Wind turbines growing more numerous and more powerful

From an Article by Rachel McDevitt, State Impact Pennsylvania, May 27, 2022

PHOTO IN ARTICLE ~ Turbines that are part of the Sandy Ridge Wind Farm in Centre and Blair counties. Wind energy is one option for electricity consumers in Pennsylvania.

The electric grid operator for the region that includes Pennsylvania is PJM (aka Pennsylvania – Jersey – Maryland) is preparing for a shift in electricity generation. There are nearly 700 Pennsylvania projects waiting in PJM’s queue. Most are solar projects. PJM recently released a road map for the grid of the future.

Over the next 15 years, it expects to add 100,000 megawatts of renewable power from sources including onshore and offshore wind, solar, and battery storage. Right now there are about 15,000 MW of renewables on the PJM grid. It takes one megawatt to power about 200 homes.

PJM estimates it will cost $3 billion to bring on those resources. Some of those costs could be offset by federal infrastructure money. But some will ultimately filter down to consumers’ bills. However, some experts argue that the low cost of generating renewable energy and a more efficient grid will save money in the long term.

To prepare, PJM is looking to streamline the process for new sources to join the grid and studying how to expand transmission and maintain reliability. Electric generators and municipalities within PJM recently voted to speed up and improve the process for getting new power on the grid. The plan is expected to go into effect later this year or in early 2023. Under it, proposed projects would be addressed on a first-ready, first-served basis rather than first come, first served. PJM would also simplify its analysis of project costs.

This PJM operator says the number of projects entering its New Services Queue has nearly tripled over the past four years, because of the rapid growth in renewables. PJM started this year with nearly 2,500 projects under study, with the vast majority of proposed megawatts coming from renewable or storage resources.

The plan would create a fast track for about 450 projects. There are nearly 700 Pennsylvania projects waiting in PJM’s queue. Most are solar projects.

PJM Interconnection coordinates the movement of electricity through all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Pennsylvania has a total generation capacity of more than 48,000 megawatts.

About StateImpact Pennsylvania ~ StateImpact Pennsylvania is a collaboration among WITF, WHYY, and the Allegheny Front. Reporters Reid Frazier, Rachel McDevitt and Susan Phillips cover the commonwealth’s energy economy. Read their reports on this site, and hear them on public radio stations across Pennsylvania.

Marcellus shale drilling in Bradford County, Pennsylvania

From an Article by Jon Hurdle, StateImpact Pennsylvania, March 31, 2022

Renewed attempts by Pennsylvania House Republicans to boost natural gas production by ending a ban on new drilling on public lands, among other measures, are unlikely to succeed because the industry already owns many unused leases on those lands, and because it lacks the pipeline capacity to take any new gas to market even if it was produced, analysts said.

In early March, GOP members introduced a raft of bills and resolutions designed to increase gas production and so lessen national dependence on imported energy at a time when Russia, a major energy exporter, has invaded neighboring Ukraine.

The measures seek to halt Gov. Tom Wolf’s moratorium on new drilling under state forests; urge the Delaware River Basin Commission to end its ban on fracking in the basin; ask the governors of New York and New Jersey to allow pipeline construction so that more Pennsylvania gas can get to market; and boost domestic consumption of natural gas by stopping Pennsylvania’s plan to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

But all the initiatives are likely to miss their targets, and represent another Republican attempt to enact familiar measures at the behest of the natural gas industry, analysts said.

“All these are things that they have been suggesting on behalf of the natural gas industry for years,” said David Hess, who was secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection from 2001 to 2003 under Republican governors Tom Ridge and Mark Schweiker. “It’s nothing new.”

Hess said that even if the Legislature approves the plan to open up state lands to new drilling, it wouldn’t result in the desired production increase because some two-thirds of the leases already held by drillers are unused, showing that it’s not the ban on opening up public lands that’s holding back production.

In fact, he said, drillers have avoided developing many leases because of low market prices, at least until the middle of 2021. More recently, expansion has been slowed by a labor shortage, supply-chain snarls, and even a shortage of sand for fracking. “It would be a little silly to open more land to leasing when they haven’t developed what was considered prime leasable land back in 2008,” Hess said.

Cindy Adams Dunn, secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, told lawmakers in a Senate budget committee hearing on March 2 that 65 percent of existing shale gas leases in state forests have not been developed.

Quoting data from Pennsylvania’s nonpartisan Independent Fiscal Office, Hess noted that the industry produced gas from 10,322 wells in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared with 13,395 drilled, showing that more than 3,000 wells are shut in.

“Right now, today, they have multiple options if they wanted to increase production out there,” he said. “So far, they have not shown any interest in doing that.”

Despite Republican calls for higher gas production, IFO figures show it actually increased by 6.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared with a year earlier, suggesting more downward pressure on prices.

