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PA State Sen. Gene Yaw Blasts NY, NJ for Rejecting NESE Pipeline

PA State Sen. Gene Yaw

Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw, a Republican whose district covers portions of central and northeast PA, has his praiseworthy moments. This is one of them. Last week New York’s uber-corrupt Governor, Andrew Cuomo, and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, once again pandered to their radical Democrat base by rejecting a critically needed natural gas pipeline (see Cuomo Rejects NESE Pipe Again, Williams Walks Away). The Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline would have flowed PA Marcellus shale gas to New York City and Long Island. Yaw blasted NY and NJ for their rejection using strong language.
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OH Landowner Loses Post-Production Royalty Case to Chesapeake

Chesapeake Energy keeps winning Ohio royalty lawsuits in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In March the company beat a lawsuit by a group of Ohio landowners who claimed Chessy had cheated them out of a collective $30 million in royalties (see Chesapeake Energy & Total Beat Class Action Royalty Lawsuit in OH). In April Chesapeake won a second lawsuit that claimed the company had fraudulently concealed information on royalty statements dating back to 1993 (see Chesapeake Beats Another OH Royalty Lawsuit in Federal Court). And now, a third royalty lawsuit has gone Chessy’s way too. Strike three for landowners.
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OH Nuclear Bailout Corruption: Gas Sacrificed for Nuke Investors

FirstEnergy, now calling itself Energy Harbor, somehow got into the pockets (via campaign donations) of enough Ohio politicians (many of them Republican) to convince them to pass a horrible law last year–House Bill (HB) 6. HB 6 grants the company $1 billion in corporate welfare over seven years in a deal to prop up its two “unprofitable” nuclear power plants. Now that the first $150 million is about to flow, how will Energy Harbor use it? To pay its so-called high operating costs? No. Energy Harbor will funnel the money right into the pockets of big investors. It was all a scam.
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Biased Post-Gazette Attacks SWPA Shale Cuttings Landfill…Again

Last year a sewage treatment facility in Belle Vernon (Fayette County, PA) claimed the effluent (runoff) it was receiving from a nearby landfill in Westmoreland County contained high levels of salt and radioactivity and was causing damage to their treatment system (see Another Post-Gazette Smear Job: Drill Cuttings Pollute Rivers). The landfill accepts drill cuttings–leftover rock and dirt from drilling holes (not wastewater). The sewage treatment plant with help from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette made accusations against the landfill and the shale industry. The same biased Post-Gazette “reporter” is back with another round of accusations against the landfill, aimed at scaring nearby residents.
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PA DEP to Push Onerous New Methane Regulations at Public Hearings

Last December the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Environmental Quality Board (EQB) approved onerous new regulations that supposedly will capture every last molecule of stray methane that leaks from shale drilling operations (see PA DEP Goes WAY Too Far in Approving New Methane Regulations). The new regs are unnecessary and will shut down even more shale drilling operations in the state. As part of the EQB’s final steps to ratify the onerous new regs they will conduct three virtual public hearings in June.
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SWPA Judge Rejects Anti Lawsuit re Murrysville Fracking Ordinance

Last time we wrote about a zoning ordinance in Murrysville Township (Westmoreland County) was three years ago, in May 2017, when the town and local drillers struck a compromise on the distance of setbacks (see Murrysville, PA Drilling Ordinance – Anatomy of a Compromise). Apparently the still-too-restrictive ordinance (in our opinion) that allows drilling wells on only 5% of the land in the town wasn’t good enough for local antis who want to block all shale drilling.
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Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, May 26, 2020

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Ohio appellate court holds that words of inheritance are required to reserve oil and gas interests; Appalachia leads gains for natural gas forwards as EQT curbs output; Medical communities count on products manufactured by natgas, hydraulic fracking; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: University of California system to divest fossil fuel investments; U.S. shale bust slams rural economies as oil checks shrivel; NATIONAL: “On pause”: Offshore oil industry faces its biggest setback in years; Doomsday predictions for U.S. oil just aren’t realistic; Coronavirus threatens to hobble the U.S. shale-oil boom for years; Biden offshore drilling ban would kill 200,000 jobs, oil lobby says; INTERNATIONAL: Why the International Energy Agency supports America’s shale oil and natural gas revolution; The U.S. becomes the world’s swing LNG producer; Eight countries say gas deserves help as EU readies ‘green recovery’ fund.
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