Shale driller Huntley & Huntley, headquartered in Monroeville (Allegheny County), PA drilled at least one well last year in the Pittsburgh suburb of Plum (also in Allegheny County). According to a landowner living nearby, H&H’s drilling and fracking of the Midas 8M well led to their water well becoming fouled. H&H disputes the claim.
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Although it’s still talk, the talk is now white hot and all indications are that President Trump will soon issue an Executive Order (EO) that declares important pipeline projects–like Williams’ Constitution and Northeast Supply Enhancement projects–are critical for national security, and that states like New York trying to block those projects just because they’re fossil fuel projects will not stand.
IMPORTANT UPDATE 4/4/19: White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow has confirmed a Trump EO is about to be issued on pipelines. See article below.
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Energy Transfer issued an exciting announcement yesterday to say they are expanding their presence in China “to meet growing demand for ethane and liquid natural gas products” by opening an ET office in Beijing. It will be ET’s first non-U.S. office–can you believe that?! Although ET doesn’t mention the Marcellus/Utica in the announcement, we think there’s a connection.
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Pennsylvania towns that pass sketchy local ordinances that skirt state laws are on notice: It’s going to cost you. Big. For the past several years we’ve reported on the case of Grant Township, PA that passed an ordinance cooked up by the radical Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) to try and block a state-approved injection well. The ordinance was tossed by a judge, and now the town will have to pay $102,000 in legal fees incurred by the operator.
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Here’s one we consider a conundrum. In Jan. 2018 MDN told you that the Borough of Jessup (Lackawanna County), PA was supposed to rule, quickly, on a request by Invenergy to allow a new power plant it was building at the time to, when fully built and operating, discharge up to 56,600 gallons of “wastewater” (heated water) per day in the borough’s sewage system (see New Town Board Tries to Stop Nearly-Done Gas-Fired Plant in Jessup). The plant has been operating since early this year, but the borough just voted to approve the sewage wasterwater plan…yesterday.
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What will Jeff Tittel of the odious New Jersey Sierra Club say now? Tittel and his ilk have for years litigated to block a natural gas pipeline that would flow Marcellus gas from PA into New Jersey, a pipeline that would cross through 10 miles of scrub pines colloquially known as the Pinelands–a “protected” area in NJ. Tittel objected to cutting down a few hundred scrub pine trees to make way for the pipeline. And just like that, Mother Nature came along last weekend and torched 10,000 acres of those same scrub pines via a forest fire. Maybe Mom Nature is clearing the trees for the pipeline?!
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The Federal EPA has just launched the “New Owner Clean Air Act Audit Program” which allows drillers who purchased wells and drilling operations from other drillers to perform a self-audit of their new purchases for violations of the Clean Air Act–looking for fugitive methane and VOCs (volatile organic compounds).
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OTHER U.S. REGIONS: New Jersey’s renewable mandates will send electric bills to the moon; NATIONAL: Energy-related carbon dioxide emission profiles differ dramatically from state to state; Surging E&P profits, lower costs belie negative sentiment; INTERNATIONAL: KBR to conduct open book EPC estimate for Goldboro LNG; Saudi Aramco is world’s most profitable company, beating Apple by far; Saudi Aramco’s breakeven oil price is higher than expected; Natural gas is the ‘destination fuel of the future’, says Qatar Petroleum CEO.
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