Natural gas futures prices rose to around $5.50 per million British thermal units in late 2021, their highest in more than a decade, after years when abundant production from the state’s Marcellus Shale kept the price at around $3. On Tuesday, the futures price in New York closed at $5.33.

Before the recent spike, the market slump deterred energy companies from adding new production, even from some wells that they had already drilled, and led some investors to pull back on their support of the Pennsylvania industry after returns had not been all they had hoped.

“Investors in these companies want to get their money out,” Hess said. “They learned their lesson. The finance folks who invest in these companies are holding them on a tighter rein than they did before.”

House majority leader Kerry Benninghoff (R-Center/Mifflin) said the United States should use Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an opportunity to wean itself off energy imports from countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, and instead ramp up domestic production from places like Pennsylvania.

“Gas-producing areas need to do their part to step up; and while President Biden and other world leaders are looking to countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia—countries that do not share our values—to increase production and make up the difference, they really should be looking to places like Pennsylvania,” Benninghoff said at a news conference on March 8.

Legislation to allow new drilling on state lands was made by Rep. Clint Owlett (R-Bradford/Tioga/Potter) who said production from those areas could be increased without disturbing the natural environment by siting well pads outside the preserved area and extracting gas by sub-surface horizontal drilling.

Revenue generated from leasing subsurface rights would “most importantly put us on a path where we as a country are not relying on Russian gas,” Owlett said in a statement on March 7. The next day, President Joe Biden signed an executive order banning the import of oil, liquefied natural gas and coal from Russia to the United States.

Jason Gottesman, a spokesman for House Republicans, denied that Biden’s order undermined the GOP proposals. He argued that the order doesn’t have the force of law, and could be changed by the current executive or the next one. He said Pennsylvania is a victim of years of federal energy policy that has “deprioritized” domestic energy production, but the state now has the potential to make up a shortfall.

“Pennsylvania has the ability right now to once again invest in and export freedom by being a leader in American energy independence, which makes our country and our allies more secure by no longer needing to be reliant on countries like Russia and other geopolitical actors that do not share our values to heat our homes and fuel our cars,” Gottesman said.

Wolf accused the GOP of trying to use the Ukraine crisis to meet longstanding demands from the gas industry. Although he supports bipartisan moves to cut Pennsylvania’s financial ties with Russia, he issued a statement dismissing the plans to boost gas production as “simply ​natural gas industry giveaways.”

Other measures proposed by lawmakers included one from Rep. Jonathan Fritz (R-Wayne/Susquehanna) who highlighted a bill urging the Delaware River Basin Commission to end its ban on fracking in the basin that covers parts of four states, including eastern Pennsylvania. The DRBC is a federal/state government agency responsible for managing the water resources within the 13,539 square-mile river basin.

And Rep. Stan Saylor (R-York) introduced a resolution that would urge the governors of New York and New Jersey to allow construction of natural gas pipelines so that Pennsylvania gas could reach markets in New England, which Saylor said have been “walled off” by anti-pipeline policies in those two states.

Analysts said there was little prospect of New York and New Jersey allowing new gas pipelines, given their pursuit of clean-energy goals, New York’s ban on fracking beginning in 2014, and a decision last year by the PennEast company to end a controversial plan to build a natural gas pipeline from Luzerne County to central New Jersey. That project faced strong community opposition, especially in New Jersey, and was withdrawn after seven years on the drawing board.

“I don’t think a resolution urging New Jersey and New York to change their own energy policy that they adopted for whatever reason is going to have any impact,” Hess said. And he argued that any policy change by the DRBC would require the unlikely approval by the governors of all four basin states – all Democrats – as well as from the federal government.

Matthew Bernstein, senior analyst for shale exploration and production at Rystad Energy, a Norway-based research firm, said lifting the ban on new drilling under state lands would do nothing to boost production because output is restrained by a shortage of pipeline capacity.

“The main issue surrounding increasing production in Pennsylvania is not a lack of land to drill, but rather a lack of the necessary takeaway capacity to bring the gas to market,” he wrote in an email. “No material increase, with or without lifting the ban, is possible in the short-term, and is then dependent on whether future pipelines taking gas out of the basin come online.”

Rystad projects Pennsylvania gas production will remain flat in 2022 because drillers are already producing as much as they can, regardless of the market price, given transmission restraints.

John Walliser, a senior vice president at the nonprofit Pennsylvania Environmental Council, said current gas production is restrained by the industry itself, and not by a shortage of land to drill on.

“There was so much gas being produced that it drove prices down,” he said. “There were questions from the investment side on whether they were getting the return they wanted. I’m personally not of the mind that what’s holding back the industry at the moment is regulation.”

Penna. Republican lawmakers and the U.S. Capitol attack

As part of WITF’s commitment to standing with facts, and because the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was an attempt to overthrow representative democracy in America, we are marking elected officials’ connections to the insurrection.

