New Drilling Rules Take Effect in PA, Despite Objections from Industry
MDN previously reported that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) planned to publish the final regulations in the Oct. 8 Pennsylvania Bulletin (see PA’s New Article 78a Drilling Regs Go into Effect Oct 8). The Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) previously sued asking the Commonwealth Court to block the new regulations based on the legal fact that key parts of Act 13, which Chapter 78a is based on, have been “enjoined” that prevent certain Chapter 78a provisions from being adopted in their current form. Essentially PIOGA (a) warned PA agencies they should not publish the new regulations, which prevents the regs from going into effect, until the invalid provisions are removed, and (b) further sued to keep the regulations stopped (see PIOGA Makes Legal Play to Stop Chapter 78a Regs from Taking Effect). PIOGA’s play to block the new regs didn’t work–at least not yet. On Friday the DEP moved forward with publishing the new rules. The new rules are in effect NOW, as of Saturday. However, yet another round of public comment will be accepted on the now-in-place rules, with a deadline of Dec. 7…
Read More “New Drilling Rules Take Effect in PA, Despite Objections from Industry”
Let’s be honest: Pennsylvania already has a severance tax. It’s called an impact fee + corporate income tax. The combination of the two taxes in PA levies a collective “tax” on drillers as high OR HIGHER than other oil and gas states, like Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. To enact a new/extra severance tax on PA drillers, as Democrats like Sen. John Yudichak (Wilkes-Barre area) propose to do, would kill off what little drilling is happening in PA. It would make drilling in PA unprofitable. Yet Yudichak and others in his party see the recent PA Supreme Court decision as an excuse to push, one more time, for a severance tax. What is it about Democrats and their insatiable lust for your money?…
The Baker Hughes rig count, watched closely by those in the industry (the benchmark used across the world) has been trending up in the U.S. since July. BH released their venerable count for September on Friday and once again the counts have gone up–very good news indeed. BH is reporting an average of 509 active rigs in the U.S., up 28 from August. MDN performs its own rig count for the Marcellus/Utica, using BH’s numbers for Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. The Marcellus/Utica rig count was up for the second month running. In September the M/U rig count jumped up by 7. The biggest gainer was Pennsylvania, up by 5. West Virginia was up by 2, and Ohio stayed even…
In June, Shell announced a final investment decision (FID) to move forward with building a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant in Pennsylvania (see 
On Sept. 30 MDN editor Jim Willis attended S&P Global Platts’ 
The refrain is growing louder. In the past couple of weeks MDN editor Jim Willis has heard that Obama’s EPA regulations haven’t killed the coal industry–it was lowly natural gas that slipped in with a knife and did the dirty deed. We first heard that at the recent Benposium East event (see today’s story for Jim’s notes from that event), and also from Our Dear Leader himself, BHO (see 
Events related to drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, primarily pro-drilling.
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Southwestern’s Fayetteville assets can’t keep up with Marcellus; Northeast natgas to Gulf Coast export markets; Waterville, OH tries to keep NEXUS out; jobs and dollars follow ethane to Philly; North Dakota protesters “hostile, armed”; diorder in OPEC ranks; and more!