Databook Vol. 2: List of 101 Infrastructure Projects Worth $83B!
MDN has just published Volume 2 of the 2015 Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook. In 90 jam-packed pages you will get the latest information on what’s happening (or not happening) with drilling in the Marcellus/Utica region. Much of the Databook is a series of county maps–one map for each county where there’s permit activity for Marcellus or Utica drilling. Each county maps shows a dot for where a permit was issued–along with the name of the driller next to it. The maps also show major natural gas pipelines and compressor stations. Each map offers you a quick, visual way of understanding where drilling is happening, and who’s doing the drilling. In addition, MDN editor Jim Willis spent several weeks compiling and completely revising a list of major pipeline and infrastructure projects happening throughout the northeast (and Midwest)–any project that affects takeaway capacity in the Marcellus/Utica. Jim found 101 projects in this updated list (sample below). If all projects get built, it represents a flabbergasting $83 billion worth of investment! The 3-volume series is just $350 (single volumes are $225). All three volumes are meant to work together. This is the PERFECT resource for drillers, pipeline companies, law firms, landmen and many others. Take a look at our sample pages below…
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A harbinger of things to come? Just two days ago MDN reported on an upstate New York paper mill that converted to using natural gas to operate the mill and decided to stick with trucked compressed natural gas (CNG), something called a “virtual pipeline,” instead of going through the hassles of building a permanent pipeline (see 
“No, really, I don’t have a drinking problem,” says the alcoholic who believes just one more drink won’t hurt. Such is the power of denial. That’s the analogy that went through our heads when we read this headline: “Wolf Says Legislators In Denial.” Wolf, the taxaholoic, is the one who is in denial. He’s not listening–to Republicans or to people in his own Democrat Party. Pennsylvanians don’t want his high tax “fix” of the budget. But Wolf is, choose your adjective: obstinate…obtuse…clueless…desperate. That last one is the most likely–desperate to pay back the teachers’ unions that elected him. He can’t afford to not boost taxes–on everyone and everything (especially the Marcellus Shale)–in order to fork big money over to Big Education. Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats together are working on a bi-partisan budget that they intend to pass without Wolf–with a veto-proof majority. Wolf is toast. He can’t govern, and he’s proved it. Time to govern around him…
One of the Pennsylvania Democrat in-house publishing operations is the Harrisburg Patriot-News. Owned by Dems, run by Dems, slavishly supportive of Dems. That about sums up the Patriot-News. They don’t even pretend to be unbiased in their “reporting” on issues like the Marcellus Shale. This past Monday the Patriot-News began running a series of lying hit pieces against the Marcellus industry–in a transparent attempt to help their boy Gov. Tom Wolf in his bid to hike taxes on the drilling industry. We’ve read some of the articles. Lie after lie after lie. We haven’t commented on it here in MDN because it’s just more of the same. Why bother? The paper is obviously agenda-driven and cares nothing whatever about reporting real, actual news. However, MDN friend Tom Shepstone has put together a brilliant expose of their lies, so we’re bringing you a copy (from his always-excellent 
The legal beagles at energy law firm Babst Calland are raising the alert that another “sue and settle” lawsuit has been filed against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by seven radical environmental groups. This is the latest attempt at forcing the EPA to comply with a lawsuit that they intentionally lose. What? Yes, they intentionally lose the lawsuit and then tell Congress that they “have to” comply with a court order “forcing” them to enact certain unlegislated rules and regulations in order to comply with a judge’s order–in effect giving them one more weapon in their arsenal to illegally regulate the oil and gas industry. Regulation of oil and gas is Constitutionally left up to the individual states. The EPA, especially under Obama, has been innovating ways to circumvent the Constitution and Congress and cease regulation authority. So-called “sue and settle” lawsuits are one of the ways they do it. Here comes another one. This time radical environmental groups (which should be sued themselves) have sued the EPA to force them to regular oil and gas drilling wastes under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Here’s a summary of what’s happening…
It’s amazing what lengths otherwise rational-thinking adults will go to, to dispose of carbon dioxide–the stuff you breathe out with every breath you take. Global warmists believe an abundance of CO2 in the atmosphere will lead to global warming and toast Mother Earth (even though average global temps haven’t increased in nearly 19 years now, an inconvenient truth for warmists that they avoid addressing). Sometimes this strange behavior of trying to dispose of CO2 is actually beneficial to the shale industry. Researchers from Virginia Tech have teamed with the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) on a multi-part project to investigate the feasibility of injecting captured CO2 into shale and other rock layers. The experiments, which so far are showing great promise, inject CO2 into the rock forcing natural gas out of the rock and to the surface–and locking away the nefarious CO2 underground where it will stay until a couple of hundred years from now when someone figures out how to use CO2 as an energy source and they go after it again…
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), our favorite government agency, is celebrating World Statistics Day by publishing a 20-question quiz about energy statistics. Let’s have a little fun! We’ve reproduced the quiz below. Give it a try and test your energy IQ. We didn’t keep score, but have to confess we got about as many wrong as we did right! Can you do better?…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: FERC OK’s PA/NY pipeline to go online; uncompleted Marcellus wells the new storage; US Supreme Court looks at Maryland power plant deal; Emera gets DOE approval for CNG exports from Florida; enviro lawyers unhappy with FERC; are MLPs history?; and more!