Reps. Benninghoff and Owlett supported Donald Trump’s 2020 election-fraud lie by signing a letter urging members of Congress to object to Pennsylvania’s electoral votes going to Joe Biden. The election-fraud lie led to the attack on the Capitol.

Delaware River (black trace) forms boundaries for these Penna. counties: Delaware, Philadelphia, Bucks, Northampton, Monroe & Pike

From an Article by Maya Weber, S&P Global — Platts News, March 10, 2021

Washington — Even with the change in presidential administrations, the US is supporting PennEast Pipeline’s position in a Supreme Court case examining a private developer’s ability to use eminent domain to seize properties in which a state has an interest.

The continuation of the US Solicitor General’s support that emerged toward the end of the Trump Administration could benefit the 116-mile, 1.1 Bcf/d project linking Marcellus Shale dry gas production with markets in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.
The project has struggled with regulatory and litigation hurdles in New Jersey, which challenged the project’s use of eminent domain and rejected water permits.

At issue before the Supreme Court is a 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals judgment that found that because of state sovereign immunity, the private pipeline company lacked authority to pull the state of New Jersey into federal court for condemnation proceedings.

PennEast appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, with backing from other natural gas companies, which argued the ruling could enable states to block interstate gas pipelines and chill investments in infrastructure across the US.

In a friend of the court brief filed March 8, Acting Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued that the 3rd Circuit lacked jurisdiction to determine whether the Natural Gas Act authorizes the pipeline company to condemn state property. The state should have raised its contention about the lack of authority before FERC and in the pending appeals court review of the commission’s decisions, the brief said.

The US also argued that the “text, structure, history and purpose” of the NGA show it authorizes pipeline certificate holders to condemn all property needed to build a FERC-approved pipeline, “whether or not a state claims any interest in such property.” On its face, the US argued, the authority extends to any property needed for the project, and the court cannot narrow that reach by inserting words Congress chose to omit.

It also argued that principles of state sovereign immunity do not require a different conclusion; it said Congress has long delegated the right of eminent domain to private actors.

Impact on role of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)

In addition, the US brief warned of a potentially profound effect on FERC’s ability to administer the interstate natural gas system, suggesting the 3rd Circuit decision would turn state conservation easements into “a sword against federally approved projects.”

“Under the court of appeals’ decision, all the state needs to preclude any FERC-approved project it opposes is a willing landowner along the route,” the US wrote, adding the state could also use its own eminent domain powers if the landowner was unwilling.

Congress added the section of the NGA on eminent domain, it said, to prevent states from nullifying FERC’s exercise of its exclusive jurisdiction to regulate the transport of gas in interstate commerce.

New Jersey, in arguing against Supreme Court review, had called warnings about implications of the 3rd Circuit ruling overstated, and said the unanimous circuit court judgment reflected the proper application of sovereign immunity law and statutory interpretation rules.

PennEast, in a statement March 10, welcomed the continued US support, which it said “underscores this case presents an issue that cuts across party lines.”

The company said several factors potentially impact its anticipated in-service date. “Among those factors are approval from FERC on the phased approach and approval of the remaining permit applications from Pennsylvania regulators, as well as construction-related considerations,” it said. “We anticipate placing the Phase One facilities in service in 2022 and Phase Two facilities in service in 2024.”

Faced with the adverse 3rd Circuit ruling affecting the route in New Jersey, PennEast had sought permission from FERC to build the project in two phases (CP20-47), with the first in the friendlier regulatory terrain of Pennsylvania. That amendment application faces opposition from environmental groups and local interests at FERC.

What we know about the upcoming vote to decide the fate of fracking in the Delaware River

From an Article by Kathryne Rubright, Pocono Record, February 23, 2021

The Delaware River Basin Commission will vote Thursday on a proposal that would ban high volume hydraulic fracturing, a natural gas extraction process also known as fracking, in the watershed.

The regulations proposed in 2017 would not ban the exportation of water for fracking elsewhere, or the importation of fracking wastewater, but the activities would be subject to DRBC review. Additionally, “new conditions, including stringent treatment and discharge requirements” would be imposed on wastewater, the DRBC said in an FAQ document regarding the proposed regulations.

The basin drains 13,539 square miles, about half of which is in Pennsylvania. This includes all of Bucks, Delaware, Lehigh, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Philadelphia and Pike counties and parts of Berks, Carbon, Chester, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Luzerne, Schuylkill and Wayne counties.

The fracking ban would affect the Pocono region and other northeastern counties sitting entirely or partly over Marcellus Shale: Carbon, Monroe, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Pike, Schuylkill and Wayne.

High volume hydraulic fracturing “presents risks, vulnerabilities and impacts to the quality and quantity of surface and ground water resources,” the DRBC says, citing, among other concerns, the amount of water required to fracture shale and the sometimes-unknown nature of chemicals added to that water.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition, a natural gas industry group, has noted its members disclose chemical information via the registry at fracfocus.org.

Where does fracking stand now?

