The financial industry is losing patience with the fossil fuel industry.
Ed Crooks, Financial Times, 6 September 2015, Falling oil prices put groups with high costs under severe financial strain,
The world may run on oil, but the oil industry runs on capital, and for US shale producers that capital is starting to dry up. Continue reading Shale prices driving down production and investment –Financial Times
FERC’s role for oil pipelines is different than for natural gas pipelines. FERC doesn’t actively promote petroleum products pipelines through federal eminent domain like it does for fracked methane; instead it leaves oil pipeline eminent domain to the states, which for Georgia seems to mostly mean the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT).
FERC’s website says about Regulating Oil Pipelines:
The Commission’s responsibilities include:
- Regulation of rates and practices of oil pipeline companies engaged in interstate transportation;
- Establishment of equal service conditions to provide shippers with equal access to pipeline transportation; and
- Establishment of reasonable rates for transporting petroleum and petroleum products by pipeline.
So Kinder Morgan’s Palmetto petroleum products Project does fall under FERC, but not the same way as for Sabal Trail’s fracked methane pipeline.
These FERC oil roles help explain why Continue reading Oil (Palmetto) vs. gas (Sabal Trail) pipelines at FERC
Still more evidence that new natural gas pipelines are an unneeded boondoggle.
Kathryn R. Eiseman, Commonwealth Magazine, 20 January 2015, New gas pipelines can be avoided: Back-up fuel incentives are the way to go,
LAST WINTER’S NATURAL gas price spikes, and resultant electric rate hikes, continue to be used to justify the push for massive expansion of gas infrastructure. Yet a successful program to incentivize New England’s power generators to contract for back-up fuel for this winter undermines the argument for more pipelines. This winter’s lower wholesale gas and electric prices indicate that the rate hikes themselves could have been avoided had such measures been more fully implemented for the 2013-2014 winter.
Measures like contracting to buy gas from peak load plants that sometimes sat idle last winter. And measures like storing gas when it’s cheap to use in the winter.
In fact, ISO-NE intentionally excluded LNG storage incentives from last winter’s winter reliability program, telling the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that gas-market-related solutions “would lower gas prices and send the wrong signal about the relative scarcity of natural gas. These lower prices would also be reflected in the electricity market.” In other words, allowing prices to rise would help convince the public Continue reading New England doesn’t need more gas pipelines: stockpile instead
How does Spectra’s northern cold snap excuse for fracked gas
apply to Florida, the target for the Sabal Trail, Hillabee,
and Florida Southeast Connection methane pipelines?
And if Spectra CEO Greg Ebel gets his wish to export gas,
which
T. Boone Pickens already explained will drive up domestic prices,
how will higher gas prices help northern cities?
Maybe Spectra’s pipelines aren’t for warming up cold houses;
maybe they’re for corporate profit
at the expense of landowners, taxpayers, ratepayers, and all
those “natural” gas bus riders who will be surprised when
their fares go up.
Maybe we should stop the Sabal Trail pipeline and see if the
fracking house of cards falls apart.
Jonathan Fahey wrote for AP 10 March 2014, Natural gas industry struggles to keep promises,
There’s plenty of natural gas in the ground, everyone seems to agree. But the harsh weather this winter shows there are obstacles to producing it, and more pipelines have to be built.
The bitter temperatures boosted demand for natural gas to heat homes and businesses. But wells in some places literally froze, making it difficult for some drillers to keep gas flowing. And the high demand clogged pipelines, so even when there was enough production, the gas couldn’t get where it needed to go.
Shortages cropped up, and prices in some places soared to record levels. Californians and Texans were asked to reduce their power consumption because utilities were running low on gas to run power plants. Montana State University in Billings had to cancel classes for a day because of a natural gas shortage.
Jim Fuquay amplified that chilly northern point for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram 11 March 2014:
Prices in New England briefly spiked to record levels. Californians were asked to reduce their power consumption because utilities were running low on gas to run power plants.
If the problem is cold weather in the north, why does Spectra want to build a pipeline to sunny Florida?
Curiously, the Star-Telegram omitted this point from the AP story; I’ve emphasized the redacted point: Continue reading Spectra CEO Greg Ebel excuses for lack of methane pipeline delivery