Friday, August 31, 2018

Cabot Oil and Gas Looks Back As It Moves Forward

MadisonWeaver.jpegMadison Weaver
Cabot Oil & Gas
External Affairs Intern, Pittsburgh

Cabot Oil and Gas launches a series of new videos on its YouTube channel to look back on some of what’s been accomplished and what to look ahead for in shale.

After ten years in the Marcellus Shale, we sat down with your neighbors and local leaders to ask for their real opinions on what the oil and natural gas industry has meant to Susquehanna County.

In this new video series, “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” throughout the coming months we’ll show you how Cabot Oil and Gas has invested in the lives of local people and how the natural gas industry has spurred economic wellness in the area.

We spoke to farmers, business owners, students, and community leaders about how natural gas development has changed their lives and their organizations for the better.

Screen-Shot-2018-08-31-at-7.40.42-AM-512x284.jpg

Real people told us their stories about what life was like before the industry came to town, how their communities evolved, and how investments changed their livelihoods.

As Cabot continues to invest in Susquehanna and even new areas, we look forward to bringing positive changes to the communities where our employees live and work.

Over the next few months, we’ll introduce you to several real people and share their stories.

All of the videos are available on our YouTube channel. Here’s a sample to get started:

 

Stay tuned for several more excellent videos that will be highlighted here in the future.

Reposted, with permission, from Well Said Cabot.

Editor’s Note: This series of videos, all of which are a minute or less, is excellent and features the real story of the economic miracle that is the shale revolution as it’s unfolded in Susquehanna County, how it’s changed lives for the better and given hope to all of rural America wherever it is endowed with this magnificent natural resource.

The post Cabot Oil and Gas Looks Back As It Moves Forward appeared first on Natural Gas Now.

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/cabot-oil-and-gas-looks-back-as-it-moves-forward/

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Canada’s Trudeau says NAFTA deal possible by Friday

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday it may be possible to reach a deal on NAFTA ahead of U.S. President Trump’s Friday deadline, Kallanish Energy reports.

"We recognize that there is a possibility of getting there by Friday, but it is only a possibility, because it will hinge on whether or not there is ultimately a good deal for Canada," Trudeau said at a press conference in northern Ontario.

"No NAFTA deal is better than a bad NAFTA deal."

A tentative trade deal between Mexico and the U.S. was announced earlier this week. 


https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/canadas-trudeau-says-nafta-deal-possible-by-friday/

Fallacious Dunce Josh Fox Goes to Planet Ithaca to Reboot

Bob-Nolan.jpgBob Nolan
Wayne County, Pennsylvania, Landowner

….

Failed film-maker, tin ear musician and hopelessly insecure and inept, part time lousy raconteur and full time liar, Josh Fox, has come up for air.

Josh Fox has apparently temporarily abandoned the stuffed animals, coloring books and hot chocolate in his mommy basement in an apparent attempt to fund his next trivial, ego stroking adventure. 

Hoping to go to the same well once again to bilk some cash out his equally vacuous and vapid sophomoric sycophants, the bespectacled buffoon ventured to the friendly confines of Planet Ithaca to pan for gold. It was, of course, the logical place to go, being the famous Park Foundation/Cornell University lode so well known for funding any effort to steal God-given, Constitutionally guaranteed property rights from the middle/working class plebeians they and he so despise.

JoshFox.jpgSo, the lying little geek took his nefarious schtick on the road once again. Was it enough? Having been reduced to an insignificant blight on the environmental activist scene after revealing himself to be a dunce at Standing Rock and in appearances on Fox News, he needed a boost and a big one.

He had never amounted to much more than a brief blip on the film industry radar, so what would comprise the sales pitch of the goof in the Yankee cap this lap around the track?

Not even those most skeptical of the spineless, empty suit could’ve predicted the depths of the licentious narrative unfolding in the Fox’s den, but first a bit of housekeeping.

Our Fallacious Dunce loves to portray himself as a Wayne County, Pennsylvania native, telling us all Milanville, PA is the only home he’s known. Then, with the next breath, he accuses county residents of portraying him as a “liberal New York Jew in a Yankee cap”. I’ve lived in Wayne County for 63 of 65 years and have yet to hear any local refer to him as such. Rather, it’s always “that lying carpetbagger in the Yankee cap.” Just keep making the story up as you go, right Josh?

The not so sly Fox has now debuted a spoken monologue titled “The Truth Has Changed,” and he wants you to foot the bill. Just a note, by the way, to empty suits everywhere: the truth is a constant, what’s true remains so. There are different shades of lying, however.

One of those shades is revealed In an epically preposterous fund raising pitch by Josh Fox. In what can only be an epic falsehood, the anything but intrepid filmmaker now portrays himself as a 9/11 first responder with this from his promotions for his monologue and book by the same name:

“The Truth Has Changed” is a solo monologue that traces the arc of American political life from 9/11 to Trump from a front line perspective. From his experience as a first responder during 9/11

What did he do? Was he a firefighter, a cop, an ambulance crew member or none of those things? With so many brave police, firefighters, EMT’s responding on Manhattan, at the Pentagon and at Shanksville, and hundreds making the ultimate sacrifice, hyping up claims such as this is as disgraceful as it gets….an attempt to profit from their heroism when, in reality, the faux Fox seems to have been busy staging the unheard of drama “HyperReal America” with his supposed non-profit, Sweet Jane Productions, Inc. d/b/a the International WOW Company. Like of all of his work, it was apparently another piece of anti-patriotic trash.

Screen-Shot-2018-08-29-at-9.48.57-AM.jpg

Then, there was that Thanksgiving Day at Standing Rock when the apocryphal Fox literally risked his life crossing a bridge he tells us:

Josh Fox has had a front row seat—a first responder after 9/11, filming Deepwater close up from the air and on the ground, a member of the Bernie Sanders’ delegation of the Democratic Platform Committee, risking his life to cross a bridge on Thanksgiving Day at Standing Rock, traveling around the country, shooting his films…

Wow…..must’ve been akin to Bloody Ridge on Guadalcanal….how did you get out alive, Josh?

After all of this self aggrandizement, all of the “Hey, everyone, look at poor, spineless, little me and my failed film career as I try to make a living stealing what’s yours…your property rights as a land owner” Fox then descends to unspeakable depths. Ah. yes, he resorts to exploiting the Holocaust:

And yes, it (The Truth Has Changed) talks about my personal history with Nazis. My grandparents survived WWII, and fled Nazis all across Europe. I have to tell this story now, as racism and fascism are on the rise in America.  I need to do my part in fighting off this dangerous racist tide in America.

Your “personal history with Nazis”……really? Let me tell you about someone who really did know Nazis, lots of them, up close and personal…a real personal history, unlike your heisting of your grandparents’ story. My late mother-in-law, Brigitta, was born in 1930 in East Prussia, in Germany. Brigitta lived in the suburbs surrounding Danzig, Germany. Today, Danzig is Gdansk, Poland.

Brigitta would eventually emigrate to the United States after World War II and she adopted the nickname, Kitty. But in the 1930’s, Kitty was a happy go lucky child from a well established Jewish family of some means. She loved ice skating on the frozen rivers around Danzig during those long, bitter cold Baltic winters.

