issued 10 new shale permits last week with five going to a single well pad in Monongalia County.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Former supervisors ask Upper Burrell to add 2 more seats – ties to Marcellus; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Train 6 at Cheniere’s Sabine Pass produces 1st LNG cargo; Coal retirements, supply constraints promise upside for gas in MISO this winter; NATIONAL: Biden official heckled after urging shale boost; ConocoPhillips says USA regulations hold back supply; Galileo lives and global warmists want to destroy him!; Spat between Elon Musk and Democrats expands to Biden’s Build Back Better bill; US EIA slashes early 2022 gas price forecast citing fall storage build pickup.
While drilling in Chester County in August 2020 in the Marsh Creek State Park area, Energy Transfer’s (ET) Mariner East 2X pipeline experienced an “inadvertent return”–nontoxic drilling mud coming up out of the ground where it’s not supposed to (see 
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), lapdog of leftwing Gov. Tom Wolf, tried to bypass the state legislature and secretly push through and get adopted a proposed regulation on the state joining the highly controversial Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state compact to limit carbon emissions from power plant operators (a carbon tax). The DEP just got caught red-handed.
Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) has contracted with Project Canary to monitor methane emissions from both the company’s drilling operations (the upstream) and the company’s pipeline operations (the midstream). While a number of other Marcellus/Utica drillers have signed up with Project Canary to monitor methane emissions, the Olympus deal is different and special for two reasons: (1) it’s a private (not publicly owned) company, and (2) the deal covers both upstream and midstream, for the same company.
The odious leftists from the so-called Food & Water Watch (Big Green group, funded with foreign money) continue to pressure, cajole, woo, and hoodwink local municipalities in New Jersey to oppose building a new dock on the Delaware River–a dock that would allow LNG cargo carriers to come alongside and load up with yummy, safe, clean-burning LNG. The latest victim of FWW’s lies is Trenton, New Jersey.
Even amid the increasingly shrill and irrational ramblings of so-called scientists who predict gloom and doom if we don’t dump fossil fuel use immediately (while they ignore even bigger sources of carbon emissions), the world’s biggest banks and investment houses, while talking about dumping fossil fuel investments, haven’t actually done so. And according to Bloomberg, big banks don’t intend to deny their fossil fuel clients (oil, gas and coal companies) anytime soon. That’s really good news.
The NYMEX natural gas futures price plunged more than 10% on Monday, falling to the lowest level since August to close down 47.5 cents at $3.66 per MMBtu. And that comes after last week’s 24% loss, which was natural gas’ worst week since February 2014! What’s going on? The forecast is for warmer-than-expected winter temperatures across much of the country.
Once again Democrat politics rear their ugly head to pressure the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board, which voted last Friday to reject issuing an air permit for a compressor station in southern Virginia for the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline Southgate extension that will run 75 miles from Virginia into North Carolina. The permit would have allowed a compressor station to be built in the Virginia town of Chatham (Pittsylvania County). And according to critics of the pipeline, that’s just plain racist.