The DRBC does not have an official moratorium on fracking, but it did vote in 2010 to put off considering well pad dockets until regulations were adopted.

“Since then, the Commission has not received any applications for projects to be conducted on a well pad site – a situation that has sometimes been referred to as a ‘de facto moratorium,’” according to the FAQ.

Who decides this issue?

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has a seat on the commission, along with Gov. John Carney of Delaware, Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, all Democrats.

Brigadier General Thomas J. Tickner, commander and division engineer of the North Atlantic Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is the federal representative.

Wolf, Carney and Murphy have previously expressed support for fully banning fracking in the Delaware River basin. New York has already banned fracking.

From 2019: Gov. Wolf says he supports full fracking ban in Delaware River basin

The Delaware River Frack Ban Coalition is expecting a vote to ban fracking in the basin, but would prefer a fuller measure, saying it has “fiercely opposed the halfway measure of banning fracking but allowing frack wastewater to be dumped in the river and water to be exported and consumed to spur fracking.”

Some landowners in the watershed have questioned the DRBC’s authority to prevent them from profiting from natural gas under their property. The proposed rules note that the commission was given authority to control pollution by the compact that established it in 1961.

How to watch or listen to the meeting —

The meeting will be conducted at 10:30 a.m. Thursday on Zoom at this link: bit.ly/3kffleG. The meeting requires an ID (957 5916 5248) and a passcode (528513).

It will also be livestreamed on the DRBC YouTube channel: bit.ly/3qLZGpZ

Several phone numbers are available for dialing in, including 929-205-6099. See the DRBC’s meeting notice at bit.ly/2ZHzdhb

The meeting does not include time for members of the public to make comments. Public input was gathered at six public hearings in 2018 and through an online submission form.

LNG leaks, accidents, explosions and fires are risks that are unacceptable in high population areas

By Hannah Chinn, WHYY, StateImpact Pennsylvania, September 11, 2020

The LNG export terminal proposed for Gibbstown, New Jersey, will have to wait a bit longer, now that the multistate Delaware River Basin Commission has postponed a vote on the project until data and documents in the case can be reviewed.

The project would involve construction of a new dock and partial dredging of the Delaware River off Gloucester County. It’s part of a plan by developer Delaware River Partners — an affiliate of New York hedge fund Fortress Investment Group — to ship liquefied natural gas from Wyalusing, in Pennsylvania’s gas-rich Marcellus Shale region, to Gibbstown, where the gas would be loaded onto ships and exported elsewhere.

To reach Gibbstown, the gas would be transported in trucks or rail cars, following federal approval last month of the nation’s first LNG-by-rail permit.

Plans for the LNG terminal were initially approved by the DRBC in June 2019, but that move was appealed by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and subsequently reviewed in a May adjudicatory hearing and public comment period. The officer overseeing that hearing ultimately recommended that the commission uphold its earlier approval.

DRBC members are required to vote publicly on whether to accept the hearing officer’s recommendation or reject it. On Thursday, they opted for a third option and delayed the decision, citing a need for more time.

“Given the size of the record, the technical nature of much extensive evidence, and the submission of briefs as recently as last week, completing a careful and thorough review by all of the commissioners by this meeting has not been possible,” the commission’s general counsel, Kenneth Warren, said Thursday. “Additional time for review and deliberation is required.”

The Gibbstown vote was not listed on the formal agenda for Thursday’s meeting, although local governments and environmental advocates hustled to oppose the decision and lobby their state’s representatives on the commission. The urgency may have stemmed, in part, from the fact that, if no action was taken, the developer could have begun constructing a dock and dredging the Delaware River as early as next week.

“Given its existing government approvals, [Delaware River Partners] could commence construction anytime after Sept. 15,” Warren said. “The commissioners may wish to preserve the status quo by staying the docket approval until the commission issues a final determination resolving the administrative appeal.”

Warren added that the decision to “stay” would not be indicative of any future choice by the commissioners to allow or deny the project.

The motion to postpone passed 3-1-1, with “yes” votes from New Jersey, New York and Delaware. Lt. Col. David Park voted “no” on behalf of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, while Pennsylvania abstained.

“I want to be clear: Delaware’s support is for us to reasonably complete the process and should not be read as anything else,” said Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Shawn Garvin, who serves as that state’s commissioner and current DRBC chair. “Our focus is and will be on those things that fall under DRBC’s jurisdiction, but at this point, we do need some extra time to make sure that we have fully and thoughtfully reviewed all of the information that was recently provided to us.”

More than 90 people tuned in to the commission’s third-quarter public hearing to hear the results of the vote. Environmental advocates praised the decision in a public comment session afterward, saying the commissioners were “making the right move.”

“As we face the future here in the Delaware River Watershed, the health of our river and its 13,000-square-mile watershed depends in large part on the big-picture decisions you make at these meetings,” Tracey Carluccio, of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, told the commissioners as she thanked them for a “thoughtful delay.”