That lifestyle came to a screeching halt after September, 1939. Kitty’s ice skating was finished, survival was now the daily struggle for an 8 to 9 year old forced to wear a large Star of David sewn on her garments and now taunted by jack booted thugs as “Juden.”

Real Nazis showed propaganda films across the occupied Third Reich portraying Kitty and her ilk as vermin, much as Josh Fox does today to slander and demean those with whom he disagrees.

Miraculously, Kitty survived the war forcibly imprisoned in a slave labor/concentration camp, while almost her entire family was liquidated along with all their property an wealth. Kitty had nothing but the rags on her teenage body.

Unlike the pathetic, lying, failed filmmaker, Kitty knew Nazis…and she knew them too well. What horrible events did Kitty witness as a child/young teenager and take to her grave with her? She was much like my WWII combat veteran father, who never talked of those daily horrors witnessed and endured.

Kitty had a real story to tell, but the memories were to painful to resurrect, unlike the loudmouth loser who chooses to exploit Kitty’s struggle and that of millions like her for his personal gain….and who now accuses his fellow countrymen of being Nazis and racists because they eschew his phony environmental spiel and his blatant cooperation in left’s unwarranted, unhinged assault on the good folks of the Upper Delaware River Basin.

And, he wonder why we call him the “lying carpetbagger in the Yankee cap.” I have a message for him; “switch to your dunce cap if you’re offended, Little Fella.

The post Fallacious Dunce Josh Fox Goes to Planet Ithaca to Reboot appeared first on Natural Gas Now.

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/fallacious-dunce-josh-fox-goes-to-planet-ithaca-to-reboot/

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Appalachian Regional Conference Planned for Sept. 20

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 24, 2018 CONTACT: Gary Phillips (724) 514-1637 gary.phillips@woodplc.com

Appalachian-Basin-GPA-Midstream-Association.jpg

Conference Supports Education and Training for Region’s Midstream Industry

  Pittsburgh, Pa. — The Appalachian Basin GPA Midstream Association will hold its second annual Appalachian Regional Conference on Sept. 20 in Washington, Pa. The conference upholds the organization’s mission of supporting, connecting and educating the Appalachian Basin’s midstream industry. The agenda includes a variety of technical and market- based presentations related to oil and gas development in the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations. A highlight of the conference will be keynote speaker Charlie Batch, a former NFL quarterback turned tech entrepreneur, media personality/color analyst, community advocate and professional speaker. His motivational messages will cover teamwork and entrepreneurialism and how they relate to the industry. The schedule includes other speakers from companies such as Appalachian Development Group, BTU Analytics, Cabot Oil & Gas, Clipper Enterprises, Crestwood Midstream, Dominion Energy, Ecosystem Investment Partners, FlexEnergy, FTI Consulting, Knobloch Petroleum Consultants, Petroskills, Propane Education and Research Council, Seneca Resources, Shale Crescent USA, TD Watson Consulting and Williams, as well as state independent oil and gas associations. “We are grateful to have such an outstanding lineup of industry professionals who are committed to supporting our industry’s education and training needs,” said Gary Phillips, president of Appalachian Basin GPA Midstream Association. “The conference not only promotes our mission, but also helps fund our scholarship program, which is one way ABGPA Midstream is supporting the future of our industry.” The conference is being supported by several generous sponsor companies, including Ariel Compressors, Total Equipment Co., Crestwood Midstream, Wood, GW Becker Crane, Civil & Environmental Consultants, Waukesha Pearce Industries, Applied Pipeline, Sunnyside Supply, Steel Nation, E-Finity/Capstone Turbine and Copperhead Environmental Consulting. Visit www.abgpamidstream.org for more information about the topics, speakers, registration costs and sponsorships. The sponsorship deadline is Sept. 7 and online registration ends on Sept. 17. ***

About Appalachian Basin GPA Midstream Association

Appalachian Basin GPA Midstream (ABGPA Midstream) is a professional organization committed to serve as a forum for exchanging ideas and knowledge related to the Midstream Industry and providing opportunities for social interaction with others involved in the industry in the local Appalachian region. Founded in 2013, ABGPA Midstream is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit organization, and one of six national chapters: Rocky Mountain, Mid-Continent, Permian Basin, Houston, and North Texas.

About GPA Midstream Association

GPA Midstream Association represents nearly 100 corporate members of all sizes; most are U.S.-based companies, but the organization has members across the globe as well. GPA Midstream members are engaged in the gathering and processing of natural gas into saleable pipeline gas, which are commonly referred to as “midstream” activities in the energy industry. As the primary advocates for the midstream industry, the association enhances the viability of natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude oil through research, technical, environmental, safety and advocacy activities. For more information, visit www.GPAmidstream.org. Joseph F. Barone ShaleDirectories.com 610.764.1232 jbarone@shaledirectories.com www.shaledirectories.com

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/appalachian-regional-conference-planned-for-sept-20/

NW PA’s First Annual Chemical and Plastics Manufacturing Summit

NW Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Hub will be presenting its First Annual Chemical and Plastics Manufacturing Summit 2018.

The Summit will take place on September 11, 2018 at the Cross Creek Resort in Titusville, PA.

Experts from a broad cross section of the manufacturing spectrum will be providing registrants with latest information in chemical and plastic manufacturing. You will hear from Martha Moore from the American Chemistry Council, Abby Foster, PA Chemical Industry Council and Perc Pineda from the Plastics Industry Association. Additionally, the summit will feature presentations from Keith Acklin, Peoples Gas (“Forge the Future” Phase I) and Jerry Thompson, Marc USA (Forge the Future” Phase II). Lastly, procurement requirements for vendors will be presented by Stephen Spoljaric, Bechtel Operations Manager (Warehousing & Transportation) and Justin Price, Bechtel Purchasing Department (Material & Equipment). You do not want to miss this very informative summit which will change the manufacturing landscape of Northwestern Pennsylvania.

Chemical and Plastics Manufacturing Summit 2018 September 11, 2018 Cross Creek Resort Titusville, PA

Register Now!

Joseph F. Barone ShaleDirectories.com 610.764.1232 jbarone@shaledirectories.com www.shaledirectories.com

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/nw-pas-first-annual-chemical-and-plastics-manufacturing-summit/

What Will Marcellus’ Midstream and Downstream Activity Be in 2019?

One of the biggest midstream questions in the Marcellus for 2019 is what will be happening to the Mariner East 2 pipeline?

When will it be completed?

What will it mean for Southeastern PA.?

Get the answer at Midstream PA 2018.

Another pipeline question will be the status of the PennEast pipeline. Studies have demonstrated that citizens in PA and NJ would save hundreds of millions of dollars in energy costs while lowering carbon dioxide emissions. When will construction begin?

Learn what’s coming in 2019 at Midstream PA 2018.

The Atlantic Sunrise pipeline is going into service anytime now. What will be the impact of this pipeline on other midstream projects in the Marcellus? We know Cabot and Chief will definitely be producing more to fill the pipelines. MarkWest is the largest midstream developer in the Marcellus and the Utica. It has spent literally billions of dollars building pipelines, processing and fractionation facilities. See what MarkWest has on the drawing boards as Marcellus downstream development continues to expand. Shell Cracker Plant No midstream event is complete without the latest update on the Shell Cracker plant under construction in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The cracker plant is using the latest manufacturing techniques to make the plant the most advanced in the world. They are moving as fast as they can to get the plant online. The Shell cracker plant will soon be the catalyst for a booming chemical and plastics industry in PA. Since the Appalachian Basin is the cheapest place in the world to produce petrochemicals, chemical and plastics companies in the Marcellus and Utica will have a significant pricing advantage. Get the facts for your business planning in 2019. Midstream PA 2018 is the one place to get all these answers.

