Mountain Valley Pipe Suspends Construction, Prepares for Florence
Not all that long ago (early August) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission shut down all work on the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which runs from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA (see FERC Shuts Down ALL Work on Mountain Valley Pipeline in WV, VA). Then FERC changed its mind, and told MVP it could restart work, which happened two weeks ago (see FERC Lifts Mountain Valley Pipe Stop-Work Order, Rehiring). Now work has stopped again–at least in Virginia–but not because of FERC or governmental intervention. MVP has voluntarily stopped building in Virginia and instead is working to prepare MVP construction sites for impacts from Hurricane Florence. MVP issued the following statement on Tuesday: “We are taking all possible precautions in Virginia to ensure the safety of our crews and communities, as well as to protect and maintain erosion and sediment controls along MVP’s right-of-way.” A wise precaution in the face of what is sure to be a rough few days this weekend. Here’s the specific actions MVP (being built by EQT Midstream) is taking to prepare for the storm…
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Talk about a dysfunctional mess…The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), a governmental organization remote-controlled by Big Green special interests, doesn’t even know how to communicate with another governmental organization–the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Earlier this year, at the prompting of radical groups like THE Delaware Riverkeeper, DRBC sent a request to FERC asking the agency to block any tree felling ahead of a final approval by DRBC for the PennEast Pipeline–even though FERC and NOT the DRBC is the authorizing agency for PennEast. FERC doesn’t have to wait for anybody for any of its decisions. Regardless, FERC does listen, especially to fellow governmental organizations. FERC gets a LOT of mail, email, etc. from complainers like the DRBC, so they have strict protocols in place for how other agencies and parties talk to it. DRBC should have sent their request to FERC Secretary Kimberly Bose (she’s held that position and has been the point person since 2007), but DRBC didn’t follow protocol. Instead, they just fired off their huffy demand to someone else in a different department, so their huffy demand never got considered. Totally blown off. Funny! And now DRBC is scrambling, attempting to cover up the fact they’re so dysfunctional they don’t their know their heads from their…we’ll just leave it at that…
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently published its 2017 Oil and Gas Annual Report. This is the second year in a row the DEP has published the report in an interactive, electronic (i.e.online) format ONLY, with a stated purpose “to improve public access to well information.” While it’s interesting to have the report issued online only, it’s not as useful as a PDF or printed document, in our humble opinion. What does the report show? There were 2,028 unconventional well drilling permits issued in 2017, up an astonishing 707 (54%) from 2016. What a turnaround! There were 203 conventional well drilling permits issued in 2017, up 45 (28%) from 2016. The number of well inspections hit an all-time high of 36,288 inspections (up 2% from 2016). Below we have the DEP announcement about the new 2017 report, along with select charts & information–so you don’t have to wade through the (somewhat confusing) report yourself. We call it the MDN Guide to PA’s 2017 Oil and Gas Annual Report…
Barack Hussein Obama’s EPA wildly over-regulated during his tenure in office. They hurried to enact egregious standards for many things, but focused primarily on punishing fossil fuels. One of the obscene regulations they enacted was to limit methane emissions in oil and gas operations on the theory that methane is causing catastrophic man-made global warming (don’t get us started on that particular fairy tale). Look, the oil and gas industry sells methane, so it’s in their best interest to capture every last molecule they can capture in order to make a profit. But at a certain point it becomes uneconomical to try and capture a few stray molecules of methane here and there. Not for Big Green and its acolytes in the Obama operation. Their real mission is not to stop so-called fugitive methane, but to put the oil and gas (and coal) industries out of business by making it uneconomic. Using obscene regulations is their preferred method. With Donald Trump in office, the EPA is beginning to correct some of the wild over-regulating that happened under Obama, including methane regulations. Earlier this week the EPA floated tweaks to methane emissions regs, and the Obamadroids are screaming like babies who have soiled themselves. Yes, according to antis, Donald Trump is an ax murderer and relaxing an Obama over-regulation on methane, even slightly, will kill the entire planet…
The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: Lifting the curtain on the group blocking shale development in the Wayne National Forest; Congress, require BLM to respect the rights of private landowners; Unfazed by pipeline explosion destroying Beaver County house, nearby township removes setback ordinance; Dog days are over, Part 3 – What happened to the northeast gas takeaway constraints?; Idiot New Yorkers continue to oppose Albany natgas microgrid; Hurricane Florence expected to dampen natural gas demand in US Southeast; Billionaire mega-donor Tom Steyer picks favorite AG hopefuls; more global warming cases possible; Why natural gas — not renewable energy — has been the biggest disruptor in energy markets.