“Any time you delay a bad project, it’s a win for the environment,” added New Jersey Sierra Club president Jeff Tittel. Plans that support fracking, or that send “bomb trains” through vulnerable communities could be devastating, he said, noting that “the more we know, the more we realize how bad it is for the environment.”

On Wednesday, representatives of both organizations had delivered flash drives to the governors of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware, as well as the Army Corps of Engineers, which holds the fifth vote on the commission. The drives contained 50,962 petitions, resolutions from local governments along the proposed LNG shipping routes, and multiple letters from community groups, scientists, and environmental groups opposing the LNG export terminal.

Among others participating in the petition campaign were 350 Philly, Better Path Coalition, Catskill Mountainkeeper, Clean Air Council, Clean Water Action, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, Empower NJ, Food and Water Action, Friends of the Earth, Mark Ruffalo for Move.On, Natural Resources Defense Council, Protect Northern PA, and Surfrider NJ and NY. A group of health professionals and 133 environmental group representatives, as well as actor-activist Ruffalo, also submitted letters to DRBC calling for a no vote on the project.

That public opposition appears to be mounting, as local government units including Lehigh County, Kutztown Borough, and Clarks Summit in Pennsylvania and Runnemede Borough in New Jersey have passed legislation opposing the transport of LNG through their communities. Several Philadelphia City Council members have indicated similar concerns, noting that a rail route through the city would expose Black, brown and low-income communities to the most intense zones of impact in the event of a derailment or explosion.

And then there are the people of Gibbstown, who would be directly affected. “I’m just a mom,” said Vanessa Keegan, one of the last to offer a comment at the meeting Thursday. She turned the camera to her 3-year-old son, Theo.

“Those signs in the Pennsylvania report that just came out, kids with the bloody noses and problems, that’s going to be us. And I am begging you to save my family — and that’s all I really wanted to say today, is that there are real people here, and I hope you protect us.”

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See also: GENERAL COUNSEL REPORT AND VOTE ON GIBBSTOWN ADMINISTRATIVE APPEAL, September 10, 2020

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See also: Marcellus LNG “Bomb Trains” Approved for Travel thru Philadelphia to New Jersey, FrackCheckWV, December 11, 2019

The population density in the Delaware River valley is very high, and should be protected from risks of fires and explosions as an entire train could burn and explode.

From an Article by Marc Levy, Minneapolis Star Tribune (AP), August 18, 2020

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A coalition of six environmental advocacy groups asked a federal judge on Tuesday to block a new Trump administration rule to allow rail shipments of liquefied natural gas, a new front in the movement of energy products backed by both the natural gas and rail freight industries.

The groups will argue in court that, among other things, the administration did not adequately study the new rule to ensure that the activity it is authorizing is safe for workers, communities and the environment, said Jordan Luebkemann, a lawyer for Earthjustice, which is representing the groups court.

The rule, they said, would allow shipments of the flammable and odorless liquid known as LNG by rail in tanker cars that are untested and that cannot withstand high-speed impacts.

“Under this new rule, it’s only a matter of time before we see an explosion in a major population center,” said Emily Jeffers, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration declined comment. The agency published the rule late last month in the Federal Register and it takes effect in the coming days.

The rule comes amid foundering prices for natural gas in the U.S., as court and regulatory battles over pipeline projects have slowed movement of the nation’s world-leading gas production to markets.

The country’s natural gas boom has fueled massive growth in LNG exports, growing last year by more than 65 times the amount exported in 2015, according to federal figures.

The rule requires enhancements — including a thicker outer tank made of steel with a greater puncture resistance — to the approved tank car design that, for decades, has been approved for shipments of other flammable cryogenic materials, such as liquid ethylene and liquid ethane.

Previously, federal hazardous materials regulations allowed shipments of LNG by truck, but not by rail, except with a special permit.

Fifteen states also objected to the rule during the comment period. Those states included Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where the Trump administration issued a special permit in December to ship LNG by rail from northern Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale natural gas fields to a yet-to-be-built storage terminal at a former explosives plant in New Jersey, along the Delaware River near Philadelphia.

From there, the LNG is expected to be exported to foreign markets for electricity production, although the applicant, a subsidiary of New Fortress Energy, has told federal regulators that some domestic industrial use is possible.

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See also: Marcellus LNG “Bomb Trains” Approved for Travel thru Philadelphia to New Jersey — Federal officials will let LNG be shipped by rail to Gibbstown, N.J., port on Delaware River, Andrew Maykuth, Philadelphia Inquirer, December 9, 2019

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See also: The High Risks of Fires & Explosions on LNG Railroad Cars — Some 15 states oppose Trump plan to allow LNG shipments by rail, MARC LEVY, Associated Press, WSAV NBC News 3, January 14, 2020

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein speaks out ...