Midstream Pa 2018 September 25, 2018 Penn Stater Conference Center State College, PA

Don’t Wait! Register Now!

Joseph F. Barone ShaleDirectories.com 610.764.1232 jbarone@shaledirectories.com www.shaledirectories.com

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/what-will-marcellus-midstream-and-downstream-activity-be-in-2019/

CELDF’s Ohio Loss Record Now at 86 Percent

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) has been targeting Ohio for six straight years, attempting to pass a total of 35 illegal and unenforceable ballot measures aimed at banning fracking and day-to-day commerce across the state, costing taxpayers across the state hundreds of thousands along the way.

Now eight months after CELDF co-founder Thomas Linzey was slapped with sanctions for similar “bad faith” efforts in Pennsylvania, two Ohio boards of elections have hit him with a two-punch combo, as the Franklin County Board of Elections and the Lucas County Board of Elections recently voted to toss CELDF’s Columbus and Toledo “Community Bill of Rights” measures off their respective ballots this fall, citing Ohio Supreme Court precedent.

CELDF’s fail rate has reached epic proportions in the Buckeye State, as these recent decisions swell the CEDLF Ohio loss record to 86 percent!

CELDF-record.jpg

CELDF-record2.jpg

In a futile effort to reverse this trend, CELDF has abandoned its anti-fracking narrative over the years and has instead moved to new titles such as the so-called “Toledo Lake Erie Bill of Rights” and the “Youngstown Drinking Water Protection Bill if Rights.” Recall that initially in Youngstown, CELDF called its efforts the “Community Bill of Rights” Fracking Ban Charter Amendment. But after failing again and again — seven consecutive times in fact — CELDF’s strategy has been to change the name of its “rights of nature” campaign to more ambiguous titles, hoping that voters will simply not read the fine print. Clearly, Linzey is at it again with his “bad faith” tactics, as United States District Court Judge Susan Baxter described in the aforementioned Pennsylvania court ruling,

“This Court has determined that Attorneys Linzey and Dunne have pursued certain claims and defenses in bad faith. Based upon prior CELDF litigation, each was on notice of the legal implausibility of the arguments previously advanced…”

“Despite their own prior litigation, CELDF and Attorney Linzey, in particular, continue to advance discredited arguments as a basis for CELDF’s ill-conceived and sponsored CBR, and in doing so have vexatiously multiplied the litigation of this matter.”

As a direct case-in-point to Judge Baxter’s opinion here, CELDF just this week filed a mandamus action with the Ohio Supreme Court, officially challenging the Franklin County Board of Election decision on the Columbus Community Bill of Rights.  Is this at all shocking? Absolutely not. This is the playbook for CELDF: circulate petitions, try to get a measure on a ballot, and even if that fails, appeal and take the issue to court, wasting taxpayer dollars in the process. As Judge Baxter noted only month ago, CELDF is acutely aware that its efforts have no legal basis and are instead a blatant attempt to advance a political agenda.

Here’s exactly what Baxter said and what is playing out in Ohio yet again,

“s made clear by the pattern of CELDF-affiliated litigation (all of which has been led by Attorney Linzey) in the years leading to this action, foregoing sanctions in this instance would be inconsistent with the Court’s duty to ensure that lawyers who practice before it do so ethically and responsibly. An attorney ’s zealous advocacy for the protection of a client’s interests is certainly appropriate; however, the legitimate pursuit of justice imposes important obligations on counsel to ensure that the Court is not a mechanism of harassment or unbridled obstruction.

“The continued pursuit of frivolous claims and defenses, despite Linzey’s first-hand knowledge of their insufficiency, and the refusal to retract each upon reasonable request, substantially and inappropriately prolonged this litigation, and required the Court and PGE to expend significant time and resources eliminating these baseless claims. Accordingly, sanctions are imposed and justified in this instance.”

But of course, why would the Pennsylvania-based CELDF care about any Ohio community, recall that Linzey’s mantra is,

“If a town goes bankrupt trying to defend one of our ordinances, well, perhaps that’s exactly what is needed to trigger a national movement.”

With a loss record at 86 percent, one would think CELDF would just throw in the towel. However, as EID has pointed out before, the longer this group continues on with its antics the more their campaign coffers swell — raising millions for its scams while leaving taxpayers to pick up the tab.

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/celdfs-ohio-loss-record-now-at-86-percent/

The Arrogant Spoiled Child Fractivists Purchased by America’s Elites

Tom.jpg?resize=75%2C95Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

.

Inside Climate News is a Rockefeller outfit, financed by the family trust-funders to embolden spoiled child fractivists, their trespassing and their antics.

Inside Climate News was created by Rockefeller family shills with Rockefeller family money and it does their dirty work. Like Bill McKibben, another toady for the family, the folks at the on-line journal have a not-so-subtle fascination with trespassing, violence and other spoiled child fractivist antics.

An article last week by serial protester type Nicholas Kusnetz entitled “How Energy Companies and Allies Are Turning the Law Against Protesters” illustrates. It’s a 4,000+ word idolization of the attention-starved kids who never grew up and arrogantly demand the right to trespass on the land and rights of others under the theory they know it all and anyone who disagrees is both dumb and evil. They even got the ever politically correct Washington Post to run with a version.

DAPL-Burning-tires-pipeline-protest-Oct-2016-512x288.jpg

Fascist DAPL protesters – note the masks of most who don’t want to be identifiable lest they be punished for their faux civil disobedience

What’s especially revolting about this Inside Climate News piece is the attitude of entitlement it assumes on behalf of the spoiled child fractivists. Take this, for example (emphasis added):

Some pipeline opponents have conducted dangerous and illegal stunts, cutting pipelines with oxyacetylene torches or closing valves. But most protests have been peaceful. If they’ve broken laws by trespassing, activists say, they’ve done so as part of a tradition of civil disobedience that stretches to the nation’s colonial roots.

“All of the social progress we’ve made has depended, over the entire history of this nation, from the very beginning, on that ability to speak out against things that are wrong, things that are legal but should not be,” said Carroll Muffett, president of the Center for International Environmental Law. “This country, for all its failing, has long respected the importance of that. These bills put that fundamental element of our democracy in jeopardy.”

Get that? Trespassing is in the  tradition of civil disobedience and, therefore, shouldn’t be illegal, they say, especially in such a miserable failed democracy as the U.S. There, in a nutshell, exposed for all to see is the mind of the entitled fractivist, who, by the way, hasn’t a clue what civil disobedience really is. Here’s the traditional definition:

A symbolic, non-violent violation of the law, done deliberately in protest against some form of perceived injustice. Meredissent, protest, or disobedience of the law does not qualify. The act must be nonviolent, open and visible, illegal, performedfor the moral purpose of protesting an injustice, and done with the expectation of being punished.