In October 2015, Advanced Power Services announced it would build an 1,100 megawatt Utica-fired electric plant in Columbiana County, OH (see 
It’s just coming to light (for us anyway) that earlier this year Williams donated $100,000 to the Democratic Governors Association–a group that is devoted to electing more Democrats as governors, and a group that heavily supports Andrew Cuomo in his reelection bid here in the Empire State. Shame on Williams. Are they insane? Cuomo, who is CORRUPT, has blocked Williams project after Williams project in New York. But apparently he has not blocked all Williams projects. Less than three months after the Williams “donation,” the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which ONLY does the bidding of Cuomo, denied “without prejudice” a water quality permit for the Northeast Supply Enhancement Project, allowing Williams to submit a new application (i.e. keeping it alive). Oh, and Cuomo hired the lobbyist who was working on that same pipeline project…to run his reelection campaign. Sniff sniff. Do you smell something? We’re not accusing anybody of anything–least of all Williams, which has to do what they have to do in a state that’s run like a third world dictatorship. However, you have to admit the situation raises questions. And we still can’t get over the fact that Williams donated a hundred grand to the other side. That boggles the mind…
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has just slowed the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project. In March 2017, Williams filed a full, official application for NESE (see 
SECUR, a privately owned company headquartered in Pittsburgh that (among other things) cleans up radioactive waste from shale drilling, has just opened a new 10-acre branch facility in Tyler County, WV to do just that–to clean up NORM (naturally occurring radioactive materials) and TENORM (technically-enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material). The facility cleans up both liquids (wastewater) and solids (drill cuttings) that contain a tiny bit of radiation in them, making them suitable for safe disposal. No, there is no permanent storage at the facility–the site, located in Friendly, WV, is only used to clean up the stuff coming in. SECUR then repackages the material and sends it back out to licensed disposal facilities. And did we mention…SECUR is a woman-owned, small business? Nice. Here’s the good news of yet more jobs and an essential service have come to the WV part of the Marcellus/Utica…
Getting permission to build a new pipeline from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is one thing. An important thing. But beyond permission to build, you also need permission to charge a particular rate for those using the pipeline. Shell is currently building a $6 billion ethane cracker in Monaca, PA, near Pittsburgh, to chemically “crack” ethane from shale wells into ethylene–the raw building material of plastics. Shell is also building a 97-mile, two-legged pipeline system called the Falcon Ethane Pipeline (see 
Is there any fixing stupid? We suppose not. So-called environmentalists are opposing a plan by the University of Michigan to update the main campus’ Central Power Plant with a natural-gas fired turbine to produce electricity for the Central and Medical Campus buildings. By doing so, the University will leapfrog to achieving 50% of its goal to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2025 (seven short years from now). Put another way, by building this gas turbine and using the electricity it generates, the University of Michigan will be halfway to their emissions reductions goals. One turbine. Clean natural gas. It’s a win/win all the way around. Yet environuts oppose the plan because it is a “long-term investment in fossil fuels.” Again we ask, is there any fixing stupid?…
Yesterday morning shortly before 5 am, a 24-inch gathering pipeline in Beaver County, PA (about 30 miles from Pittsburgh) caught fire and exploded. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, although a nearby home, barn and two garages were leveled by fire from the blast. The pipeline went online just last week, on Sept. 3. It wasn’t even officially/commercially online–it was still in testing phase. The exploded pipeline is part of Energy Transfer’s 100-mile Revolution Pipeline system. The pipe gathers dry and wet gas from local wells and delivers it to a cryogenic separating plant in Washington County, PA. From there, the separated methane goes into the Burgettstown Lateral of the Rover Pipeline (Burgettstown began service on Sept. 1). Following the explosion around 30 homes within a half mile were evacuated, but returned later in the day. Some 1,500 people in the area were without power for part of the day after six high-tension electric lines were toppled, either by the blast or the ensuring fire. A full investigation is now under way, but early indications are a “ground slip” (i.e. landslide) was the cause. That area has been pounded day after day with torrential rain, saturating the ground and causing multiple landslides in the area. Philadelphia antis (on the other side of the state) have already piled on, rubbing their hands with glee, pointing out Energy Transfer is the same company as Sunoco Logistics Partners–the company building the Mariner East 2 pipeline project. Antis are using a freak accident and tragedy in the hills outside Pittsburgh to try and stop ME2 in the flat country of Greater Philadelphia…
Yesterday Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court upheld a PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) fine levied on EQT for $1.1 million related to a leaky wastewater impoundment in 2012. The case dates back to 2014 when the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) slapped EQT with a $4.53 million fine for a leaky wastewater impoundment in Tioga County, something that happened two years earlier (see