WV Coal-to-Liquids Plant Using NatGas Gets State Approval
In June MDN brought you news of a “first of its kind” coal-to-liquids plant planned for Mason County, WV (see Proposed WV Coal-to-Liquids Plant Uses Natural Gas). The $1.2 billion project will create “ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel, gasoline and other liquids.” The main two ingredients in the process are coal and (you guessed it), natural gas. Good news: the WV Dept. of Environmental Protection has approved the project, issuing a draft construction permit.
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We have a bona fide mystery on our hands–a mystery that may signal a happy ending for the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project getting approved. One of the first statements (threats) utility company National Grid made in relation to NESE is that if NESE, a Williams Transco Pipeline project meant to increase pipeline capacity and flows heading into northeastern markets, including to Long Island doesn’t happen, National Grid will not connect natural gas to a new $1.3 billion stadium complex on Long Island to host the New York Islanders hockey team (see 
Not even Ohio’s left-leaning news organizations can go along with the phony commercials being run by First Energy in a desperate attempt to block a referendum to overturn House Bill (HB) 6 (see 
Last week we brought you an update on outstanding litigation and the status for Dominion Energy’s 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline project (see 
PBS reporter Reid Frazier should enjoy what is likely to be his one and only trip to Europe on the StateImpact Pennsylvania company dime. He’s gone there to follow Marcellus molecules exported from Pennsylvania, to see how they’re used. Frazier’s first stop is Scotland where they use our ethane to create plastics. Frazier’s report is actually (shock warning, please sit down) pretty fair and balanced–even complimentary of the Marcellus Shale and the plastics industry! Frazier’s overlords inside the William Penn Foundation (big financial backers of StateImpact) are NOT going to be happy with his reports if they continue like this one.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: The crackers and frackers could hold the keys to 2020; Ohio subsidy sausage (video); OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Cheniere inks gas supply deal with EOG Resources; California regulators assert natural gas still power gen necessity; Should N.J. ban fossil fuel power plants? Question may be heading for voter ballot; NATIONAL: Former oil CEO aims to change how the U.S. exports natural gas; US oil and gas rig count hits 29-month low at 949: Enverus DrillingInfo; Energy executives, environmentalists remember ‘visionary’ T. Boone Pickens; Trump cites natural gas boom in wooing New Mexico; INTERNATIONAL: 12 things to know about the strikes on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure; Natural gas downside seen as Saudi attack a reminder of oil’s geopolitical risks; Frackers to stand pat, reap profits after attacks on Saudi oil; Freeport LNG launches private cargo trading storefront inside the Redwood Marketplace; India poised to become a huge market for US gas?; LNG Ltd to supply gas to Vietnam from Louisiana project.
Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas-fired electric plant, Invenergy’s 1,480 megawatt, $1 billion project called the Lackawanna Energy Center, has been completely done and fully online since earlier this year (see 
Nice try, but no cigar for Plainfield Township in Northampton County. The Plainfield Board of Supervisors last week passed a new zoning ordinance that prevents pipelines (and cell phone towers, and solar farms, and wind mills, and and and) from being built near or under the 1.5 miles of the Appalachian Trail as it passes through their township. Thing is, when it comes to pipelines (like PennEast Pipeline) that are federally regulated, Plainfield can’t stop it. Their ordinance isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.
Last week MDN told you that oral arguments would be heard on Thursday at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in what we believe is one of (perhaps THE) most important shale cases ever in the Keystone State (see 
About a month ago ago Sempra Energy’s Cameron LNG project in Lake Charles, La. began to liquefy and export natural gas–some of it coming from the Marcellus/Utica region (see 
MDN is not able to post today–please accept our apologies. A friend of the family suddenly and unexpectedly died earlier this week and the funeral is this morning. We pride ourselves on publishing each weekday with very few days off. This is a rare exception. We will be back Monday with all the latest news. In the meantime, we’ve published the latest version of our Calendar of Events of interest.
Events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus, Utica and other Appalachian shales happening from now through the end of this year.