Rover Pressuring FERC to Approve Final 2 Laterals ASAP
In a respectful, but strongly worded letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Energy Transfer Partners’ Rover Pipeline asks FERC to (our words) get off its rear-end and approve the Burgettstown and Majorsville laterals. The two laterals, or off-shoots of the pipeline system, both reach into western Pennsylvania and are (from what we can tell) the final two pieces of the Rover pipeline that are not yet online. Rover asked FERC to approve the two laterals, along with other portions of the pipeline, by June 1st, in a letter dated May 24th. FERC did approve some items on the list, but not the two laterals (see M-U Gas Now Travels to Dawn Hub in Canada via Rover Pipeline). In a June 21 letter (read it below) Rover then asked FERC to approve the two laterals by June 25, this past Monday. That date came and went with no approvals. Rover said in its letter: “significant volumes of natural gas have been unable to flow on pipeline facilities that have been completed for nearly a month.” You can feel the frustration when reading the letter. So what, exactly, is the holdup anyway?…
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Spectra Energy’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) pipeline project is an $876 million expansion of the existing Algonquin pipeline system designed to carry 342 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to New England states that badly need the gas. On March 3, 2015 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued their final approval for the project, allowing it to go forward. Construction began in 2015 and, following extreme opposition from New York State over a small portion of the project, it finally went online in in 2016. New York’s radical, anti-drilling governor, Andy Cuomo, tried to stop the Algonquin using the flimsy excuse that some of the drilling for the pipeline would happen a half mile from a nuclear power plant–a plant that’s shutting down anyway (see 
The radicals of Food & Water Watch (FWW), a disgusting organization, have done us all a huge favor! FWW is composed of some of the worst of the worst when it comes to anti-fossil fuel nuttery. They oppose everything, including low-carbon natural gas, if it’s called a fossil fuel. FWW issued a new “report” last week taking aim at the growing number of Marcellus gas-fired electric plants sprouting up around the state, replacing dirtier coal-fired plants. Only in the mind of a demented liberal is coal better for the environment than natgas. But we digress. FWW’s report is called “Pernicious Placement of Pennsylvania Power Plants: Natural Gas-Fired Power Plant Boom Reinforces Environmental Injustice.” Those alliterations are just ingenious, aren’t they? As part of the report, FWW published a comprehensive list of 48 planned, under construction, or recently commissioned gas-fired power plant projects in the Keystone State. Wow! What a great list! We’ve extracted the list itself and shared it below (so you don’t have to endure the full report). The focus of the report is the baseless charge FWW (and others) make that new power plant projects are built in poor, black areas–where the downtrodden can’t fight back against the machine that is Big Oil/Gas. FWW includes a map (see it below) that charts where “communities of color” (meaning concentrations of black people) live in the state, along with dots that show where existing and planned gas-fired plants are located. Take a look at the dots for planned plants. Almost none of them are near “communities of color!” Whoops. Some intern wasn’t paying attention when she drafted the report…
The lawyers that infest the Sierra Club are still celebrating a temporary court victory last week that essentially stops construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in West Virginia (see 
Appalachian Mountain Advocates, a far-left, radical anti-drilling organization that some media outlets refer to as a simple “nonprofit law firm,” has filed a lawsuit against West Virginia University to force the university to hand over privileged and secret communications concerning the deal WV struck with China to invest $83.7 billion in the state, in the shale and petrochemical industries. As you may recall, that deal was announced last November (see 
Last December the Trump Dept. of Energy published a 45-page report called, “Natural Gas Liquids Primer: With a Focus on the Appalachian Region” (see 
We have long thought (and written) that to concede the argument that renewable energy–wind and solar–is some sort of nirvana, a magical destination, that renewables are our inevitable energy future–is a mistake. To box ourselves in by buying into the argument that natural gas is a “bridge” to get us lower carbon emissions until renewable heaven arrives is faulty thinking. And now, none other than the CEO of BP is saying the same thing. Not in quite the same words we’ve used, but certainly the same sentiment. BP still bows to the alter of man-made global warming nonsense. But at least they have the guts to say, out loud, that natural gas itself is good enough–the “destination” as a fuel, and not simply a “bridge” to renewables. BP CEO Bob Dudley said that this week on a panel at the World Gas Conference in Washington, D.C. On the same panel, French oil giant Total CEO, Patrick Pouyanne, said, “This idea of natural gas as a transition fuel to renewables is strange.” Yes! Finally some clear thinkers willing to stand up for fossil fuels! We need more people to stand up and shout, “The renewables Emperor has no clothes!”…
The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: Decade of study shows PA’s environment, shale drilling can coexist; natgas execs see 100 years of supply; natgas will figure big in pared-down GE’s future; Rick Perry says “stubborn opposition” to fossil fuels keeps billions in poverty; power plant emissions continue to fall thx to natgas; protesters ineffective in stopping pipelines; Panama Canal drops LNG transit restrictions; China trucking LNG to overcome lack of pipelines; natgas costs rising in Canada where fracking is banned; and more!
