Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, Jun 12, 2019
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: House committee approves 2 Energize PA natural gas use subsidy bills; Democrats plot legislative end run to pass Wolf’s infrastructure plan, while internal debate continues; Union gets nasty over natural gas pipeline rejection; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Piedmont taps Matrix to construct 1 Bcf North Carolina LNG storage facility; Jerry Jones likens gas deal to his Dallas Cowboys buy 30 years ago; California’s gas plant pipeline dwindles as Calpine drops Mission Rock application; Flurry of changes coming to Texas Gulf Coast gas markets; Companies seek 149 permits in 1 week to drill at West Texas field; NATIONAL: The US will maintain oil production despite falling prices; America’s natural gas and oil industry is hiring, building diversity.
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Last week Shaledirectories.com and TopLine Analytics hosted the one-day Appalachian Storage Hub Conference in Canonsburg, PA. Charles Zelek, a senior economist with the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy was one of the speakers. According to our friends at Kallanish Energy who attended, Zelek “implored” the audience to establish an ethane storage hub in the Tri-State area. Like now, before it’s too late.
In May MDN told you about a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that allows shale drilling to happen *anywhere* in a township, so long as such drilling satisfies standards to protect public health, safety and welfare (see 
Anti-fossil fuelers in Massachusetts who are desperate to block a federal (and state) approved compressor station from getting built in Weymouth, MA continue to use a mix-up at the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (over air sample test results) as an excuse to bully the DEP into reversing its decision to grant a permit for the project. The DEP, to its credit, is not caving to the pressure.
We had high hopes for Steve Tambini, former vice president of operations at Pennsylvania American Water, when he was appointed Executive Director of the Delaware River Basin Commission in 2014 (see 
Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City who owns 12 houses, a private jet and a helicopter and has a bigger “carbon footprint” than some small states, presumes to know more about how you should get your electric power than you do. Cause, you know, he’s just smarter than you. Bloomberg has partnered with two of the absolute worst of the leftist/Communistic “environmental” organizations on the planet–the odious Sierra Club and Earthjustice–spending $500 million to launch a new “Beyond Carbon” campaign–to deny you the right to buy electricity from either coal OR natural gas-fired plants.
NATIONAL: Almost all U.S. coal production is consumed for electric power; US calls ‘false’ the narrative that LNG cannot compete with pipeline gas; Capstone Turbine names FERC ex-commissioner to its board; API’s Sommers: U.S. energy ‘breaking records left and right’; INTERNATIONAL: Corridor Resources seeks permit to frack in New Brunswick; The Dutch are readying a climate tax on flying, and the EU may follow.
A few weeks ago MDN brought you the news that THE Delaware Riverkeeper had finally (months after everyone else knew) woke up to the fact that New Fortress Energy is planning to build an LNG loading facility on the banks of the Delaware River, on the New Jersey side, near Philadelphia (see 
That didn’t take long. Barely two months ago President Trump signed an Executive Order instructing the Environmental Protection Agency to review Section 401 of the Clean Water Act–the section that grants states (and tribes) the right to have a say in pipeline projects (see 
Last Wednesday the West Virginia Supreme Court issued a consolidated opinion lumping together seven similar lawsuits filed by Antero Resources and CNX Resources against the WV state tax commissioner and the Doddridge County Commission. The lawsuits take issue with the way gas well valuations are calculated for property taxes.
Two important pipeline projects, PennEast and Adelphia Gateway, are at various stages of approval. PennEast 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. Adelphia Gateway is an old oil pipeline, already in the ground, that runs from Northampton County, PA through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook. Adelphia will flow Marcellus gas to the Philadelphia region. PennEast was announced in 2014, and Adelphia in 2017. Neither has yet begun construction. What’s the status for each project?
On May 25, lightning struck a 1 million gallon condensate tank near Friendly (Tyler County), WV on a Saturday afternoon (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Please help us stop a ban on natural gas in NY; PA Senate, House legislation coming to regulate conventional oil & gas well drilling; Williamsport getting 4 more CNG buses; Shale Crescent reps “woke up the crowd” at Houston petchem event; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: From $200/MMBtu to $1/MMBtu gas, PNW market volatility continues; NATIONAL: Romancing the shale: How Oxy won over Anadarko; Tillerson says he ‘probably paid too much’ for XTO Energy as Exxon CEO; Natural gas plunges on supply data, hits fresh 3-year lows.
President Trump is pushing members of his administration to work with state regulators in Appalachia–Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania–to “build the country’s first natural gas and petrochemical hub” outside of the Gulf Coast. According to Energy Secretary Rick Perry, such a plan is in the the country’s national security interests. Members of the Trump team are also having discussions with leftists like NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to try and convince him to allow pipelines into and through the state. If states like NY won’t allow it, Perry holds out the hope/threat that the feds will invoke the Constitution’s interstate commerce clause to make them.