PA DEP Releases Proposed Plan to Join RGGI Carbon Tax Scheme
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) released a draft of its proposed rules for PA’s participation in what is called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). It’s a tax on carbon aimed at coal and natural gas-fired electric power plants, with an eye to driving them out of business. PA Gov. Tom Wolf is attempting to force PA to participate in RGGI, a collection of blue northeastern states (New England, NY and NJ) in an attempt to bolster his credibility with environmentalist wackos–to ingratiate himself with the wackos so he is more appealing as a Vice Presidential candidate.
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Mob rule is the opposite of the rule of law. Mob rule is what’s being advocated under the guise of “protest” in Brooklyn, NY where a mob of anti-fossil fuelers are attempting to block the final few feet of construction for a 6.8-mile natural gas pipeline stretching from Brownsville to North Brooklyn. Utility company National Grid, responsible for flowing more natural gas to *meet demand* (and not run out) is working to complete a new gas main pipeline–and a mob in Greenpoint is hell-bent on stopping it. Why? Because they believe in “global warming” and have an irrational hatred of fossil fuels, including natural gas.
A brand new study (full copy below) published in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) looked at 25 small watersheds over the course of 2 years in northeastern Pennsylvania, looking for any possible correlation between fracking and local streams. Know what they found? There is NO impact from fracking on local streams. NONE. Those who worked on the study include researchers from the US Geological Survey, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), and the Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).
Big Green continues its fight to strip away the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) right to use tolling orders when considering requests to “rehear” decisions to approve pipelines (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: ODNR issues two shale drilling permits; School finances study by Penn State doesn’t pass smell test; Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Soto bill to ban hydraulic fracturing to devastate working families, jeopardize Pa. union jobs; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: New Shintech ethane cracker in Louisiana starts up; NATIONAL: Why natural-gas prices may sink further after hitting 2016 lows; U.S. natural gas consumption has both winter and summer peaks; Oil boom feels more like a bust in Texas shale patch; Stages per frac crew increases by 26% across shale plays; Drill, baby, drill: oil and natural gas production on federal land passes 1 billion barrels; Landi Renzo launching natural gas option for Ford 7.3-liter; US energy dominance: the case for unbridled optimism; INTERNATIONAL: IEA calls for ‘grand coalition’ to bridge energy, climate gap.
Last Friday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking for an extra 45 days to revise an Endangered Species Act (ESA) review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. Also from last week: anti-fossil fuelers (Big Green groups) virulently opposed to MVP (which is 90% built) continued to hound the project by pestering the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) over minor violations the DEQ found in construction activities from September to December. Big Green wants to know what the DEQ is going to “do” about the violations.
UGI Corp. has just won a case on appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that overturns an order by a lower court ordering UGI to pay more than $380,000 combined to two sets of property owners for taking their land as part of the Sunbury Pipeline in Snyder County, PA. The landowners who sued used a so-called expert whose testimony was, according to the judges, “speculation and conjecture” and “not good science.” Therefore the lower court award was overturned.
In January the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) finally, after more than a year, agreed to lift a moratorium on new construction work for several Energy Transfer pipeline projects in the state, including the Mariner East 2 and 2X projects (see 
The fix is in. A bankruptcy judge in Delaware yesterday announced he is awarding the sale of the closed Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) refinery to a Chicago developer that has plans to demolish the East Coast’s largest and oldest refinery–and replace it with big, smelly, noisy warehouses with trucks coming and going day and night. The judge’s remarks are telling, citing as one of his main reasons for dumping the refinery is the facility’s “numerous and repeated problems.”
A Boston University professor has gone on a so-called “hunger strike” in his campaign against fossil fuels and a compressor station near Boston that will flow more of them. And you actually *pay* to send your kids to BU?
In December Chevron announced it was writing down over $10 billion worth of its U.S. onshore shale assets, with $6.5 billion of that number coming from their Marcellus/Utica assets (see 
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Ohio tax commissioner correctly charged Tallgrass Energy’s Rockie Express (REX) pipeline $2 million in excise tax (based on $699 million of income), for gas transported from and to (within) Ohio. REX claimed it did not owe the tax because the same law that exempts gas transported out of state applies to gas sales in-state. But the tax commission, and now the Supremes, say that the portion of gas transported through REX that stays in Ohio is not exempt and can be taxed. So pay up.