Sources talking to the Pittsburgh Business Times have tipped the paper that EQT recently idled something like five fracking crews, and that Range Resources recently idled a top hole drilling rig. Oh oh. Is this an early sign that the gas patch is slowing down again? Are we heading into a downturn? Don’t panic. Although there has been some scaling back, both companies say activity levels and most importantly, production levels, are not jeopardized by their actions. Instead, the moves are about “saving money” and “increasing efficiencies.” The truth is, as technology and strategies continue to improve over time, drillers don’t have to drill as many holes in order to produce the same or more than they produce now. The companies in the Marcellus/Utica patch are getting leaner–more efficient at what they do, and how they do it. Yeah, it sucks when local jobs get whacked due to “efficiencies,” but ultimately it’s a good sign. It means the companies are getting stronger and will stick around for the long term–providing jobs and economic benefits in the communities where they work for years to come…
Shell delivered some good news at last week’s Northeast U.S. Petrochemical conference in Pittsburgh: The Falcon ethane pipeline will get built next year (see 
A recent article in the left-leaning Roll Call (official publication for Washington, D.C. swamp dwellers) attempts to paint the Trump Administration as out of step with the people he wants to help in West Virginia. The article says Trump’s strategy to prop up failing coal and nuclear plants is an attempt to boost coal mining jobs in WV, but is running counter to the state’s strategy of embracing the natural gas industry. Perhaps they have a point. However, what’s most interesting about the article is not the ginned up conflict between Trump and WV, but how the article spotlights WV’s two U.S. Senators–Republican Shelley Moore Capito and Democrat Joe Manchin–and their continuing role in trying to make a $10 billion NGL (mostly ethane) storage hub facility become a reality. The storage hub will be a jobs magnet with some estimates that it will create more than 100,000 new jobs in the state. The storage hub will also draw manufacturers looking to locate near ethane crackers, as a source for plastics used in their manufacturing process. Capito, in her comments, attempts to gloss over the rivalry between coal and natural gas, saying “all those rivalries have gone by the wayside.” Er, a, we beg to differ. But leaving aside the coal v. natgas focus of the article, we found two very interesting items. (1) The Dept. of Energy loan guarantee that would cover $1.9 billion of the estimated $10 billion cost to build it is a much bigger deal that we had realized. Why? Because any project that wins such a guarantee has gone through a rigorous review process. Winning such a guarantee is like conferring a triple A rating on the project for others who will consider investing in the project. It gives them confidence that the project has been thoroughly vetted and is low risk. (2) Manchin, in speaking with DOE Sec. Rick Perry, is using an interesting and novel argument to convince Perry the storage hub is a good thing to do. Manchin said when hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast, it knocks out petrochemical industry there, with a cascading effect across the U.S. Cracker plants (fed by the storage hub) in the northeast, are not susceptible to hurricanes. So Manchin’s pitch to Perry is this: Keep the Gulf Coast crackers cooking for products to export to other countries, but let’s build the storage hub (and crackers) in the northeast, so our country’s petchem industry isn’t adversely affected by a major hurricane…
Many (most?) electric generating companies in the U.S. are regulated–highly regulated. They’re guaranteed a certain, predictable level of (low) profits. But in return for guaranteed profitability, every single thing they do is monitored and authorized in triplicate, with one or another government agency reviewing anything and everything that happens. It’s the deal they’ve struck with the regulatory devil. Vectren is one such regulated utility in the great state of Indiana. Vectren operates the F. B. Culley Generating Station, a 369 megawatt (MW) coal power plant located in Warrick County, Indiana. They plan to close the coal-fired plant in 2023. In its place, they want to build a 900 MW natgas-fired plant and a 50-acre solar farm. Building the gas plant and solar farm would cost Vectren (meaning ratepayers) $940 million. The cost is passed on to ratepayers because Vectren is regulated. That’s the way it works. The bargain struck with the devil. The gas-fired plant will be cleaner than coal, more efficient, cheaper to operate, and better for the environment. We suspect Utica/Marcellus gas would help feed the plant. And yet, anti-fossil fuel wackos oppose the plan to switch to cleaner-burning natgas. Would they prefer no electricity?…
Perhaps the proposed legislation by PA Rep. Dan Moul (Republican from Gettysburg) to gut not only the DRBC (Delaware River Basin Commission) of its power to regulate groundwater, but also to gut the SRBC (Susquehanna River Basin Commission), is not so far off the mark after all (see 
In March, MDN brought you the news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had taken “significant action” to address the Trump tax cut legislation enacted last December (see