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PA DEP Finally Allows Revolution Pipe to Restart – After $125K Fine

Some two and a half years after Energy Transfer’s (ET) Revolution Pipeline entered service in western Pennsylvania and exploded following a landslide, the pipeline finally returned to service yesterday. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a press release to say it had extracted another $125,000 from ET and has allowed the pipeline to resume service.
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Duke Energy Finally Begins to Build 14-Mile Cincinnati NatGas Pipe

In September 2016, local utility company Duke Energy filed a plan to build a critically-needed natural gas pipeline near Cincinnati, OH to replace an old pipeline built in the 1950s. Duke needs to replace the pipe or some of the half-million Duke customers in the region won’t get natural gas anymore. Following multiple revisions to the plan to satisfy anti-pipeline wackos (who will never be satisfied), in November 2019 the Ohio Power Siting Board gave Duke final approval to build the Central Corridor Gas Pipeline Project along an alternative route (see Ohio Approves Duke Energy 14-Mile Cincinnati NatGas Pipe). Duke announced yesterday they have finally begun work on the project.
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WV Gov. Floats Plan to Eliminate Income Tax, Raise Severance Tax

A few weeks ago during his “State of the State” address, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced a plan to eliminate the state’s personal income tax. Who wouldn’t love that idea? We sure would! But in order to replace the $2.1 billion received annually from the personal income tax, Justice would raise other taxes, including a tiered system that potentially raises the state’s oil and gas severance tax. We don’t like that idea so much. However, the reaction to Justice’s proposal by the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia (GO-WV) may surprise you.
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Bill to Ease WV Oil & Gas Storage Tank Inspections Gets Pushback

In the closing hours of the 2014 West Virginia legislative session, the legislature passed SB373, the Aboveground Storage Tank Act (see Fate of 3 WV Laws that Impact Marcellus/Utica Drilling). The bill, which was signed into law, was in response to a chemical leak that affected the drinking water for 300,000 WV residents. Even though the leak was not related to oil and gas drilling (it was related to coal mining), the new rules governing above ground storage tanks for chemicals affect a number of industries, including the Marcellus Shale drilling industry (see Impact of WV’s New Chemical Tank Law on Marcellus Drillers). Over the years several attempts have been made to relax the over-restrictive new rules for the oil and gas industry. Another such attempt is underway this year.
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API’s “State of the State” for Oil & Gas Industry in Pennsylvania

Stephanie Catarino Wissman (credit: Pittsburgh Business Times)

Last Wednesday Stephanie Catarino Wissman, Executive Director of API (American Petroleum Institute) of Pennsylvania provided a “State of the State” update to the PA House Environmental Resources & Energy Committee. She discussed a number of topics, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Marcellus Shale.
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Questerre Still Trying to Convince Quebec to Let Them Drill Utica

You have to admire Canadian driller Questerre Energy–they never give up. Questerre has patiently waited for years to begin drilling on their extensive Utica Shale acreage in the St. Lawrence Lowlands of Quebec, Canada. Quebec is like New York–completely closed to the oil and gas industry, particularly shale and fracking (see Quebec to Ban Utica Shale Drilling, Most Other Drilling Too). And yet Questerre keeps trying. Now the company is touting hydrogen (from natural gas) as the reason they should be allowed to drill in the Utica. Will this new argument work?
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Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Mar 2, 2021

OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Tellurian in market for more Haynesville assets to feed Driftwood LNG; Cheniere eyes start of LNG output from ninth train by end of 2021; NATIONAL: Trump: Biden’s policies to bring ‘energy disaster’ to the U.S.; Fossil fuel demand seen growing through 2030s; Privately-held shale drillers poised to create headaches for OPEC; Opposing natural gas pipelines means opposing natural gas users; Midstreamers’ ESG agendas focus on reining in methane, CO2 emissions.
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