New Fortress Energy Project Endangered by Biden and Crazies

Jim Willis on NGL Pipelines
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

[Editor’s Note: Doug McLinko, Bradford County Commissioner, says the invaluable New Fortress Energy project in Wyalusing is being delayed by Joe Biden and environmental crazies.]

We’ve written about Doug McLinko, Commissioner for Bradford County, PA, a number of times. McLinko has been a strong supporter of the shale industry for years. In a recent interview with a local newspaper, McLinko and fellow Commissioner Daryl Miller took national leaders to task, including President Biden, for their pursuit of foreign energy sources over domestic sources. In particular, McLinko believes rail and pipelines could be an effective countermeasure to move our energy around, guarding against wild price gyrations.

As part of the interview, McLinko had some interesting comments about why he believes New Fortress Energy (NFE) has stopped work on the Wyalusing LNG export operation. He says Biden’s energy policies are, in part, the cause:

Bradford County Commissioners Doug McLinko and Daryl Miller lambasted national officials on Thursday over the topic of American-produced energy and how Bradford County, itself, could play a vital role against the energy produced by Russia.

“We, of course, fully support natural gas development right here in Bradford County and, to that extent, America,” Miller said. “Producing more energy here would make ourselves and European countries less dependent on energy from unfriendly countries like Russia.”

It is no secret that the Russia-Ukraine war has had a hand in skyrocketing fuel prices at the pump, which Miller noted is reminiscent of the gas crisis of the 1970s.

“We haven’t learned,” he said. “It’s beyond my comprehension why we continuously rely on foreign energy sources.”

McLinko went so far as to label the Russian government as “thugs” for their tactics against Ukraine, and also blasted the “nonsense from both parties” here in the United States.

“Rail, rail, rail, and pipelines, pipelines, pipelines,” he said. “We can talk about permits and leases and all those things, but if you can’t ship it, it’s for nothing.”

McLinko cited the New Fortress Energy construction project in Wyalusing that has been on pause with the new presidential administration as an example of how the current national energy policy is “killing workers.”

The $800 million project was previously expected to be operational in 2022, and would have liquified Marcellus Shale natural gas to be shipped by truck and rail to overseas markets.

“What a shame,” McLinko said. “Natural gas in America is a defensive mechanism and an offensive weapon. We have a weapon right under our feet. We need pipelines, and we need rail. Open it back up.”*

In 2018 New Fortress Energy announced it would build an $800 million liquefaction plant in Wyalusing (Bradford County), PA with plans to transport the LNG produced in land-locked northeastern PA via specially-outfitted trucks and rail cars to a transloading dock/port facility New Fortress plans to build at an old DuPont dynamite factory site in New Jersey, on the banks of the Delaware River (see Big News! Marcellus LNG Export Plant Coming to Landlocked NEPA).

One year ago, in March 2021, MDN reported that New Fortress Energy had not given up on the Wyalusing project, but their attention (and money) is currently focused elsewhere (see New Fortress Hasn’t Given Up on PA LNG, Focused Elsewhere).

Anti-fossil fuel cultists have attacked the Wyalusing project on two fronts: One is an attack against using special (very safe) rail cars to transport the LNG from Wyalusing to the Delaware River in New Jersey, and the second is to attack a new dock NFE wants to build on the Delaware so ships can load the Wyalusing LNG.

McLinko is certainly not wrong in blaming the Bidenistas and their policies for holding up more shale development in general, and the NFE Wyalusing project in particular, but the truth is this project has been on hold for nearly as long as Biden has been in office. The problems delaying the Wyalusing LNG project pre-date Biden and originate with Big Green groups (funded in part with foreign money from Russia and China). If Biden wanted to, he could blast through all of that interference and get the Wyalusing project moving again. He simply doesn’t want to.

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