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PA Radical Enviros Blame Democrat Senator for Quigley Firing

Jan Jarrett
Jan Jarrett

Jan Jarrett, former head of the radical Big Green group PennFuture and one of the people disgraced and fired John Quigley, former Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), colludes with to target Democrats who deign to disagree with his radical policies, is (surprise!) attacking Democrats who disagree with Quigley’s radical policies. Jarrett is accusing Democrat Sen. John Yudichak from Luzerne County, PA of “orchestrating…a vicious, successful smear campaign” against her “dear friend” John Quigley. What utter crap. Quigley and Jarrett are the ones who targeted people with a smear campaign. Quigley told Jarrett’s former employer PennFuture (and other Big Green groups) to get off their rear-ends (dropping the “f” bomb) and to do something about so-called “apostates” in the Democrat Party who are not supporting his wild and radical regulatory proposals (read the email here – Smoking Gun: Copy of the Email that Got John Quigley Fired). No doubt Sen. Yudichak had something to do with exposing the email sent by Quigley–FROM A PRIVATE ACCOUNT which is unethical in the extreme, perhaps illegal–to the light of day for all to see. But for Jarrett and others to blame Yudichak and target him for helping to expose Quigley’s unethical behavior is like a criminal blaming the victim for telling the truth about what happened…
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Wastewater Co. BlueJack Energy Launches with $100M Investment

BlueJack Energy logoAs MDN has previously pointed out, even during the downturn in the oil and gas market, there is at least one sub-sector that’s expanding: wastewater. Long after a well is drilled and fracked, once it begins producing, that well will continue to produce not only natural gas and/or oil and other hydrocarbons–it will also produce water from the depths. We’re not talking about groundwater or aquifers that sit several hundred feet down. Those water sources are well-protected by well casing. There is also abundant supplies of mineral-laden water deep in the earth that comes out of the borehole for years after a well is drilled. When drillers were sinking holes as fast as they could–and fracking them–that salty/minerally water from the depths (often called brine or saltwater) would be recycled and used for more drilling. But when there’s little or no drilling–what do you do with all that brine/wastewater? You still have to get rid of it. So the wastewater hauling/recycling/disposal industry is actually expanding. BlueJack Energy Solutions is one such new company, begun to service several shale plays including the Marcellus/Utica. Yesterday BlueJack announced it has received $100 million in investment capital from Energy Spectrum Partners–to help get the company launched quickly and into a full gallop…
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Mountaineer NGL Storage Open Season Successful, Development Begins

Mountaineer NGL StorageIn April MDN brought you the news that Mountaineer NGL Storage launched a non-binding open season for drillers who want to reserve storage capacity in a new underground storage facility to be built in Monroe County, Ohio, near Clarington, along the Ohio River (see New Company Announces Open Season for NGL Storage in Ohio Utica). Good news. The open season was a success–with requests for more than three times what Mountaineer had planned to offer, at least to start. Therefore the project, which is backed by investment bank Goldman Sachs, will begin development this month, although the project won’t go online until 2018…
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EXCO Restructuring Plan: New Board Members, Hammer Midstreamers

EXCO.jpgLast week MDN told you that the board at EXCO Resources, a company in financial trouble, is considering “restructuring”–coded language for bankruptcy (see EXCO Resources Board Looks at “Restructuring” – Stock Nosedives). Yesterday EXCO provided an update on their efforts. We learn that the board itself is getting “streamlined”–meaning some board members have been fired and some new board members appointed (from investors who hold a lot of EXCO’s outstanding debt). The company also says it will “target an aggressive restructuring of gathering and transportation contracts”–which means the company is about to threaten midstream companies who have the misfortune of providing services to EXCO, that either those companies will reduce the price of their services, or risk not getting paid at all. Such is life in the rough and tumble world of oil and gas these days…
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Intrexon, Dominion Remain Excited About Marcellus GTL

Intrexon Corporation logo. (PRNewsFoto/Intrexon Corporation)

Last summer MDN told you that Dominion was partnering with a company called Intrexon to “explore the potential” of building a gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant or plants, plural (see Marcellus/Utica Gas-to-Liquids Not Dead! Dominion Sniffing Around). If they decide to move forward, Dominion would have exclusive rights to build a plant(s) in the Marcellus/Utica region using Intrexon’s technology. GTL technology converts shale gas into other products like diesel fuel. It now appears to be more than “checking it out” talk. Intrexon recently announced they’ve built a pilot plant for their technology–in South San Francisco, of all places. Below we update you on Intrexon’s new pilot plant, and bring you some great analysis by a Motley Fool analyst…
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4 Winners Bag $80K at 5th Annual Shale Gas Innovation Contest

SGICCEach year the Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization Center (SGICC) hosts an annual Shale Gas Innovation Contest. Last week the SGICC hosted their fifth annual contest and announced four winners that split an $80,000 prize purse. The four winners this year include: Aridea Solutions, valve manufacturer; Compass Natural Gas, a CNG (compressed natural gas) station supplier; Epiphany Water Solutions, a wastewater recycler; and someone we personally know and like a great deal–Donny Beaver with HalenHardy, who won for yet another superb product (from an ingenious and serial entrepreneur). Donny’s new product is called SPILLTRATION™–a product engineered to absorb and contain oil-based leaks and spills while allowing clean water to be filter through. Read on for a description of the products/services that won. A huge congrats to our friend Donny!…
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Dartmouth Study Finds Barium Leaches Directly from Marcellus Shale

DartmouthIn December MDN called attention to a newly published study by researchers at Dartmouth College (see Dartmouth Study: Fracking Causes Toxic Metal Wastewater). In reading over the Dartmouth press announcement at that time, it appeared to us that the researchers have found evidence that plain water itself, water without extra chemicals added to it, will, under pressure a mile or more down, facilitate or somehow combine with shale and cause barium to leach out of the shale. Those same researchers have continued their work and have just published another study that builds on the earlier work. Like the earlier work, we don’t detect an agenda on the part of the researchers. This appears to us to be legitimate research that helps us better understand the chemical reactions happening a mile or more below the ground when we shoot water down there. Here’s the latest from Ivy League school Dartmouth…
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The Magical Thinking of Peak Oil/Gas Theorists

Magical ThinkingYou know what magical thinking is? It’s when an analyst/consultant repeatedly predicted that the world had reached “peak oil” production and that oil production was/will soon decline, leading to insanely high prices for oil. Then the shale revolution happened. Oops. So much for the discredited “peak oil” theory. But the same analyst, for a long time, kept repeating his discredited theory. We call that magical thinking. That same analyst then predicted “peak natural gas”–that the shale revolution was a bubble and would soon end because shale wells peter out so quickly, dontcha know. The analyst never factored new technology, and new shale layers, would be discovered. Oops. More magical thinking. Now that same analyst says cheap shale gas will end soon–the price is about to go insanely high. Yet more magical thinking…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, May 25, 2016

best of the restThe “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: NED really is dead – KM pulls the plug; 2016 northeast natgas trends; hypocrisy of OH fractivists calling for another public hearing; the Hulk goes after Tom Wolf; KM’s canceled pipeline is bad news for Vermont economy; the madness of fighting global warming; and more!
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