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78% of Southeast Ohio Voters Support Utica Shale Drilling

The Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP), a nonprofit energy education and public outreach organization, recently commissioned a poll of Ohio voters in eight eastern counties–in the Ohio Valley area. The counties surveyed include those with the most active Utica Shale drilling in the state. The poll asked residents’ about their views on shale drilling and its related activities. Some 88% said the natural gas and oil industry is important to their community, and 78% support natural gas and oil development in the Ohio Valley area.
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Lack of PennEast Pipe Costing PA/NJ Ratepayers $ Billions

Delays in building new pipelines, like the PennEast Pipeline, have real, tangible costs for natural gas customers. In the case of PennEast, natgas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey are paying billions in higher gas costs because PennEast is not yet built. Even worse, there’s a looming shortage coming in New Jersey.
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Superior Energy Dumps Onshore Shale Biz, Targets Offshore & Intl

Superior Energy Services, based in Houston, Texas, is an oilfield services company with service lines including: rig services, coiled tubing, wireline, pressure control, flowback, fluid management and accommodations. Once upon a time Superior had a meaningful presence in the Marcellus/Utica. Superior just announced it is shedding its onshore shale business lines, separating them out and merging them with another company, Forbes Energy Services. What’s left of Superior will concentrate on offshore and international oil and gas markets.
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NY’s Uneven Treatment of Wind Energy vs. Natural Gas Fracking

This is so outrageous we don’t even have words for it. New York State’s highest court, with its judges appointed by Gov. Cuomo, ruled in 2014 that local municipal “home rule” laws to block fracking are just fine (see Shale Drilling in NY is Over – High Court Upholds Town Bans). Yet another group of Cuomo appointees–who sit on the New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment–have just ruled that a NY town’s recently enacted wind law was passed too late in the process, so its conditions do not apply to the current wind project developer. This is NOT justice. THIS IS WRONG. We have some advice for other Upstate NY towns (important advice) based on this miscarriage of justice.

Please see our update at the bottom about the home rule issue.
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Radical Dems in NY Legislature Aim to Make Frack Ban Permanent

New York State is experiencing the worst possible nightmare–and we can’t wake up. Following the November 2018 election, Democrats now control not only the governorship, but also both houses of the legislature–for the first time since 1964. Sure we’ve always had a Democrat-controlled Assembly (the lower chamber), but the Senate stayed in Republican hands, providing a check against rampant socialism. That check and balance disappeared beginning this year and the state’s far-left Democrats have used it to great advantage. Many of our Constitutional freedoms have disappeared *this year* in NY State. It’s sad and tragic. Before the Senate changes back to Republican control in the future, the state’s radicalized Democrats want to pass a permanent (instead of the existing temporary) ban on fracking statewide.
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Is Chevron’s $10B Impairment Write-Down Important…or Not?

In a bombshell announcement last week Chevron said it is writing down (reducing the paper value) of all its shale assets by $10-$11 billion in the fourth quarter. “More than half” of the write-down is for its Marcellus/Utica assets (see Chevron Writes Down $5B+ in Marc/Utica Assets, Looks to Sell All). In addition, the company has put all of it’s M-U assets on the market for sale (see Chevron Confirms M-U Assets for Sale, Asks Vendors to Avoid Media). What does a write-down of asset value actually mean? Is it important?
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Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Dec 19, 2019

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA Sen. John Yudichak named to Senate Environmental Committee; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Buyer mulling stake covering 4 million mt/y of Driftwood LNG supply; Natural gas companies form PAC to fight CMP’s proposed transmission project; Rising Bakken gas production displacing Western Canadian gas on pipes; NATIONAL: Shale revolution ensuring America’s energy security, says GEI; A decade in which fracking rocked the oil world.
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