Free Republic

In a special meeting Saturday, the town of Hollis voted to oppose the construction of a natural gas pipeline that would run under the town. Four-hundred and twenty people attended a special town meeting Saturday morning in the Hollis-Brookline High School gym. Townspeople debated the controversial pipeline, which would run through the middle of Hollis from the southwest to the northeast. Tennessee Gas Pipeline argues that the pipeline is necessary to meet increasing energy demands in the northeast. The natural gas company submitted a proposal to build the pipeline in 2018, which the New Hampshire Energy Facility Site Evaluation committee...

Marking the sixth anniversary of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline's permit application, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) teased voters with a preview of what a GOP-controlled Senate would do. "If American people give us the opportunity to be in a majority next year, I'll be setting the agenda," McConnell said. "It's easier to score if you're on offense, and the majority leader is offensive coordinator." He added: "If we have a new majority next year, and a new majority leader, the Keystone pipeline will be voted on on the floor of the Senate, something the current majority has been avoiding...

WASHINGTON– TransCanada Corp.’s chief executive said the cost to build the Keystone XL pipeline, currently estimated at $5.4 billion, is expected to double by the time the U.S. government completes its review of the largest part of the project. Russ Girling, chief executive of the Calgary, Alberta,-based company, in an interview this week said he expects the project’s cost could increase to a “number that gets you into the high single digits to a 10 number.” He was hesitant to say the project’s cost could double. “I was actually trying to avoid saying those words,” Mr. Girling said. “Obviously, the...

Spectra Energy Corp. announced a $3 billion expansion to its New England pipeline network which it says will help meet growing demand for natural gas in the region. The undertaking will allow Houston-based Spectra and its partners to deliver 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to the area, the company said. The project will serve both gas-fired power plants as well as customers who use natural gas for heating. “This is another step in our commitment to improving power system reliability, reducing electric costs to make the region more economically competitive, and protecting New England’s quality of...

It’s harvest time! But oil shipments out of the Bakken are causing dangerous and costly rail delays for farmers. The oil boom in the Northern Plains is a boon to the U.S. economy, creating thousands of jobs and increasing our supply of American energy. With nearly 3 million Americans out of work, the Bakken is like a pool of cool water in an arid desert. However, our railroads do not have the capacity to transport unprecedented levels of crude oil as well as the fall harvest. Farmers are understandably frustrated with the railroad companies, yet the railroad companies say they...

CUSHING, Okla.— New pipeline projects are expanding the size of an Oklahoma crude oil hub that is already one of the most important oil storage facilities in the world. One new pipeline is in operation at the hub in Cushing, another is almost complete and a new project was announced earlier this month when Tulsa-based NGL Energy Partners revealed plans for the Grand Mesa Pipeline, a joint venture with Rimrock Midstream LLC, the Tulsa World reported Saturday. Grand Mesa, which will be open to oil producer commitments starting next week, will be a 550-mile system from Colorado to Cushing. Once...

A fall in gas flows from Russia to two Eastern European countries this week has sent a chill through the region as it prepares for possible energy shortages this winter. Slovakia's gas distributor SPP said Thursday its daily gas intake from Russia fell 10% below contracted levels starting late Wednesday. Polish gas company PGNiG said its gas flows from Russia had fallen 45% below its contracted daily volumes by Thursday.

He went. He saw. He issued another news release. Making good on his vow to “see the situation first hand,” Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter returned Thursday from a visit to oil installations with a grim safety assessment. But the industry, he stressed, was not to blame. “South Texas pipelines are vulnerable,” announced Porter, whose agency regulates the state’s petroleum industry, “because the federal government has abdicated its most basic function to protect our borders.” Repeating an assertion that he made in an open letter last month to the federal Customs and Border Patrol agency, Porter said “his concerns stems...

In the chambers of the Nebraska Supreme Court in Omaha, a hearing was held Friday about the decision by Lancaster County District Judge Stephanie F. Stacy claiming that the law under which the state’s governor had approved the route of the Keystone XL pipeline was unconstitutional. The judge, in a case brought by three landowners, decided that LB1161, the law passed by the state’s legislature at the end of its session in 2011 that shifted the approval of the pipeline route from the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) to the governor, was unconstitutional, and as such the judge instituted a...

A Tulsa, Okla.,-based plumbers and pipe welders union is clearly flush with cash, as a dozen of their top officials made more than $200,000 last year, federal records show. Plumbers AFL-CIO Local Union 798 paid business manager Daniel Hendrix $280,000 and financial secretary/treasurer Wade Pilgreen $272,000 in fiscal 2013, according to disclosures the union filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. ... Hendrix said his pipe fitters make about $50 an hour and work at least a 60-hour a week plus expenses, and the union staff is compensated at a similar rate for their roughly 80-hour work weeks. A person...

