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PA DEP Slaps Energy Transfer Again – $2M Fine re Mariner East 2
Two weeks ago the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced the largest fine for a single company/project in its history. DEP slapped Energy Transfer (ET) with a $30.6 million fine for the construction and subsequent explosion of the company’s Revolution gathering pipeline in western PA (see ET Allowed to Fix/Restart Revolution Pipe…After Record $30M Fine). As part of the fine, DEP said ET could restart construction to fix Revolution. DEP also said ET could restart construction for another project: Mariner East 2 (ME2). Yesterday the other shoe dropped when DEP announced a new fine related to ME2 work–for $1.95 million.
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The gloves are off in Harrisburg. We previously told you about Gov. Wolf’s plan to have PA join with northeastern states in the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional alliance to slap a carbon tax on natural gas-fired electric plants (see 
PA Rep. Cris Dush, a Republican from Jefferson County, is about to introduce two bills that would either dissolve both the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) or withdraw PA from both compacts.
Aqua America, the nation’s second-largest water/wastewater utility company headquartered near Philadelphia, announced in October 2018 it would buy Peoples Gas, the nation’s fifth-largest natural gas utility company headquartered in Pittsburgh, for $4.275 billion (see 
We’ve often said if we could have anyone else’s brain who writes about the Marcellus/Utica, it would be Tom Shepstone’s brain. Tom, who has become a good friend over the years, writes the 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Tenaska offering scholarships to students from Belle Vernon, Yough; Steel Nation names director of business development; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Wisconsin regulators approve Superior natural gas plant; Exxon says Mass. AG timed climate suit with NY trial; Harvard students [enviro fascists] threaten to boycott Paul Weiss over Exxon; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas exports to grow with new LNG capacity start-ups; EIA forecasts slower growth in natural gas-fired generation while renewable energy rises; Trade deal for now unlikely to give U.S. LNG exports a boost; US oil, gas rig count rises by five to 840; Growing gap in U.S. natural gas hub prices blamed on Louisiana pipeline congestion; Energy companies seize the day with bond refinancings; INTERNATIONAL: New Panama Canal fees not seen dampening U.S. LNG exports; Swedes vote climate policy biggest waste of taxpayer money in 2019.
Yes, 2019 was a tough year here in the Marcellus/Utica shale due to low natural gas prices drillers received for their gas. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says the average spot price for natural gas at the benchmark Henry Hub was $2.57 per million BTUs (MMBtu) in 2019. But the news gets worse. EIA says that in 2020, because of increasing natgas production without a corresponding increase in demand, they predict this year’s average HH price will sink to $2.33/MMBtu. That’s 9% lower this year than last.
Last August MDN told you about a project in Keene, NH to convert an existing (antiquated) propane delivery system for the 1,200 customers in Keene over to cheaper, more abundant natural gas (see 
Yesterday MDN told you that 16 highly partisan, far-left Democrat attorneys general had filed comments opposing President Trump’s plan to allow LNG (liquefied natural gas) to be transported by special rail cars (see 
On Monday EQT, the nation’s largest natural gas producer (based in Pittsburgh) filed an update with the SEC to say it would write down the value (called an impairment) for some of it’s Marcellus/Utica assets–to the tune of $1.8 billion (see 