Article by MARC LEVY, Associated Press, WSAV NBC News 3, January 14, 2020

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The attorneys general of 15 states said this week that they oppose a Trump administration proposal to allow rail shipments of liquefied natural gas, arguing the trains will share tracks with passenger trains and travel through congested areas.

The protesting states included Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where the Trump administration issued a special permit in December to ship LNG by rail.

The rulemaking by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration stems from Trump signing an executive order in April that, in addition to seeking to speed up oil and gas pipeline projects, directed the transportation secretary to propose a rule allowing liquefied natural gas to be shipped in approved rail tank cars.

In their 18 pages of comments submitted Monday, the states said the Trump administration’s proposed rule would put residents, first responders and the environment at greater risk of catastrophic accidents. The administration failed to adequately analyze those risks and failed to consider the environmental and climate effects of allowing LNG to be shipped in rail tank cars, the states said.

The flammable and odorless liquid would be transported “through densely populated areas, potentially in unit trains of up to 100 tank cars operated by just one person, on the same rail lines used by high speed passenger trains, with inadequate safety precautions,” the states said.

They asked the pipeline administration to withdraw the proposed rule pending the completion of more safety studies and the development of an environmental impact statement.

Federal hazardous materials regulations allow LNG shipments by truck, but not by rail, except for with a special permit.

In December, the Trump administration issued a special permit to a New Fortress Energy subsidiary to ship LNG by rail from northern Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale natural gas fields to a yet-to-be-built storage terminal at a former explosives plant in New Jersey, along the Delaware River near Philadelphia.

From there, the LNG would be exported to foreign markets.

The other objecting states were California, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia.

Unit trains are often 100 RR cars long

Monday was the deadline for comments to be filed.
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See also: Massive oil refinery leaks toxic chemical in the middle of Philadelphia on June 21, 2019

PennEast natural gas pipeline is under construction in northeast Pennsylvania

From an Article by Jon Hurdle, New Jersey Spotlight, January 6, 2020

The PennEast Pipeline Company is asking federal regulators for two more years to build its controversial natural gas pipeline through New Jersey and Pennsylvania, saying it has been the victim of “unforeseeable circumstances” that have delayed construction some two years beyond its original start date.

The company wrote to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on December 30, saying it has used its “best efforts” to meet a FERC certificate that required putting the proposed pipeline into service by this month but now needs the extra time.

Critics of the controversial pipeline say, given legal and regulatory challenges, company is unlikely to meet its desired new deadline of January 2022

Arguably the biggest setback was an appeals court ruling in September, holding that the company was not entitled to build the pipeline on 49 parcels of protected land in which the State of New Jersey has an interest.

The company says it will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court but a decision on whether to hear the case isn’t expected until mid-2020, and even if the court takes the case, a ruling is unlikely before early 2021.

PennEast will be unable to resubmit its failed applications for water-quality and other permits to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection until any Supreme Court ruling on whether the pipeline can be built on state land.

Other permitting challenges exist

The troubled project must also obtain permits from the Delaware River Basin Commission, which is reviewing its application but has not scheduled required public hearings.

The continuing legal and regulatory requirements hanging over the project make it highly unlikely that it will be able to meet its desired new deadline of January 19, 2022 even if FERC grants the extension, critics said.

“I think it’s very unrealistic to go two years,” said Tim Duggan, an attorney for several local government entities and about 45 individual landowners who oppose the project. He estimated that any Supreme Court review would take six to nine months and even if PennEast wins its appeal, it will then have to face both the DEP — where permit applications can take a year to be decided — and the DRBC.

Faced with that timetable, Duggan said the company may be planning on asking for a further two years after the currently sought period expires. “They’re going to get the two years but I don’t think it’s enough time,” he said.

He argued that the chances of the pipeline being built are further limited by the environmental policies of the Murphy administration, which aims to create a 100% clean-energy economy by 2050, and would be undermining that goal if it approved a major piece of fossil fuel infrastructure like PennEast.

The $1 billion pipeline would carry natural gas about 120 miles from the Marcellus Shale of northeastern Pennsylvania, crossing beneath the Delaware River, and ending in Mercer County. The company says the project would bring low-cost natural gas to consumers in New Jersey but critics including the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel, a watchdog for utility ratepayers, say it’s an unnecessary and environmentally damaging plan.

The project has aroused strong community opposition in New Jersey, especially from landowners who fear their private water wells will be contaminated by construction. Many have denied PennEast access to their land for surveying.

In Pennsylvania, PennEast is seeking permits from regulators, and has modified its route in four places.

What natural gas shortage?

Popular resistance is the main reason for the delays, argued Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “PennEast said they needed the pipeline in 2015 because of the shortage of gas in the region. Here we are five years later and there is still no shortage and PennEast is looking to delay the project even longer.”

In its two-page request to FERC, PennEast said it is “considering available remedies” to address the DEP’s “unfounded claim” that it could not move forward with the permit application because the Third Circuit Court of Appeals said the company could not build on the state lands.