It’s by accepting the punishment that you prove your commitment to a cause and demonstrate how important it is to correct an injustice. But these spoiled child fractivists suppose they are entitled to violate the laws without the punishment. They want the glory without the pain. They’re convinced they’re of superior mind and morality, so they have the right to impose their will, trespass on anyone’s property and do whatever the hell they want without interference from property owners or those charged with the obligation to protect their property. It is quintessential fractivism; childish to the core.

And, if you think that’s the worst of it, here’s what Inside Climate News cites as example of “a broader effort to recast environmental activists as criminals, even terrorists” if you can believe it:

In May 2017, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers published a blog post about activists who vandalized pipelines, under the headline: “Pipelines Are Critical Infrastructure—and Attacking Them Is Terrorism.”

First, they admit acts of vandalizing pipelines amount to “dangerous and illegal stunts” and then, a few paragraphs later, they tell us how awful it that the oil and gas industry would dare to call it terrorism. Doing so they give away the game; one of winking and nodding as they tell us how opposed they are to vandalism via oxyacetylene torches.

Read the whole story to understand what’s going on. The Rockefeller family is behind Inside Climate News and it, too, is giving everyone the wink and the nod to indicate breaking the law to advance its special interests is just fine. Of course, no Rockefeller family will be arrested. No, the spoiled child fractivists who are being told they’re entitled to break laws without consequences will get arrested and scream like pigs. That’s the idea, after all.

The post The Arrogant Spoiled Child Fractivists Purchased by America’s Elites appeared first on Natural Gas Now.

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/the-arrogant-spoiled-child-fractivists-purchased-by-americas-elites/

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

“Don’t Worry, It’s An Asset” Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul Tells Tesla Skeptics

Tom.jpg?resize=75%2C95Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

.

Kathy Hochul, New York’s especially obsequious Lieutenant Governor says there’s no need to worry about Tesla or the Buffalo Billion mess. “It’s an asset.”

There’s been a slew of news recently about the Tesla/SolarCity and Buffalo Billion scandal. New York’s Lieutenant Governor says there’s no need to worry, though:

Lieutenant Governor Hochul, while saying they were holding Tesla to its promises of job creation, defended the construction of the factory.

“This is a place that was an abandoned steel plant for decades,” she said. “There is life over there and it’s bringing back the neighborhood.”

Hochul added that in the event of a worst-case scenario – the bottoming out of Tesla – the factory could be repurposed for another business. She told reporters Friday the facility is not a Tesla property but rather a “state asset.”

Alrighty, then. Everybody put a smile on their face, vote and go back to what you’re doing. New York State is in such great shape with such magnificent leadership.

A loyal reader who’s been following the SolarCity/Tesla debacle unfold over the last few years just sent me links to numerous stories on it. They document the long slow melting of Andrew Cuomo’s dream of transforming his state into a big friendly green monster. All that’s left at this point is a green puddle of water dirtied by the endemic corruption of the Cuomo administration, Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul being right there along side Governor Corruptocrat.

Pair_of_2009_SolarCity_Dodge_Sprinters-512x383.jpg

The WBFO story quoted above lays out much of the debacle (emphasis added):

Anthony Ogorek of Ogorek Wealth Management in Williamsville says while Musk is a genius and a visionary, people who think as Musk does tend to act differently and get their ventures in trouble. He pointed out the original SolarCity business model, which was to produce and then lease solar panels and components to customers. Many, he tells WBFO, discovered better deals by simply buying the panels.

It’s just one of several turns since work began on the SolarCity factory, the largest investment in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion program. SolarCity was subsequently acquired by Tesla.

“The question is, did Tesla buy the company because SolarCity was rapidly going down the tubes? The answer is probably yes,” Ogorek said. “What you’ve got is a cash-starved company, which is Tesla, buying another company – Solar City – which was going down.” 

Ogorek added that Tesla had no prior manufacturing experience, hence the addition of Panasonic to the Buffalo facility.

He criticizes the construction of that giant factory as “irresponsible” and an “ill-conceived scheme” by the Cuomo Administration that was motivated by a desire to win votes.

No kidding. There’s also this from WIVB:

Some analysists thought it was a head scratcher when Tesla purchased SolarCity in November 2016 for $2.6 billion.

In fact, shareholders showed their disapproval by filing a class-action lawsuit charging that Tesla’s board breached its fiduciary duties.

“SolarCity is the vast majority of Tesla’s debt and the fact that the automotive business, if that would succeed, does not necessarily mean that the Tesla Energy (SolarCity) would succeed,” Nesper said.

Since Tesla purchased SolarCity, the rate of solar production has slowed drastically.

Consider that before the sale, SolarCity deployed 253 megawatts of solar energy, a high mark in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Since Tesla bought the company, the deployment has fallen sharply, with the low-point being in the first quarter of this year at 76 megawatts. Imported solar panel tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration could further erode the industry, analysts said.

This past quarter, however, Tesla reported an uptick of 11 percent in solar energy generation systems, but the megawatts produced remains a third of the largest output when SolarCity was at the helm. Tesla has installed only a few hundred solar roofs.

These may not be the most important stats, though. Consider these from Forbes:

Tesla’s energy storage and generation unit, which includes sales of Powerwalls and other storage products as well as the SolarCity lines, accounted for 9.4% of Tesla’s revenues in the second quarter, but only 7.1% of consolidated gross profit.  Layering in overhead costs and subtracting energy storage, it’s clear that the business formerly known as SolarCity is a money loser for Tesla, which, as most know, is already running an unprofitable carmaking business.

Yet, SolarCity’s debt represents an outsized proportion of Tesla’s capital structure.  “Old” SolarCity paper accounted for 13.1% of Tesla’s $7.7 billion in corporate recourse debt as of June 30th, and, by my calculations, accounted for nearly 90% of the $3.2 billion in long-term debt Tesla classifies as non-recourse

So, despite a $750 million investment from the State University of New York’s Research Foundation, it would appear that Gigafactory 2 is off to a disappointing start.  An investor in a Tesla go-private transaction would have to come to terms with the fact that a massive manufacturing facility in Buffalo–and its contingent liabilities–comes with that purchase.

And, finally, there’s this from Reuters:

Repeated hold-ups since the Buffalo, New York plant opened last year have forced Tesla’s partner in the joint venture, Panasonic (6752.T), to seek other buyers for the components it had built to sell to Tesla, according to a Panasonic employee, a former Panasonic employee and a former Tesla employee. The issues have also rattled the faith of state officials in Tesla’s ability to deliver on investment and employment promises it made in exchange for $750 million in state subsidies

Some New York state lawmakers worry Tesla may fail to hold up its end of the bargain. The state provided $350 million to build the factory, along with $274.7 million for equipment and $125.3 million “for additional specified scope costs,” according to a Tesla filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But, hey, Kathy Hochul isn’t worried. It’s a state asset, after all. I’m sure they can put someone else in the building for free, sell the equipment at 10¢ on the dollar to some other down and out solar business and just write off those “additional specified scope costs.” This is the story of a corrupt New York and an industry that is pure corporatism by definition. And, Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul (deeply embedded in the Buffalo Billion fiasco herself) are both in the thick of it. They sold out the Southern Tier and they used Buffalo as an opportunity for graft at public expense.

