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WV Supreme Court Strikes Blow Against Shale Drilling in EQT Case

A West Virginia Circuit Court case in September 2017, Crowder and Wentz v EQT, found in favor of surface landowners ruling that EQT did not have the right to extend underground shale wells to adjacent properties where EQT also owned the mineral rights (see WV Surface Owners Win Important Case Against EQT re Drill Pad). The decision was appealed all the way to the WV Supreme Court. Yesterday the Supremes, in their “wisdom,” upheld the lower court ruling–which now threatens future Marcellus/Utica development in the state.
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PA Marcellus Gas Going to Angola? New Fortress Inks LNG Deal

New Fortress Energy is expanding into the LNG space like gangbusters. We brought you a story about New Fortress’ billionaire co-founder just yesterday (see The Billionaire Behind New Fortress LNG Export Facility in NEPA). New Fortress is building at least two LNG export plants in land-locked northeastern Pennsylvania (see New Fortress Energy Building Second PA LNG Export Facility), with plans to build “five to ten” such plants over the next five years. New Fortress plans to export the LNG to places like Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and now…Angola, in West Africa.
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NJ DEP Rejects Williams NESE Pipe Permit, but Allows a Do-Over

A map showing the route of the Northeast Supply Enhancement project’s Raritan Loop pipeline (Photo: Courtesy Williams)

On May 15 New York’s Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), under the direction of leftist Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo, denied a permit for the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) natural gas pipeline (see NY Gov. Cuomo Denies Permit for Williams NESE Pipeline to NYC). Yesterday, the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection, under the direction of leftist Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy, did the same thing.
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PA Severance Tax Bills Intro’d in House & Senate w/Strong Support

It looks like Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s “promise them anything and everything” Santa Claus routine is working. We’re referring to Wolf’s so-called Restore PA plan that will provide (over a number of years) $4.5 BILLION worth of goodies to Pennsylvanians by slapping a Marcellus-killing severance tax on the already impact taxed shale industry. Legislation was introduced yesterday in the PA House to create Restore PA (House Bill 1585) and fund it with a severance tax, and we’ll be darned if there weren’t 99 House members who signed up to sponsor it (16 of them traitorous Republicans).
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Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Jun 6, 2019

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA Senate confirms Patrick McDonnell as Secretary of DEP; Pittsburgh Mayor Peduto wants pension funds divested from fossil fuels; One of Pittsburgh’s biggest law firms enters Houston; Gillibrand backs ambitious New York climate plan; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Massachusetts Attorney General sued over use of Bloomberg-funded attorneys; Natural gas flaring hits record high in first quarter in U.S. Permian Basin; Flash fire injures 3 at natural gas plant in northern Colorado; NATIONAL: EIA tool compares individual power plants’ generation, cooling water use, and emissions; US FERC’s Chatterjee rekindles grid resilience debate; Animated chart: Annual US natural gas production by US state from 1967 to 2018.
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