The company, whose investors include a unit of New Jersey Resources, said postponement of the in-service date would have no impact on FERC’s findings that the project is in the public interest, and therefore that the company has the right to take private land under eminent domain.

“PennEast remains committed to constructing this important energy infrastructure project and placing the project into service as soon as possible,” it said.

Company spokeswoman Pat Kornick declined to say what legal remedies the company might pursue against the DEP, but said PennEast will appeal to the Supreme Court over the September appeals court decision by early February. FERC declined to comment.

In October, the DEP denied PennEast’s application for a water-quality permit for the second time, saying the Third Circuit’s ruling means the company “no longer has the legal authority to perform activities” on the 49 parcels.

The court ruling stands in the way of any further movement, said Tom Gilbert, campaign manager for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, an outspoken opponent of the project.

“At this point, given that Third Circuit decision, they are unable to move this project forward,” Gilbert said. “They don’t have legal authority over properties that they are depending on to build their pipeline in New Jersey, and unless and until they can find some way to resolve that issue, this project is going nowhere.”

Rather than planning for another extension, PennEast is likely looking at the end of the road for its project, Gilbert said. “If the Supreme Court refuses to take the case up, they are pretty much out of options.”

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See also: FERC: Natural Gas Pipelines: Approved Pipeline Projects (2015 — 2019)

See also: Cineplex Rex — Natural Gas Pipeline Video Clips

Proposed Penn-East pipeline project would disturb farmland

From an Article by Mike Catalini, NBC News 10 (Philadelphia), October 12, 2019

This is the latest setback for the years-old proposed Penn-East Pipeline project that would run from northeastern Pennsylvania and terminate near Trenton, NJ.

New Jersey has denied the permits for a $1.1 billion, roughly 120-mile long pipeline that would bring Marcellus Shale natural gas to New Jersey, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday.

“We are committed to transitioning New Jersey to 100% clean energy by 2050,” Murphy said in a tweet that included the Department of Environmental Protection’s rejection letter to PennEast Pipeline Company for permits.

It’s the latest setback for the years-old proposed project that would run from northeastern Pennsylvania and terminate near Trenton, though the company indicated in a statement it’s not finished fighting for the pipeline.

“PennEast member companies remain fully committed to the PennEast Pipeline Project and the affordable, reliable service it will bring to the region,” spokeswoman Pat Kornick said in an email.

New Jersey’s DEP said it denied the permits in light of last month’s ruling by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said PennEast couldn’t use eminent domain to acquire dozens of properties owned by the state and preserved for farmland and open space. The Department said that because of the ruling the company no longer had the authority to carry out necessary requirements inline with New Jersey law.

PennEast has argued the pipeline would bring jobs and needed low-cost natural gas to homes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, but Environmental groups worry the project will cut a scar across the landscape and harm wildlife.

PennEast’s application with federal regulators goes back to 2015.

The company, which is made up of five different energy companies, has won federal and Pennsylvania permitting approvals including a key Federal Energy Regulatory Commission certificate that could allow the firm to use eminent domain to acquire land. But the appeals court short-circuited that ability in part with its September ruling.

Multiple states and millions of people depend upon the Delaware River

From an Update by Miguel Cordon, S&P Global Market Intelligence, August 22, 2018

A New Jersey agency in charge of protecting state ratepayers asked a federal appeals court to review the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval of PennEast Pipeline’s 1.1-Bcf/d natural gas pipeline project.

The New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel in a Monday letter asked the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to review a FERC order that issued a Natural Gas Act certificate to the project and another order that turned down a request that the commission reconsider that approval. The state agency said it was “aggrieved” by the FERC rulings.

The New Jersey agency has disagreed with the federal commission’s conclusion that the project was needed. During the pipeline’s federal review, the state agency submitted evidence that it said demonstrated a lack of gas demand from New Jersey gas utilities (US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit docket 18-2853).

FERC recently issued a number of orders that shut down challenges to its approvals of major interstate gas pipeline projects. One of these orders rejected a rehearing request by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network related to the FERC approval of PennEast. The environmental group has asked the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the FERC approval and rehearing orders on PennEast.

The PennEast pipeline would run from Pennsylvania to New Jersey to deliver gas from the Marcellus Shale. Shippers for the project, including local distribution companies and electric power generators, have subscribed to about 1 Bcf/d of the project’s firm transportation capacity in binding precedent agreements. The project would consists of a 36-inch-diameter pipeline running 120 miles from Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, to an interconnection with Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line in Mercer County, New Jersey (CP15-558).

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Kayakers call for ‘full’ fracking ban in Delaware River basin

From an Article by Kyle Bagenstose, The Doylestown PA Intelligencer, August 21, 2018

Demonstrators launched a protest from Bordentown Beach, saying they want New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to ban importation of wastewater from drilling operations.

Call them kayak-tivists.

