Author Archives: Jim Willis, Marcellus Drilling News

New Fortress LNG Project Recommended by DRBC Hearing Officer

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Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

 

There may be no crying in baseball but there certainly is in game played by the Delaware PovertyKeeper with the New Fortress LNG project, which has failed.

In May the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) held a virtual public hearing on the issue of the DRBC’s prior decision to approve construction of a dock in the Delaware River that will allow New Fortress Energy to load LNG tanker ships with LNG transported to the dock from a new liquefaction plant being built in northeastern Pennsylvania . Both New Fortress and the radicals at THE Delaware Riverkeeper were given time to make their case for and against. The hearing officer (i.e. judge) recently announced his decision.

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Leidy South and Another Critical Pipeline Project Approved by FERC

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Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

 

There are critical pipeline projects being approved by FERC and two important to the Northeast just got the nod; the Leidy South project and the FM100.

In December 2018, Williams announced a new project to increase capacity along the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) in PA by an extra 582,400 dekatherms (582 million cubic feet) per day. Williams officially filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the “Leidy South Project” in August 2019. Great news: On Friday, FERC approved the Leidy South Project. FERC also approved a second project that works hand-in-glove with the Leidy project: National Fuel Gas Company’s FM100 project.

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Gentry Class Shills at PennFuture Frustrated with Wolf Who Can Count

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Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

 

PennFuture is strictly gentry class, funded by wealthy scions of the Heinz and Haas families, and they’re mad as hell at Tom Wolf who may now sign HB 1100.

Last week we brought you the rumor that a bill to allow incentives for petrochemical plants willing to build new facilities in Pennsylvania (generating hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of investment in the state) appears to be back on after the bill was vetoed by Gov. Tom Wolf earlier this year (see Bill to Bring Cracker-Type Investment to Northeast PA Resurrected). The radicals at PennFuture, a profoundly partisan/leftist organization fueled with Big Green donations, is raising the alarm that House Bill (HB) 1100 is back on and that Wolf is ready to sign a revised version.

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Methane Leaks A Phony Issue When It Comes to These Pipelines

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Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

 

The DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory just did a study of some Appalachian shale gathering pipelines and found no significant methane leaks.

It’s such a breath of fresh air (and so rare) when we spot actual, in-the-field, real science being done. So many times the “studies” we see published are nothing more than rehashed interpretations, speculation, and outright fabrications parading as scientific inquiry. We spotted a new study published just yesterday in the journal MDPI Atmosphere by researchers with the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Pittsburgh. In 2019 researchers flew specially outfitted drones with methane sniffers over 73 kilometers (45 miles) of Utica Shale gathering pipelines and associated infrastructure. Know what they found? There were ZERO methane leaks from the pipelines.

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Chester County DA Office Smacked by Magistrate for Mariner East Politics

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Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

 

The Chester County DA office has repeatedly played politics with the Mariner East pipeline project and it just got smacked by a District Magistrate.

Former Chester County, PA District Attorney Tom Hogan (RINO), and his successor Deb Ryan (Democrat) are 100% humiliated after a Chester County Magisterial District Judge dismissed the entire case against the local head of security for Energy Transfer in what the DA’s office lyingly calls a “buy a badge scheme.” Judge John Bailey dismissed all 54 criminal counts against Frank Recknagel over his hiring of constables as off-duty security guards for the Mariner East pipeline project. The DA’s office tried to criminalize moonlighting for the pipeline.

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Phil Murphy, the Pander Bear, Plays Racial Politics with Energy

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Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

 

Phil Murphy, another New Jersey governor from Wall Street has decided to play racial politics with bill that will halt revitalization of poor communities.

Not even Andrew Cuomo, as grossly corrupt as he is, has thought up something this vile and evil–using the currently toxic environment of race relations across our country as a means to block all new fossil fuel energy projects–specifically pipelines, compressor stations and power generating plants–by declaring such projects racist by definition. That’s what will happen in New Jersey if a new bill, Senate Bill 232, becomes law.

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New York State Public Service Commission Stuck Between Closing Walls

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Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

 

Andrew Cuomo has put the New York State Public Service Commission into one of those movie scenes where walls are closing in and there is no way to escape.

Fossil fuel haters in New York successfully pressured New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reject the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline in May. And, as we reported two weeks ago, the same antis now insist Cuomo not allow *any* new quantities of natural gas get delivered to the Long Island and New York City vicinity by non-pipeline means. So what happens when gas supplies run out?

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Trump Not Letting A Crisis Go to Waste on Our Side Either

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Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

 

President Trump is using his executive authority to make sure crises don’t go to waste on our side either by fast-tracking pipeline infrastructure projects!

Last Thursday President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) titled, “Accelerating the Nation’s Economic Recovery from the COVID-19 Emergency by Expediting Infrastructure Investments and Other Activities.” The EO taps the President’s emergency powers to address and mitigate the economic and employment crises resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, by invoking emergency permitting procedures for infrastructure projects, including pipelines, that are otherwise delayed by regulatory roadblocks.

This includes projects subject to Clean Water Act water quality permits, the Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide 12 (NP12) permit program, and the Endangered Species Act. This EO potentially has big implications for finishing up both the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) projects.

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Water Quality Certification Rule Issued to Stop States Blocking Pipelines!

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Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

 

New water quality certification rules have been issued by the EPA to halt the political blocking of pipeline construction by the likes of Andrew Cuomo.

In April 2019, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) 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. In keeping with the EO, the EPA issued a draft new rule in August 2019 tightening up standards used in Section 401, creating new boundaries so states like New York and Washington can’t continue to “color outside the lines” by rejecting pipelines for political reasons, as they have both done. Yesterday, the EPA released the final version of the new rule.

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Gene Yaw Blasts New York and New Jersey for Axing NESE Pipeline

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Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

 

Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw lays it all out, with unapologetic language; New York and New Jersey governors stuck it to everyone in vetoing NESE.

Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw, a Republican whose district covers portions of central and northeast PA, has his praiseworthy moments. This is one of them. Last week New York’s uber-corrupt Governor, Andrew Cuomo, and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, once again pandered to their radical Democrat base by rejecting a critically needed natural gas pipeline. The Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline would have flowed PA Marcellus shale gas to New York City and Long Island. Yaw blasted NY and NJ for their rejection using strong language.

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