525,600 minutes? Actually it’s been about 5 and a half times that amount….
From Politico’s “Morning Energy:”
Or, 2.88 million minutes: Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn notes in the Daily Caller that it’s been 2,000 days since TransCanada first applied for a Keystone XL permit: http://bit.ly/1i7Bzt2
Here’s more information on a story I brought to you earlier this week concerning potential power brownouts in the Bakken region.
Rob Port with SayAnythingBlog.com has this:
I believe Kavulla is referring to the battle being fought over transmission lines in the Killdeer Mountain area. Land conservationists oppose the lines, but the energy industry says they’re needed to shore up the shaky power grid in the western part of the state. And there are other environmental implications too. Two gas plants in western North Dakota experienced outages in June and July of last year, causing flaring to spike to the consternation of everyone who doesn’t like to see lots and lots of valuable gas go up in smoke.
One of Kavulla’s counterparts here in North Dakota expressed similar concerns to me in an interview back in January. His concern, though, was emissions regulations.
Public Service Commissioner Randy Christmann suggested that proposed EPA regulations for power plant emissions are arbitrarily formulated, impossible to comply with and ultimately meaningless in terms of environmental outcomes.
Meanwhile, Public Service Commissioner Bob Lake asks, for The Flathead News Group- Where are Walsh and Tester on the ‘middle path’ for coal? (Walsh and Tester are Democratic Senators from Montana)
It was highly remarkable (heretical in some circles) then that last week a group of four Democratic U.S. senators declared that they are charting a middle path for coal — that is, acknowledging the problems with climate change while not being blind to the fact that we will need to consume increasing amounts of coal to meet our energy needs in the future.
The four senators — from North Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia and Indiana — denounced the “keep it in the ground” strategy advocated by environmental groups and supported by the Obama administration, especially the opposition to clean-coal technology that promises to reduce future emissions while still providing low-cost and reliable energy.
Why aren’t Sens.Jon Tester and John Walsh adding their voices to one of the most critical issues that affects Montana? Maybe it’s time they show a little leadership and cut the leash from the Sierra Club.
And, it looks as though US Senators John Hoeven (R-ND), Mike Enzi (R-WY), and John Barrasso (R-WY) are calling the environmentalists bluff when it comes to the flaring of natural gas in the Bakken region and elsewhere.
FULL PRESS RELEASE
Senators Introduce Bill to Reduce Natural Gas Flaring
Bill expedites the permitting of natural gas gathering lines
needed to capture gas which would otherwise be flared.
Natural gas gathering lines are pipelines that ship unprocessed natural gas from oil and gas wells to natural gas processing plants which separate the gasses (e.g., methane, ethane, propane) from one another. Once processed, the various gases are shipped along interstate natural gas pipelines to market.
“Our bill will reduce unnecessary flaring and help energy companies safely capture and sell more natural gas. It’s a win for state and federal budgets and our environment,” said Barrasso. “States like Wyoming are making strides in reducing the flaring of natural gas during oil production – and it’s time for Congress to do the same.”
“Our legislation is a good example of how we can produce more energy with better environmental stewardship by empowering states and tribes to develop their energy resources,” said Hoeven. “North Dakota set a goal of reducing flaring in the State by over 60 percent in six years and this legislation helps accomplish that goal. That not only helps to grow our economy and create jobs, but also brings us closer to our long-sought goal of true energy independence.”
“Abundant, low-cost energy shouldn’t have to wait on the federal government for approval,” said Enzi. “But that’s often what happens when we lose natural gas to flaring on account of delays in permitting infrastructure improvements. American energy is ready to power our country if Washington would just get out of the way. We can do better and our legislation is one step in that direction.”
Background:
According to the Energy Information Administration, the states with the highest amounts of natural gas flaring and venting are North Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. The siting of natural gas gathering lines on Federal land and Indian land is an especially difficult challenge in Wyoming and North Dakota. The North Dakota Petroleum CouncilFlaring Task Force estimates that 40 percent of natural gas production is flared at oil wells on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, while 27 percent of natural gas production is flared at oil wells on state and private land.
The Natural Gas Gathering Enhancement Act would help reduce flaring by making it easier to site natural gas gathering lines across Federal land and Indian land.
The bill would, among other things:
- provide a categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act for certain natural gas gathering lines which are located on Federal land (excluding the National Park System, the National Wildlife Refuge System, and the National Wilderness Preservation System) and Indian land and service any oil (not natural gas) wells; and
·require the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to issue rights-of-way for natural gas gathering linesthat qualify for a categorical exclusion within 30 days; and rights-of-way for all other natural gas gathering lines servicing oil wells within 60 days.
The bill explicitly states that it would not affect laws requiring the consent of Indian tribes or individual Indians prior to the issuance of rights-of-way on Indian land.
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