WV Gov. Justice Makes Impromptu Speech at IOGAWV Summer Mtg
The Independent Oil & Gas Association of West Virginia (IOGAWV) held its annual summer meeting earlier this week in beautiful White Sulphur Springs. WV Gov. Jim Justice, who was not on the agenda to speak, stopped by and gave an impromptu speech to delegates. Which surprises us, given his business interests in coal and his previous bashing of the shale industry (see WV Gov. Justice Blames Shale for Bad Roads, Wants Higher Taxes).
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We have a proud tradition in America of vigorous debate and free speech. We have protests. We still, for now, have a free press where we can express our ideas–whether others agree with us or not. But some on the environmental left go too far. They don’t just protest, they break the law. Some even become violent. Take the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, as an example.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Clean Air Council calls for shutdown of Mariner East 2 pipeline after Chester County ‘backfire’; Williams Pipeline battle continues: What to know about the proposed natural gas conduit; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Tellurian mulling new Driftwood LNG stake deals; Top U.S. shale producer offers bleak view of U.S. output growth; INTERNATIONAL: Black & Veatch: FLNG to push gas industry growth.
Last Thursday the Texas Eastern Transmission Company (TETCO) pipeline exploded near a trailer park in Lincoln County, Kentucky (see 
Marcellus/Utica gas hitches a ride to the Gulf Coast to feed several LNG export facilities. We previously outlined how some gas flows to Cheniere’s Sabine Pass LNG plant via Williams’ Transco system (see 
PennEast Pipeline is a $1 billion (or $1.2 billion, depending on the source) new greenfield pipeline project from Luzerne County, PA to Mercer County, NJ. PennEast will flow PA Marcellus gas to markets in NJ. The project has faced numerous lawsuits and regulatory blockades, much of it in NJ. We won’t recount all of the ins and outs. What we will tell you is that PennEast is about to overcome another such government blockade by submitting a new Freshwater Wetlands Permit application to the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Pennsylvania state officials in the Gov. Tom Wolf administration (yes, lib Dem Tom Wolf) are drawing up plans, a “playbook,” for how to redevelop the increasing number of coal-fired electric generating plants that are closing in the state. Most of those plans boil down to this: redevelop those sites as natural gas-fired electric plants and/or petrochemical plants. Both are tied directly to PA’s prolific Marcellus Shale. Who knew there was such common sense inside the Wolf Administration?
Last November MDN told you that Northeast Energy Center, backed by Liberty Energy and NorthStar Industries, is proposing to build an LNG liquefaction plant in central Massachusetts (see 
Liberty Utilities in Keene, New Hampshire wants to convert its 1,200 or so customers over to using natural gas–convert them from using propane. Natgas is cheaper (for customers) and has more reliable supplies. Liberty asked the NH Public Utilities Commission for permission to convert in 2017. Of course anti-fossil fuel lunatics objected, and the PUC delayed. Now, over two years later, the PUC has granted permission to Liberty to move forward with converting its commercial customers at one location.
It appears the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has become politicized. Why is it that leftists (like Va. Gov. Ralph Northam) politicize what are supposed to be impartial government agencies? The DEQ has issued a “stop work” order to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) for construction activities along a tiny two-mile stretch in Montgomery County. Fine, if there are issues, stop the work. It’s the highly politicized and inappropriate press release the DEQ issued that accompanied the stop work order we object to.
Two weeks ago MDN brought you news about a newly passed Ohio law (House Bill 6) to prop up two bankrupt nuclear power plants and several coal-fired plants (see 
In March 2017, radical green groups, including the Sierra Club, Lancaster Against Pipelines, Lebanon Pipeline Awareness, Allegheny Defense Project, Clean Air Council, Concerned Citizens of Lebanon County, and Heartwood, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in an attempt to block construction of the $3 billion Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project in Pennsylvania (see