The Lunacy of Opposing Coal and Fracking at the Same Time
So-called environmentalists, best typified by the odious Sierra Club, are on a mission to rid the world of its dependency on fossil fuels–coal, oil and natural gas. Most often they object, protest and otherwise hate coal and “fracking”–at the same time. Yet to do so is clinical insanity. Why? Because you need either coal or natural gas to produce steel. Without steel, you don’t have a civilization. No new buildings, no new cars, no new iPhones. Kaput, all of it, without steel. And yet that is exactly what the nutters of the Sierra Club are lobbying for.
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For the past 12 consecutive months and counting, the United States has been a net exporter of natural gas. That means we sell more gas to other countries than we buy. What a turnaround from just a few years ago! What may surprise you is that the way we export most of our gas is via pipeline–to Canada and Mexico. And what may further surprise you to learn is that our exports to Canada have hit new record highs thanks mostly to two Marcellus/Utica pipelines–Rover and NEXUS.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Appalachian Basin’s methane emissions fall despite increase in gas production; Coalition pushes for natural gas pipeline project; Capitalize on natural gas opportunities; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: McDermott expects Cameron LNG ‘fully online’ by 2020 as timetable slips; Enterprise’s Lumberjack pipeline to expand Haynesville gas takeaway; NATIONAL: One in four U.S. homes is all electric; INTERNATIONAL: US natural gas exports to Europe surge nearly 300%.
Every now and again we traffic in rumors here on MDN, but we do so rarely and only when we trust the source of the rumor. In mid-March we brought you juicy tidbits from a highly trusted source about the PTT Global Chemical ethane cracker project in Belmont County, OH, a rumor about why a final investment decision (FID) to proceed has been delayed (see 
CNX Resources released its first quarter 2019 update yesterday, which shows the company lost $87 million, as opposed to making $527 million in profit in 1Q18. Even so, CEO Nicholas DeIuliis announced the company is upping its drilling budget from the previously announced $700 million to instead spend $885 million, largely to drill more “deep dry” Utica wells. Go big or go home!
Last week MDN told you that NextEra Energy, a partner in Equitrans’ 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA, said MVP will most likely not get finished this year (see 
Last September MDN told you that a new natgas-fired electric plant planned for the People’s Republic of Rhode Island in Burrillville was on life support, with antis reaching to pull the plug (see 
Big Green groups continue to sue pipeline companies and their projects in an attempt to block any new pipeline anywhere from getting built–period. One of their favored angles of attack is to try and find loopholes in, or even overturn, the Natural Gas Act of 1938.
For months Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has been traveling around the Keystone State pretending he’s Santa Claus, pushing a plan he calls Restore PA–a plan that will get rid of lead paint in schools, fix flooding, repair old roads, give rural residents internet access, and just about any other goody you can think of. The catch? The PA legislature must pass a Marcellus-killing severance tax to pay for it. Republicans from western PA called his bluff, offering an alternative way to fund it (see 
Andrew Cuomo has himself painted into a corner. In recent years he’s pandered to his radical/left environmental base by blocking natural gas pipelines. Another such project now must be decided, by May 16. Williams’ Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project needs a water crossing permit from New York State. If Cuomo rejects the project, both Consolidated Edison and National Grid, the two utilities that supply New York City and its suburbs, including all of Long Island, with natural gas, have said they will slap a moratorium on all new gas customer hookups. Either way Andy is toast. Which way will he decide?
In the end, it was the right thing to do. Word has leaked out and is now being trumpeted by anti-pipeline “news” outlets (like PBS’ StateImpact Pennsylvania) that Sunoco (i.e. Energy Transfer) has purchased the homes of two homeowners who live near Mariner East 2 pipeline construction–both homes located near sinkholes related to pipeline construction. Sunoco paid each homeowner $60,000-$100,000 more than fair market value.
THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, along with a couple of radicals from Lancaster County flying under the name Lancaster Against Pipelines (the Clatterbucks), hoped they could convince the U.S. Supreme Court to consider a case that a series of lower courts dismissed–a case that would shut down the now-operating Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline (see 
Pennsylvania State Sen. Gene Yaw (Republican from Lycoming County), who serves as Majority Chair of the Senate Environmental Committee,