The post “Don’t Worry, It’s An Asset” Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul Tells Tesla Skeptics appeared first on Natural Gas Now.

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/dont-worry-its-an-asset-lt-governor-kathy-hochul-tells-tesla-skeptics/

Monday, August 27, 2018

Cross-Border Buildout Critical For US LNG Exports To Mexico

The U.S.-to-Mexico LNG export story doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon as analysts expect U.S. exports to grow to nearly 9.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by 2023. From that, 2.7 Bcf/d is expected to go directly to Mexico. During S&P Global Platts’ webinar “Demand Beyond the Border-Mexico and LNG Exports” on Aug. 15 analysts warned that the lack of capacity utilization from U.S. export corridors like West Texas and the southwest region has become critical to this story.

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/cross-border-buildout-critical-for-us-lng-exports-to-mexico/

Mexico Fracking Decision Opportunity for U.S. and Marcellus Producers

Tom.jpg?resize=75%2C95Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

.

A Mexico fracking decision by its new even more socialist government promises hardship for them but opportunity for the U.S. and Marcellus producers.

Mexico made a fateful decision to go further down the socialist path with its recent election, one that will ultimately lead to results not unlike Venezuela and still more illegal immigration to the United States. The new leadership, in fact, has already made a decision  not to pursue a Mexico fracking revolution. This is sad in the sense it may be one of the best economic opportunities the country could ever have and would allow Mexico to pull itself up by its own bootstraps. Yet, it will mean an unparalleled opportunity for us to supply them with the gas Mexico needs even as it embarks on its downhill socialist slide.

LNGmexico-512x397.png

The Mexico fracking decision, which may be temporary if the nation later regains its mind, was discussed in an OilPrice.com article earlier this month:

…President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said last week,“We will no longer use that method to extract petroleum.”

…The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated in 2013 that Mexico has unproved but technically recoverable shale gas resources of 545.2 trillion cubic feet. Most of this, around 343 trillion cubic feet plus about 6.3 billion barrels of oil (half of the total shale oil resource base), is located in the Burgos Basin, which is connected to the Eagle Ford shale play in Texas and covers a much larger area.

While these resources remain largely untapped, Mexico’s natural gas demand is rising, and with it, the country’s dependence on U.S. imports…

A subsequent OilPrice.com article puts the U.S. opportunity in perspective (emphasis added):

New pipeline capacity additions on both sides of the border have helped U.S. natural gas pipeline exports to Mexico to jump to their highest level on record in July.

American exports are set to further increase with a number of pipelines expected to become operational by 2020, the EIA said in a note this week.

The newly commissioned pipelines benefit both countries. For the United States, more pipeline takeaway capacity gives the Permian an additional export outlet from West Texas to Mexico as producers are looking at ways to ease pipeline constraints not only on crude oil production, but also on natural gas whose production is also booming.

For Mexico, natural gas imports help to meet its rising gas demand as the country is adding gas-fired electricity generation capacity at a rapid clip while it faces a decline in its domestic gas production. More pipeline imports also mean cheaper gas than liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, of which Mexico is the number-one customer of the United States

In 2017, the U.S. became a net natural gas exporter for the first time since 1957, the EIA said earlier this year. Thanks to growing demand for gas-fired power generation in Mexico and favorable prices compared to LNG shipments, U.S. pipeline capacity into Mexico has also increased over the past few years along with U.S. pipeline exports to Mexico—exports which have more than doubled since 2014 to average 4.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2017.

Despite the current delays in Mexico, U.S. pipeline exports will continue to increase, according to the EIA

Mexico is the single largest market for U.S. LNG exports, having taken nearly 20 percent of all American exports since LNG shipments began in February 2016, U.S. Department of Energy data shows.

As the article notes, continued growth is partly dependent on new pipelines that are being delayed, but are likely to happen eventually. However, gas will still reach Mexico via LNG even if those pipelines aren’t built. And, among the LNG terminals from which that gas will leave for Mexico is Cove Point, which is shipping primarily Marcellus Shale (and utica Shale) gas. Indeed, according to this analysis, one of the earlier shipments out off Cove Point was, in fact, to Mexico.

More importantly, Mexico received 20% of total U.S. LNG exports between February, 2016 and June, 2018 — some 80 cargoes worth. That means the door is open with great future opportunity for Marcellus producers even if those pipelines don’t get built. The Mexico fracking decision may well put more dollars in the hands of Susquehanna and Washington County landowners as well those of Texans. Still, it would be nice for Mexico and U.S. if the former smartened up and got off this socialist path that has given it nothing and promises only more destitution down the road. A true capitalist economy in Mexico would open up even more opportunity for all of us.

The post Mexico Fracking Decision Opportunity for U.S. and Marcellus Producers appeared first on Natural Gas Now.

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/mexico-fracking-decision-opportunity-for-u-s-and-marcellus-producers/

Sunday, August 26, 2018

More Environmental Justice Foolishness Aimed at Slowing Pipelines

17d9481.jpg?resize=75%2C85Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

 

Environmental justice is a cruel joke; an exploitation of the poor to advance the special interests of wealthy fractivists in opposing pipeline projects.

Here we go again. More talk from those desperate folks who irrationally hate fossil fuels, claiming the location of two pipelines in Virginia is “racist.” You didn’t know that an inert metal tube could be racist, did you?

Virginia-Rev-5-0-0-10-12-2016-384x512.jpgYeah, it’s stupid and silly and beyond words—but there you have it. Our schools are doing such a poor job of educating our citizens, they grow up to believe in wild fairy tales and declare anyone (or anything) that is not their particular skin color must be racist.

In Virginia, the Governor’s Advisory Council on Environmental Justice, is recommending to Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam that he should illegally (against federal law) rescind federal Clean Water Act permits that allow both the $6.5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (Dominion Energy) and $3.7 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline (EQT Midstream) from crossing the state.

The Advisory Council’s tortured thinking is that the pipeline runs through a few poor/black communities—so it must be racist. No mention of the fact that such pipelines actually benefit communities and individuals economically.

Pipelines get no credit for economically benefiting nearby communities—they only get dinged for flowing an evil fossil fuel that supposedly causes man-made global warming.

Here are excerpts from the S&P Global Platts story on this nonsense:

An advisory council to Virginia Governor Ralph Northam recommended the Democratic governor to rescind Clean Water Act certifications and not issue any more permits for the up to $6.5 billion Atlantic Coast and up to $3.7 billion Mountain Valley natural gas pipelines in order to protect minority communities along their routes.

The Advisory Council on Environmental Justice cited concerns about “racism in the siting decision” for an Atlantic Coast compressor station, potential civil and human rights violations, and other practices that endangered the largely African American community in Union Hill in Buckingham County, Virginia. The council also expressed concern over the lack of representation of Native Americans in the federal permitting processes for both pipelines. Collectively, the council said federal and state reviews have not addressed “potential impacts for vulnerable populations.”

…If Virginia did rescind the Clean Water Act permits and refused to issue new permits, the lack of authorizations could shut down the pipeline projects even though they have received federal approval. Such a move by the state would almost certainly trigger legal challenges by the pipeline developers. New York stopped the Williams-led Constitution Pipeline by denying it a Clean Water Act permit, and so far, federal appeals courts and the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have upheld the permit denial.

