Big Green Groups Launch Another Sue & Settle Lawsuit Against EPA
A coalition of Big Green environmental groups, with seemingly endless piles of cash to launch frivolous lawsuits, are launching another “sue and settle” lawsuit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The usual suspects are involved: Environmental Integrity Project, Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthworks, Responsible Drilling Alliance, San Juan Citizens Alliance, West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization, and the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. The Big Green groups are attempting to force the EPA to end the legal practice of wastewater disposal via injection wells, and drill cuttings disposal in landfills–largely in the Marcellus/Utica area. After all, much of the production of natural gas is in the northeast in the Marcellus/Utica, and the aim of these nutters is to end all fossil fuel production in the United States. So like a drive-by assassin, they load their litigation weapons and shoot, repeatedly, at our region. Enough. When will our side shoot back? When will we launch lawsuit after lawsuit against these groups and de-fund them using their own methods against them?…
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Natural gas production in the mighty Marcellus Shale has dipped over the past several months–for the first time ever. As MDN has previously reported, the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Drilling Production Report (DPR) in June was the first time the EIA predicted Marcellus production would fall, from June to July, from 16,522 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) to 16,494 MMcf/d (see 
Finally we know. In June Magnum Hunter Resources (MHR), majority owner of subsidiary pipeline company Eureka Hunter, said it was negotiating to sell all of its ownership of Eureka Hunter to an unnamed buyer for $600-$700 million (see 
Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), has just published an article in their Today in Energy online publication recapping what the August Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) showed: cumulative natural gas production from the country’s largest seven commercially active shale plays will decrease in September for the first time since the EIA began producing the DPR. As we already highlighted two weeks ago, the August DPR, which predicts production volumes for September, shows a decrease in production across all seven major shale plays, which includes both the Marcellus and the Utica (see 
It’s bad enough when anti-fossil fuel zealots gang up, like a pack of hyenas, to try and defeat a much-needed pipeline like Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (see 
The Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center (SGICC), affiliated with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic with a mission to accelerate technology breakthroughs related to shale gas in PA, has just released an updated report on shale wastewater treatment and disposal in PA. The report, titled “Shale Gas Development – Summary of Shale Gas Wastewater Treatment and Disposal In Pennsylvania 2014” (full copy below) finds that drillers in PA produced about 1.8 billion gallons of gas and oil wastewater in 2014–a figure largely unchanged since 2011. The study also finds the shale industry in PA is recycling 91% of the wastewater it produces. Interestingly, the updated report shows “produced water” (or brine, naturally occurring water from the depths) volumes far exceeded volumes for “frac fluid” (or the fluid originally pumped into the well when drilling and fracking). That’s a reversal from the data evaluated in 2011 when frac fluid represented the bulk of the wastewater stream…
A pipeline upgrade project in western Pennsylvania is making excellent progress. In February 2014 National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the Line N West Side Expansion and Modernization Project in Washington, Allegheny, Beaver, Venango and Mercer Counties, PA. The project calls for building some 23 miles of new pipeline next to an existing NFG pipeline in Washington and Beaver counties, along with compressor station and other upgrades along other portions of the existing Line N pipeline. NFG previously signed Range Resources and NFG’s own subsidiary, Seneca Resources, as customers for an increase in capacity to flow an additional 175,000 decatherms per day, Dth/d (175 million cubic feet per day, MMcf/d). The extra capacity allows Range and Seneca to move of the Marcellus Shale gas they produce in western PA to market. Although construction is still underway, NFG has asked FERC to begin partial service now, two months ahead of schedule…
LogicFree Mahoning Valley (aka FrackFree Mahoning Valley) doesn’t like to bother with piddly things like, oh, the law. Who follows that? The law is only a useful tool when it favors their twisted viewpoint. When it doesn’t? Ignore it. Over the past several years FrackFree Mahoning Valley and their supporters have duped enough E! Entertainment viewers in Youngstown, OH to sign a petition putting a so-called home rule measure up for a vote four times (see 
In April MDN reported on a successful open season (time when new customers sign up) for the Michigan/Ohio Pipeline Expansion Project–a pipeline expansion project that will deliver “refined petroleum products” (things like gasoline, kerosene and heating oil) from Woodhaven and Detroit, Michigan, and from Toledo and Lima, Ohio, to destination points in both Ohio and Western Pennsylvania (see