Around noon yesterday, a train moving slowly, at 10 miles per hour, was hauling lumber and frack sand from Scranton to nearby Carbondale, when a video surveillance camera caught the train leaving the rails. Ten cars derailed, with three tipping over completely (spilling sand) and one teetering on the brink. The video, taken from a police station across the street, is amazing.
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Pennsylvania State Senators Camera Bartolotta (Washington County) and Pat Stefano (Fayette County) have just beaten PA Gov. Tom Wolf at his own game. Wolf has been gallivanting around the state like Santa Claus promoting a plan called Restore PA, a plan that will get rid of lead paint in schools, fix flooding, repair old roads, give rural residents internet access, and just about any other goody you can think of. Wolf wants to pay for it by slapping a severance tax on the Marcellus industry. Bartolotta and Stefano are introducing two bills that would fund Wolf’s folly–but do so by allowing new shale drilling on state land. Game, set, and match!
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There is an ongoing question of whether or not the Ohio Marketable Titles Act (MTA), which impacts Utica shale rights, can be used to return previously severed mineral rights back to a surface landowner, or whether the MTA is superseded by Ohio Dormant Minerals Act (DMA). In February, Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals said the MTA *does* still apply to mineral rights (see OH Court Says Marketable Title Act Applies to O&G Rights). The Seventh Circuit recently ruled in a second case reaffirming yet again that yes, MTA applies to mineral rights.
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A group of radical leftist groups filed briefs in federal court last Friday asking the court to overturn the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision from 2017 that approves and allows the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). The court case, before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, is the next phase of the battle over ACP. We name names below for which non-profit agencies should have their tax exemption ripped away because of their overt political activities in opposing ACP.
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You may recall MDN covering the story of the compressor station in Michigan that caught fire and exploded in January (see Michigan NatGas Compressor Station Catches Fire, Explodes). That single compressor (single point of failure, as it turns out) is responsible for pumping natgas to two-thirds of Michigan residents. After a two-month investigation, the station’s owner says it knows what happened, which can be summed up as a series of unfortunate events.
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Natural gas was front and center at the ninth annual Marcellus and Manufacturing Development Conference, an event of the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, held yesterday in Morgantown, WV. Among the speakers was Steve Winberg, U.S. Department of Energy assistant secretary for fossil energy. He mouthed strong support for the Appalachian Basin ethane “hub” saying the region can easily support up to five ethane crackers, and that could lead to $35 billion of investment and 100,000 jobs in the region.
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Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) claim to have discovered a new way to filter natural gas before it’s burned to remove the presence of “contaminants” like carbon dioxide within the gas, so that the methane will burn cleaner. If true, perhaps gas-fired electric plants will become zero-carbon emitting sources of cheap electricity. We can hear the screams of fossil fuel haters everywhere.
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MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: The deadbeat billionaire – The inside story of how West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice ducks taxes and slow-pays his bills; Eight new permits issued in Utica Shale; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: New England curtails amid world natural gas boom; NATIONAL: Video: Green Signaling; U.S. crude oil production grew 17% in 2018, surpassing the previous record in 1970; Strong natural gas output holding Henry Hub to $2.82 this year, $2.77 in ‘20, says EIA; ‘No way’ for natural gas to stay above $3 for long, says analyst; Pipe constraints, crude economics take gas markets on a wild ride; U.S. natural gas liquids production continues to drive global supply growth.
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