Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Aug 31 – Sep 4
For the second week in a row, both Pennsylvania and West Virginia issued permits to drill new shale wells last week, and Ohio did not. PA issued 12 new permits for wells on three well pads. WV issued 3 new permits, all for the same well pad. PA’s new permits were split between Bradford County in the northeastern part of the state, and Washington County in the southwestern part of the state. The WV permits were issued in Brooke County, located in the northern panhandle of the state.
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S&P Global Market Intelligence has done some forensic analysis of permits issued to drill new shale wells in Pennsylvania during August 2020. They compared last month’s permit numbers with the numbers from a year ago and found that PA issued 77 new permits last month, down 24% from August 2019.
Anti-fossil fuel zealots like the nutty Sierra Club have successfully delayed completion of Equitrans Midstream’s 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline from West Virginia to southern Virginia with lawsuits. The project is now 92% done and in the ground. The zealots successfully convinced Democrat federal judges to overturn key permits issued by several government agencies. One of those overturned permits, issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for endangered species, has just been reissued. Score a victory for the good guys.
The Republican-controlled Pennsylvania legislature continues its quest to stop Gov. Tom Wolf from illegally assuming powers he does not have to force the state into a carbon tax scheme called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Last Thursday the state Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee voted to report out two bills for a full Senate vote that will block Wolf’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) from joining RGGI without legislative approval.
In late 2018 a fringe environmental group called the Coalition to Reroute NEXUS (CORN), along with the City of Oberlin, Ohio, filed yet another lawsuit (with the D.C. Court of Appeals) to nullify the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) original decision to approve the NEXUS Pipeline project that runs through Ohio (see 
It’s not unusual for companies in the business of delivering methane molecules to customers (the local gas utility company) to invest in the long-haul gas pipelines that deliver gas into their system. Consolidated Edison (ConEd), which serves much of New York City and its suburbs with natural gas, is one such company.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Supreme Court of Ohio to decide three cases regarding subsurface rights; CNX Resources announces pricing of $200 million of senior notes; First natural gas terminal for tanker ships may get final vote; Labor union supports Danskammer energy project; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: More natural gas options coming to Botetourt County, Va.; NATIONAL: Natural gas price differentials to Henry Hub narrowed at most hubs in first half of 2020; McNamee leaves FERC; INTERNATIONAL: Shell sees natural gas as ‘destination fuel’; Mexico to present projects open to private capital as it moves to undo energy reform.