Dominion Energy, one of the developers of Atlantic Coast, disagreed with the council’s recommendations…

Northam put together the Advisory Council on Environmental Justice to provide recommendations to improve the state government’s protections of low-income and minority communities, among other goals listed in an October 2017 order. Neither the governor’s office nor the advisory council responded to inquiries about the likelihood of the governor acting on the council’s recommendations.

Editor’s Note: This reveals the idiocy of the entire environmental justice concept. It is invariably exploited by the wealthy to advance their own special interests, using the poor as excuses for that purpose. Justice is simply justice. Attaching an adjective means someone is tipping the scales to pick winners and losers. That is the very definition of injustice.

As I have also opined several times already, if there were any such thing as environmental justice it would be focused on the denial of opportunity for people in places such as Wayne County, Pennsylvania, where I reside, to harvest their natural gas for the sake of appeasing the wealthy Manhattanites who represent the fractivist Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, for example.

For more great articles on natural gas development every single business day, subscribe to Marcellus Drilling News using this convenient link.

The post More Environmental Justice Foolishness Aimed at Slowing Pipelines appeared first on Natural Gas Now.

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/more-environmental-justice-foolishness-aimed-at-slowing-pipelines/

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Natural Gas NOW Picks of the Week – August 26, 2018

Tom.jpg?resize=75%2C95Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

Natural Gas NOW readers pass along a lot of stuff every week about natural gas, fractivist antics, emissions, renewables, and other news relating to energy. As usual, emphasis is added.

Natural Gas Power Plant Produces Zero CO2 – Fractivists Go Mad

Well, fractivists are already mad by definition (angry, too) so this Can’t really make them any madder (or any angrier) as they’re already there, but there is prototype power plant  that was just successfully fired up and it yields zero CO2. Yes, zero and when the commercial version comes along in the near future, the world will have changed forever, at least for fractivists. Here’s are the essentials:

The US energy startup, Net Power, has announced that it has successfully fired up its natural-gas plant in La Porte, Texas. In the age of climate change, when reducing emissions should be our primary goal, it may sound odd to celebrate the launch of a fossil fuel-burning plant. But Net Power is unique. Its new facility is the first fossil-fuel power plant that promises to capture all its emissions effectively at zero extra cost, and on May 30 it passed a major milestone in the step towards commercializing a climate-friendly technology.

The underpinning technology, called carbon capture and storage (CCS), has existed since the 1970s…

Screen-Shot-2018-08-24-at-8.46.24-PM-512x349.jpg

Net Power’s $150-million pilot plant near Houston makes use of the Allam Cycle, named after its inventor Rodney Allam…

If the company can get the pilot plant fully operational and producing energy—it can generate 25 MW of electricity—Net Power will scale it up to to a full-size power plant that can produce up to 300 MW of electricity, as soon as 2021.

I can hear the wailing now, followed by all the new supposed reasons fracking is dangerous and must be stopped. That’s how it works, of course, if you’re fractivist. Being one means never having to say you were mistaken (or wrong).

Lowering PM2.5 9 (e.g., Switching from Coal to Gas) Will
Increase Life Expectancy More Than Eradicating Lung Cancer

A story in Quartz this week was titled “Lowering air pollution just a bit would increase life expectancy as much as eradicating lung and breast cancer” but it could just have easily been given the slightly different title I offer above. Here’s the important stuff and a neat map from the piece:

Exposure to a prevalent type of air pollution—particulate matter called PM2.5—takes one year off the average global lifespan, according to research published Wednesday (Aug. 22) in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters. But that air pollution is not evenly distributed; for people living in the most-polluted areas of Asia and Africa, the situation is worse—life expectancy for them drops between one year and two months to one year and 11 months.

The-uneven-global-distribution-of-particulate-matter-pollution-s-health-impacts_mapbuilder-512x288.png

What’s more, simply reducing global PM2.5 air pollution to levels recommended by the World Health Organization would be the equivalent of globally eradicating breast and lung cancer in terms of life spans.

PM2.5 is released from tailpipes of vehicles, coal-fired power plants, and industrial plants of all kinds. Events like dust storms and wildfires produce large amounts of the particulate matter, too.

Read the whole thing. Coal is a problem. Gas in the antidote. Switching saves lives. It’s as simple as that.

If You Thought It Was Going to Be Easy to Do Renewables…

Supposed experts such as Tony Ingraffea and Mark Jacobson have been preaching that switching to all renewables in short order is a piece of cake, despite opposition in Tony’s own backyard, but it’s much tougher, as those of us with experience in land use battles know. I’ve faced angry NIMBYs and know what it’s like. Here’s yet another example:

Local residents are livid over a California school district’s decision to erect solar panels a few feet away from their homes, creating what they describe as a massive eyesore…

The Palo Alto School District — in an attempt to be more environmentally friendly — has constructed solar panels at five different campuses, with plans for an installment at a sixth school…

Screen-Shot-2018-08-25-at-7.21.38-AM-512x388.jpg

Cover of report used by Palo Alta Unified School District to study feasibility of doing solar projects now opposed

Neighbors lashed out during a Palo Alto school board meeting on Tuesday night, detailing their disgust of having to look at solar panels at all times while at home…

“It’s like a big, black tarp was put up on top of the fence. It looks like I’m living under a sports stadium bleacher,” said Ann Davidson, Ostacher’s next-door neighbor. Another resident at the meeting said the panels looked like “a giant spaceship” hovering over her property.

Yes, there’s opposition to everything, especially if it involves energy generated for other people to use and, most especially, if it’s near a university population (Stanford in this instance). Nothing’s easy but a gas well, from which everyone in the immediate vicinity gets income, tends to be more welcomed than most projects. Funny how that works.

The post Natural Gas NOW Picks of the Week – August 26, 2018 appeared first on Natural Gas Now.

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/natural-gas-now-picks-of-the-week-august-26-2018/

Friday, August 24, 2018

Antioch dedicates Arkoma Stack acreage to Valiant

Valiant Midstream said Thursday it’s entered into a long-term, fee-based natural gas gathering/processing pact with Antioch Energy for more than 275,000 gross dedicated acres.

With this dedication, Valiant Midstream's total acreage commitments in the Arkoma Stack basin jump to 2.1 million, Kallanish Energy finds.

Antioch's production will be gathered and processed at Valiant's Stanberry Processing Complex, a cryogenic processing facility located in Coal County, Oklahoma.

Within the acreage dedicated to Valiant Midstream, Antioch expects to continue development of three production benches in the fast-growing Arkoma Stack, including the Woodford, Mayes and Caney formations in eastern Oklahoma.

"We are extremely pleased to partner with Antioch Energy as we build upon one of the finest midstream systems in the Arkoma Stack basin," said Valiant Midstream president and CEO Brandon Webster. "With our scheduled enhancements and expansion plans, our system will ultimately span more than 160 miles, including a 60-mile trunk line running north to south through the core of the liquids-rich window of this highly active play … .”

Antioch owns over 24,000 net contiguous acres in the core of the Arkoma Stack and operates 60 wells. The net resource potential recoverable in Antioch's position is roughly 2 trillion cubic feet-equivalent (Tcfe), with an inventory of 500-plus drilling locations.