The growing glut of U.S. natural gas is helping to power a manufacturing boom in Mexico. Natural-gas exports across the southern border have risen 11% so far this year, to two billion cubic feet a day, according to Bentek Energy, an analytics company based in Denver. And that flow of gas could double in the next few years, analysts say. Companies have announced plans for at least seven new pipelines to take gas across the border from Texas and Arizona, including one expected to start transporting fuel at the end of the month. The increasing flow of gas is easing...

(Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Monday oversaw the start of construction on a giant pipeline that is due to ship $400 billion (240.78 billion pounds) worth of Russian gas to China in the three decades after flows begin in 2019.The 4,000 km (2,500 mile) "Power of Siberia" pipeline, being built by state-controlled Gazprom (GAZP.MM), forms a key part of the Kremlin's energy strategy, symbolising Russia's attempts to wean itself off dependence on European markets that account for most of its exports."Just now, we along with our Chinese friends are starting the biggest construction project in the world," Putin told...

State regulators have cleared Vermont Gas Systems to install pipeline near power lines owned by the Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO). The company was temporarily forbidden to do work near the power lines over concerns that the chemical treatment used on utility poles would be disturbed by the work. ... Vermont Gas submitted the plan the day the Public Service Board ordered it, and after receiving comments on the plan, the board approved it on August 26. Work on the controversial pipeline is ongoing. Vermont Gas has filed for permission to go ahead with the next phase of the project,...

A proposal to build a pipeline from the fracking fields of Pennsylvania to eastern Massachusetts by late 2018 is sparking concern among many property owners in the path of the pipe. But there’s a twist to this evolving story: a proposed surcharge added to electric bills that would force every ratepayer in New England to help pay for the interstate pipeline, which is expected to cost $2 billion to $6 billion. The route proposed for the pipeline’sMassachusetts segment runs through dense forests, wetlands and small towns in the northern tier of the state. Alternative routes, or modifications to the northern...

Full Title: Dominion, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and AGL Resources Form Joint Venture to Own Proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline - $4.5 billion-$5 billion pipeline would bring 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to North Carolina and Virginia - 'Transformational' project provides growing Mid-Atlantic markets a new route for access to competitive, domestic energy supplies - Investment would create thousands of jobs, promote economic development and cleaner air, increase state and local tax revenue - Pipeline expected to be in service by late 2018, pending regulatory approvals Four major U.S. energy companies – Dominion (NYSE: D), Duke...

Who could have ever imagined that North America would surpass Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas liquids? A decade ago, that would have seemed laughable.Yet that’s exactly what has happened; and it’s not just Saudi Arabia that has been left in North America’s dust -- Russia has, too. The surge in North American oil and gas production is arguably the most important development in energy over the last decade. That’s the good news. The not so good news is that North America doesn’t have nearly enough oil and gas pipelines to accommodate its 11-million-barrel-a-day...

Royal Dutch Shell said it had reached deals on some of the four Nigerian oil fields it has offered for sale as the oil major pushes ahead with divesting global assets to cut costs. Shell last year put up for sale its 30 percent shares in four oil blocks in the Niger Delta - Oil Mining Licences... - as well as a major pipeline, the Nembe Creek Trunk Line. "We have signed sales and purchase agreements for some of the oil mining leases, but not all that we are seeking to divest," a Shell spokesman said on Wednesday. In several...

FARGO, N.D. — The furious pace of energy exploration in North Dakota is creating a crisis for farmers whose grain shipments have been held up by a vast new movement of oil by rail, leading to millions of dollars in agricultural losses and slower production for breakfast cereal giants like General Mills. The backlog is only going to get worse, farmers said, as they prepared this week for what is expected to be a record crop of wheat and soybeans. “If we can’t get this stuff out soon, a lot of it is simply going to go on the ground...

Valero Energy Corp.’s Memphis, Tenn., refinery will begin receiving more low-cost domestic crude oil in two years as part of a plan by another company to build a pipeline to the plant. Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline LP said Thursday it plans to build a pipeline that would deliver as much as 200,000 barrels a day of crude oil to Valero’s Memphis plant when it’s completed in late 2016. The 440-mile, 20-inch pipeline will link Plains’ Cushing, Okla., terminal to Valero’s plant and cost an estimated $900 million. Locally based refiner Valero holds an option until January 2016 to buy...

Ukraine has warned it might cut Russian oil and gas flows to Europe and ban Russian airlines from crossing its airspace, as Moscow criticised the country for suspending a ceasefire at the crash site of MH17. The measures are part of a sanctions bill targeting Russia that will be submitted to parliament, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said in Kiev. Yatsenyuk explained it could include complete or partial bans on transit of all manner of resources, including energy resources and overflights. Ukraine is the key country for the transport of Russian oil and gas to Europe. Previous energy disputes have resulted...