A group of demonstrators took their self-powered watercraft to the Delaware River on Tuesday morning, along with a banner carrying their message to “Ban Fracking and Frack Waste” in the river’s basin. A small contingent also took a three-hour excursion up the Crosswicks Creek in Bordetown, New Jersey, forgoing an earlier plan to cross the Delaware River to Bristol Borough due to an ominous weather forecast.

The demonstration is the latest iteration of a nearly decade-long effort to ban hydraulic fracturing, a natural gas drilling technique, in the basin. The focus is directed on the Delaware River Basin Commission, an inter-state regulatory agency whose five-member voting body comprises the governors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York, along with a federal government representative.

The DRBC is currently mulling regulations on fracking, which has been de facto banned in the basin since the commission punted on the issue in 2010 following intense public pressure.

Draft regulations presented in late 2017 would ban the use of hydraulic fracturing to reach natural gas deposits, a technique that has propagated throughout much of central and western Pennsylvania over the past decade. But they would allow for the regulated importation of waste from fracking operations elsewhere into the basin for treatment, and for clean water to be withdrawn from the basin for use in drilling operations.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie abstained from a vote last year that advanced the draft regulations, and activists on Tuesday directed the most attention toward current Gov. Phil Murphy.

“We want him to stand with us to defend the Delaware River, and vote at the (DRBC), where they will be voting before the end of the year,” said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the nonprofit Bristol-based Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “We want all three of the activities to be banned.”

Kate Schmidt, a spokeswoman for the commission, wrote in an email the DRBC has “no set schedule” for when it will vote on the regulations. “As always, the Commission may adopt final rules only at a duly noticed public meeting,” Schmidt added.

Whenever the vote does come, Murphy’s ability to change the course of regulations is uncertain. After they were proposed last year, the governors of Delaware, New York, and Pennsylvania all voted in favor of advancing to a formal review, with New Jersey abstaining and the federal government voting against. If that majority holds when the draft regulations are taken up for an official vote later this year, New Jersey’s vote would be extraneous.

Jeff Tittel, president of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said Tuesday he thinks Murphy could still exert influence. He pointed out Murphy is now the chairman of the commission.

“We want him to lead as chair to amend the rules, to take out the fracking waste and withdrawal of water,” Tittel said. “If you give them the water for fracking, and then they turn around and give you the waste back, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Tittel added he believed the Murphy administration is waffling from a campaign trail commitment to support a full ban. He said Kathleen Frangione, Murphy’s chief policy advisory, and Catherine McCabe, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Agency secretary, said recently they were “studying” the issue of banning wastewater importation.

A news release still on Murphy’s campaign website also includes the text of a letter he submitted to the DRBC in June 2017 advocating for a full ban. “I fully support a ban on the importation of fracking wastes into New Jersey — to protect against an accident or spill that would harm our lands and waters,” Murphy wrote.

However, Murphy’s office did not say Tuesday whether the governor would take any actions to pursue a full ban. Asked for the governor’s position, deputy press secretary Liza Acevedo pointed in part to a February 2018 letter Murphy wrote to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf.

In the letter, Murphy wrote only that he “Supports a ban on fracking and the commission’s efforts to drive this policy through these draft regulations.”

Acevedo later added “The Governor does not comment on draft regulations, particularly ones that received a high volume of comments that are being reviewed by staff.”

Carluccio and Tittel said they are primarily concerned about toxic materials in wastewater from fracturing operations reaching the basin’s waterways. Particularly of interest is the Delaware River itself, which serves as a source of drinking water for millions in the region.

Carluccio said she’s concerned wastewater treatment processes are not capable of fully removing toxic substances from the wastewater before discharging them back into the environment. Much of what’s in wastewater is uncertain due to trade secrecy, although it’s known the water can also pick up contaminants such as barium and radium from underground.

She added she’s worried that as the gas industry runs out of underground injection wells in which to discharge wastewater, they may focus on exporting it to areas such as the basin for disposal.

However, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a drilling industry group, provided figures stating the industry recycles more than 90 percent of its wastewater for use in other wells.

The coalition also argues hydraulic fracturing can be done safely and with little impact to water resources. Often cited is the Susquehanna River basin, which encompasses drilling areas and has its own commission, the SRBC.

“For more than a decade now, the SRBC has safely managed water resources, while allowing for responsible development of property rights,” David Spigelmyer, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, told state lawmakers at a June hearing. “The unconventional natural gas industry has worked closely with the SRBC to ensure that water withdrawals and water usage within the basin are done in a safe and responsible manner.”

Commission officials also are adamant that the draft regulations would be an improvement over what currently exists and discourage the importation of waste water. Schmidt said the current moratorium on drilling does not extend to importation, and the commission can only review any permit applications when they involve withdrawing more than 100,0000 gallons of water or importing more than 50,000 gallons of wastewater per day. Instituting the regulations would place new scrutiny on any such activities for drilling activities, officials said.