As part of Valiant Midstream's long-term Arkoma Stack growth strategy, the company will add capacity to accommodate the Antioch dedication, as well as future customer capacity.

The first 220 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) of cryogenic processing capacity will be available at the company's Stanberry plant near Coalgate, Oklahoma, in November. Additional capacity will become available in late 2019 and beyond, either through an expansion of the Stanberry facility, or at a future Valiant Midstream plant site located near Atwood, Oklahoma.

"This transformative transaction creates significant value to our production and reserves by realizing outstanding liquids value," said Antioch president Nathaniel Harding.

Valiant Midstream currently operates and is actively constructing a total of more than 160 miles of gathering pipeline in the Arkoma Stack basin; an additional 50 miles will be completed in northern Hughes County in 2019.

In total, the company plans to add another 220 Mmcf/d of processing capacity by Q4 2019, bringing its total Arkoma Stack capacity to over 440 Mmcf/d.


https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/antioch-dedicates-arkoma-stack-acreage-to-valiant/

Thursday, August 23, 2018

In Opposing Setbacks Ballot Measure, Polis Turns Back on Activists While Addressing Colorado’s Oil and Gas Industry

While speaking to the Colorado Oil and Gas Association’s (COGA) annual Energy Summit Wednesday in Denver, Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Jared Polis made clear his position on the industry-killing Initiative 97: he opposes it.

It was the Congressman’s clearest declaration yet against the ballot measure, which would impose 2,500 foot setbacks throughout Colorado, putting more than 85 percent of non-federal land off limits to oil and gas development. That would amount to a huge economic hit to the state, which enjoys $31 billion in GDP contributions from the sector per year.

Knowing his audience, Polis toed the line on his rhetoric and preached for the importance of finding common ground but respecting disagreements. But this line solicited cheers from the crowd:

“As I said during the democratic primary, I oppose initiative 97.”

He continued by calling 97 and Initiative 108 “wrong solutions for Colorado,” pointing out what activists won’t—the fact that increased setbacks is just another way to ban oil and gas activity in the state.

“The conflicts that presumably spurred each of these initiatives – 97 and 108 — comprised only a small fraction of oil and gas development in our state. And yet the reach of these measures would be much broader. Initiative 97 would all but ban fracking in Colorado, a position I never supported no matter how much Walker Stapleton may wish I had.”

In his remarks, Polis made clear that he thought activists were going too far in pushing the measure. Polis now joins Colorado’s most prominent Democrats like current governor John Hickenlooper and former Interior Secretary and Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar in opposing 97.

The position puts Polis in more alignment with his Republican challenger Walker Stapleton than some of his most ardent supporters, like the Sierra Club, which has contributed $600,000 to Polis this election cycle and has also endorsed Initiative 97.

As Polis tries to move more toward the middle heading into the 2018 elections, today showed it may be a rocky transition. During his remarks, he was heckled several times—not by industry voices but by environmental activists, one of whom had to be removed from the venue by staff.

Polis’ pronouncement drew headlines like this one: “Both Colorado governor candidates blast oil-well setback initiative at industry gathering” – Denver Business Journal.

But let’s not forget, this is the same Jared Polis who, in 2014, bankrolled a similar measure that would boost setbacks to around 2,000 feet. He angered activists back then by pulling the measure before it made it to the ballot when Gov. Hickenlooper set up a bipartisan oil and gas task force that was able to strike a compromise on the issue.

This is also the same Polis who hosted a press conference for “ban fracking” activist and Gasland director Josh Fox outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C. For a full list of all Polis’ anti-oil and gas activity look no further than this round up.

So, for the second time in four years, Polis has rebuffed activists in favor of a more moderate position on oil and gas issues. Last time Polis gave up on the setback issue, former allies turned against Polis and opted to picket his town halls and stage protests. Now that Polis has opposed increase setbacks again, we’ll see how the environmentalist factions respond.

 

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/in-opposing-setbacks-ballot-measure-polis-turns-back-on-activists-while-addressing-colorados-oil-and-gas-industry/

New York State Energy Foolishness and the Remedy in a Nutshell

Tom.jpg?resize=75%2C95Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

.

There’s no foolishness like New York State energy foolishness. The state has a governor obtuse as a cow but as ambitious as a piranha. The result is chaos.

New York State energy foolishness is succinctly captured in a well-reasoned op-ed that recently appeared in the Albany Times-Union. Authored by State Senator Thomas F. O’Mara  of Elmira, `who happens to be chair of the Standing Committee on Environmental Conservation, it captures the situation beautifully and makes the case for a radical change in direction for the once Empire State.

weeklycolumn-image2_60.jpg.png

Here are some key excerpts from the Op-Ed:

Since 1990, U.S. natural gas production is up 37 percent and greenhouse gas emissions are down 17 percent. From 2005-2015, natural gas consumption increased 24 percent — contributing to dramatic drops in a number of air pollutants, including sulfur dioxide (down 66 percent), fine particulate matter (down 34 percent), and nitrogen oxide (down 20 percent). One of the important benefits of natural gas is the way it works in concert with renewable forms of energy. The main challenge with relying on renewable sources of energy, such as wind or solar, is their inherent unreliability. Storage capacity simply is not ready for prime time yet and cannot meet our energy demands. Continued innovation and investment in this area is critical to the future viability of renewables.

Electric power needs to be used when it’s generated, so if the sun’s not out or the wind isn’t blowing, a wind turbine or solar panel isn’t much use to the electric grid. Natural gas is a strong compliment to renewables because it can be brought online quickly, ensuring reliability in systems when renewables aren’t producing. A recent report released by the Business Council for Sustainable Energy highlights this important link between domestic natural gas and renewables. According to the report, natural gas and renewables together generated 50 percent of U.S. electricity in 2017, up from 31 percent in 2008. At the same time, greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. power sector fell to their lowest levels since 1990. Furthermore, while we have made some gains in renewable electricity supply, our heating fuel remains at about 95 percent fossil fuel-based and natural gas is by far the cleanest of that heat source.

Unfortunately, a group of vocal activists refuses to accept the very real limits to renewable energy and are actively working to put a stranglehold on the development of much-needed energy infrastructure. Policymakers in New York State are blocking critical projects that are needed to supply energy to the entire New York and New England region — with very real world consequences for consumers who are cut off from access to affordable energy. The zealots may be successful in assuring that we don’t freeze to death in the dark, but ignoring natural gas may mean that we freeze to death with the lights on.

This past winter…New England was faced with constraints to its energy supply caused in part by the blockade of domestic pipeline construction, which Governor Cuomo has singlehandedly blocked. Faced with harsh winter weather and limited access to domestic natural gas, New England imported liquefied natural gas from Russia just to meet basic heating and electricity needs. So rather than tapping plentiful gas supplies in nearby Pennsylvania, New England consumers were forced to depend on Vladimir Putin and a bunch of Russian oligarchs to heat their homes.

Notice that Senator O’Hara is not opposed to renewables development. He sees them growing as part of our energy mix but he also sees what the shale revolution he sees across the state border from his district has wrought. He’s also a realist who sees what Andrew Cuomo’s New York State energy foolishness has wrought. If the Governor was serious about making progress on the goals he himself has set forth, he’d be embracing natural gas, allowing Upstate New York to benefit from it, letting it complement the development of renewables as supplemental energy.

