PHMSA Reminds Pipeline Owners PIPES Act of 2020 is Coming for Them
Yesterday the U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) submitted an advisory bulletin to the Federal Register. The notice is for pipeline operators. It reminds them that PHMSA has a very big stick that the agency intends to use to force pipeline owners to clamp down on fugitive methane emissions. PHMSA is using the Protecting our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (PIPES) Act of 2020, passed and signed during the waning days of the Trump administration, as a big stick to force expensive upgrades to capture every last molecule of CH4, supposedly to cut down on man-made global warming.
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It’s been too long (months!) since we’ve last updated our calendar of events page. We updated it as of today. Below is the list of events we are aware of that will be of interest to those with an interest in the Marcellus/Utica shale region for the balance of 2021. Some events are in the region (PA, OH, WV). Some are not (TX, MA, other states). And some are virtual/online. All of them are of potential interest to the MDN audience.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Tribe sues to stop New York hydrogen plant; NATIONAL: Unsettled: A book that ought to open some liberal minds, but will it?; A bad week for big oil and its ominous consequences for America; INTERNATIONAL: Biden Secretary of State calls Nord Stream 2 done deal; Worley bags Shell hydrogen deal.
Two and a half years after Energy Transfer’s (ET) 24-inch Revolution Pipeline entered service in western Pennsylvania and exploded following a landslide (in September 2018), the pipeline finally returned to service in March of this year (see 
Pennsylvania’s Democrats are having trouble selling the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax aimed at shutting down PA’s coal and natural gas-fired power plants, and by extension shutting down many shale-related jobs in the state. The Dems can’t paper over the fact that RGGI will spell massive layoffs. So what do they propose? Government handouts to those who get laid off, paying them literally pennies on the dollar in government welfare checks in return for “saving the planet” by shuttering coal and gas-fired plants (and putting people out of work). That’s the brilliant solution proposed in a bill offered up by southeast PA state Senator Carolyn Comitta (D-Chester County).
Weather always has been, and remains, THE prime factor in the price of natural gas. In wintertime cold temps lead to the use of more natural gas to burn as heating fuel. In the summer months, high temps mean more electricity is used to power air conditioning units. Last Friday forecasters predicted a spike in temps in the midsection and northeast parts of the country. Along with that forecast came a spike in the price of electric power in both regions, and closely tied to it, a spike in the price of natural gas in both regions.
One of our favorite Forbes contributors, Jude Clemente, has written an article detailing how LNG (liquefied natural gas) usage worldwide along with exports from the United States, have both come roaring back now that the pandemic is beginning to appear in the review mirror. There is a fantastic chart in the article (below) identifying the 12 biggest U.S. LNG importers by country. The number one importer may or may not surprise you: South Korea. We bet the number two importer will surprise you (it did us)…
We simply don’t get it. Either through fear of regulatory and shareholder reprisals, exhaustion in fighting the good fight, or maybe even falling for the false God of Climate Change, big and important oil and gas companies like pipeline giant Williams are beginning to cave to the climate crazies, planning for an oil-less and gas-less future. We kid you not. Williams is IN the business of flowing hydrocarbon molecules (oil and gas) from point A to point B. Yet now they’ve signed a “memorandum of understanding” with Microsoft, a software company, to lecture and teach Williams how to dump fossil fuels and flow different molecules instead, like hydrogen. It’s the darnedest thing we’ve ever seen.
For the past seven years a privately-owned dump near Scranton, the Keystone Sanitary Landfill, has sought to expand in order to accept more garbage. The dump is also authorized to accept Marcellus Shale drill cuttings–rock and soil leftover after drilling. Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced after seven years of study, hearings, meetings, and whatever else the DEP does to fiddle away the time, they have finally approved Keystone’s request to expand.
In June 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied hearing an appeal for a case from Sunoco Logistics Partners about a permit for a pump station in Lebanon County, PA used to help flow natural gas liquids through the Mariner East pipeline system (see 
How does this work in the real world? Gas and electric customers on Aquidneck Island (part of Rhode Island) ran out of natural gas leaving thousands without heat on the island for days during a frigid cold snap in 2019. Customers without heat subsequently launched a class action lawsuit. On Wednesday a judge ruled the lawsuit may continue. Yet RI legislators will not allow the utility, Narragansett Electric (formerly part of National Grid) to implement any permanent fixes (like a new pipeline) to prevent another outage from happening! And it will happen at some point. This is what passes for “justice” in Rhode Island.