If Cuomo was serious (and he most definitely is not serious) he would also embrace pipeline projects such as the Constitution Pipeline and the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project, rather than doing stupid fractivist tricks over them. The latter involves an expansion and upgrade of the Williams’ Transco pipeline that currently delivers about half of the natural gas consumed in New York City. The expansion would “increase natural gas deliveries to New York by 400 million cubic feet per day (enough natural gas to serve the daily needs of about 2.3 million homes) for the 2019/2020 winter heating season.” Moreover, this added capacity could displace the equivalent of 3,005,797 gallons of heating oil, reducing CO2 emissions by up to 2.4 million tons per year.

What’s not to like about a project like this? Nothing, of course. Likewise for the Constitution Pipeline. These are essential projects designed to keep New York and New England off the Russian energy dole, while ensuring a reliable energy system that can actually accommodate more renewables and dramatically lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Thank you, Senator O’Hara for speaking out!

 

The post New York State Energy Foolishness and the Remedy in a Nutshell appeared first on Natural Gas Now.

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/new-york-state-energy-foolishness-and-the-remedy-in-a-nutshell/

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Candor secures $200M commitment from EnCap

Candor Midstream said Tuesday it’s secured an initial $200 million capital commitment from private equity firm EnCap Flatrock Midstream.

The year-old, Houston-based midstreamer is pursuing organic, greenfield projects and select acquisitions, Kallanish Energy finds.

“We are humbled and excited to work with EnCap Flatrock,” said Candor president and CEO Darrel Hagerman, a 33-year energy industry veteran.

Crain, Caton & James served as legal adviser to Candor, while Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher acted as counsel to EnCap Flatrock Midstream.


https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/candor-secures-200m-commitment-from-encap/

CPV Valley Energy Center Beats Cuomo and Fractivists; Moves to Startup

17d9481.jpg?resize=75%2C85Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

 

CPV Valley Energy Center took Gov. Corruptocrat to court and quickly beat him and his band of New York State DEC political. The power plant is starting up!

MDN brought you the exciting news that last week a New York “Supreme Court” judge (Supreme Court in NY is a lower court, one step up from county court) overruled a last-minute dirty trick by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to block a Marcellus-fired electric plant from starting operations. Now, there is more good news!

Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-6.34.01-AM-512x211.jpg

Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) built and is days away from starting up the Valley Energy Center, a $900 million, 680-megawatt natural gas-fired electric generating plant in Orange County, New York.

In a last minute, desperate attempt to block the plant (to boost his gubernatorial reelection campaign and advance his future Presidential ambitions), Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed his DEC to deny renewal of an air permit previously granted by the DEC.

Instead, the DEC said the plant would now need a different (federal) air permit before it could start up, effectively blocking the project. The dirty trick didn’t work, however.

The judge stepped in and overruled the DEC, allowing Valley Energy Center to restart its tests and begin operations. Testing restarted Sunday morning.

According to CPV, these final round of tests will take “two to three weeks” before the plant is fully operational and online. From the Middletown Times-Herald-Record:

Startup tests resumed at the Competitive Power Ventures Valley Energy Center on Sunday morning, a company official said.

The natural-gas power plant, located in the Town of Wawayanda off Route 6, had to briefly stop tests after the state Department of Environmental Conservation denied to renew a critical air permit on Aug. 1.

CPV sued the DEC over the permit denial on Aug. 14.

A state Supreme Court judge ordered Aug. 15 that the plant can run while CPV awaits the outcome of a hearing on the permit issue with the DEC.

A CPV official said tests could take two to three weeks before the plant is ready for full-time commercial operations.

The company official also noted that $100,000 worth of noise abatement equipment was recently installed at the plant to address complaints about noise connected to startup tests.

Editor’s Note: Once again, we see what it takes to stop Gov. Corruptocrat; taking the initiative and fighting back in bare-knuckles style. Only the strong survive in corrupt New York. This reality is becoming more apparent ever day. Millennium fought back and won. The Northern Access Pipeline folks fought back at FERC and is making progress again after getting the agency to bat down Cuomo.

Now, CPV has done the same. Compare and contrast this what happened with the Constitution Pipeline when its sponsors naively attempted to play along with Cuomo in good faith. There is no good faith in Andrew Corruptocrat Cuomo. You can’t play with him honestly and you can’t afford to play with dishonestly, either (a mistake earlier made by CPV). The only choice is to legally punch him in the face and get your punch in first. That’s how it works in New York.

For more great articles on natural gas development every single business day, subscribe to Marcellus Drilling News using this convenient link.

The post CPV Valley Energy Center Beats Cuomo and Fractivists; Moves to Startup appeared first on Natural Gas Now.

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/cpv-valley-energy-center-beats-cuomo-and-fractivists-moves-to-startup/

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

SHALE INSIGHT 2018 Announces Pre-Conference Workshops!

SHALE INSIGHT™ 2018 will offer pre-conference workshops on Tuesday, October 23 from 3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Subject matter experts will provide in-depth, two-hour interactive demonstrations and presentations that will delve into complex technical topics within the oil and gas industry. Opportunities for participation and Q&A will be facilitated during each session to enhance the growth and learning experience. Separate registration is required for pre-conference workshops at a nominal fee. If you have already registered for the Conference, please revisit your registration account to add a pre-conference workshop; otherwise, please click here to begin the full registration process. Energy Transactions in the Marcellus and Utica Shales: Where have we been? Where are we going? Sponsored by Steptoe & Johnson The evolution of the Marcellus and Utica shales has occurred in several phases. Industry insiders in the energy, business and legal worlds will discuss strategies necessary for the completion of successful energy transactions in today’s market as well as what future opportunities and challenges they see for the region. This interactive workshop will allow participants the opportunity to apply the strategies discussed to real-world situations. Reducing Methane Emissions: How State and Federal Agencies are Regulating Methane Emissions Sponsored by Woodard and Curran State and federal agencies have recently implemented changes in regulations on the natural gas industry for reducing methane emissions. This workshop will include a discussion of the changes; how the industry will navigate the new regulations and permits, such as the Pennsylvania GP-5/5a permit, and how to implement new Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) technologies to monitor and report compliance.

Technology Showcase

The annual Technology Showcase provides suppliers of emerging technologies an opportunity to introduce their innovations to the natural gas producer, midstream/pipeline, downstream and service communities. The MSC Research Collaborative solicits applications for these technologies and awards top applicants with an opportunity to present. SHALE INSIGHT™ 2018 guarantees a front row seat for the most important discussion on shale development, featuring some of the most prominent industry and government leaders. Become a sponsor, host an exhibit, or register for the conference today by visiting www.ShaleInsight.com and capitalize on this unique opportunity to gain unprecedented industry access. We look forward to seeing you in Pittsburgh! Joseph F. Barone ShaleDirectories.com 610.764.1232 jbarone@shaledirectories.com www.shaledirectories.com

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/shale-insight-2018-announces-pre-conference-workshops/

Manufacturing Summit 2018

Growing The Petrochemical Industry In Western Pennsylvania

Sept. 11, 2018 Cross Creek Resort Titusville, PA 16354 www.nwpaoilandgashub.com

Click on the image below for the full details.

Manufacturing-Summit-2018-791x1024.jpg

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/manufacturing-summit-2018/