PA AG Launches I-HATE-FRACKING Hotline; Report Bashing Shale, DEP
Yesterday Pennsylvania’s corrupt Attorney General, Josh Shapiro (who is running for governor trying to curry favor with Big Green wackadoodles) issued a 243-page report (full copy below), the result of two years of muckraking “investigations” into the Marcellus Shale drilling industry. Shapiro announced a new hotline where people can call and complain about frackers. And he had the gall to issue his own legislative agenda to further restrict fracking! In normal, sane states prosecutors uphold laws created by the legislature (and signed by the executive). In PA, Shapiro (in the judiciary) wants to make new laws. The man is out of control and needs to be locked in a padded room for his own safety.
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The Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) does a good job of guesstimating how much impact fee revenue will get generated in the coming year, based on permit and producing wells activity in the current year. Impact fees are PA’s equivalent of a severance tax–a fee paid by drillers for each new well they drill, paid over a 15-year period. This year IFO is offering up two scenarios for how much money the state will receive in impact fee revenues next year (based on wells drilled and active this year). One scenario is based on natgas prices averaging at least $2.25/MMBtus (million British Thermal Units) on the NYMEX, and the other scenario assumes gas prices slip below that level.
McCandless, a township in Allegheny County, PA (near Pittsburgh) is attempting to block any and all shale drilling within its borders by getting creative. The town is in the process of adopting changes to its zoning laws that make it illegal to drill a well in land zoned for commercial development. Since towns have to allow drilling in at least one zone, McCandless will allow it only in “institutional districts.” That means drilling will only be allowed on land with schools, hospitals, universities, and parks. Fat chance any drilling will ever happen in those places!
EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas-producing company in the U.S., is also a very generous company. Through its EQT Foundation charitable giving arm, EQT recently distributed $500,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations and programs in southwestern Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and northern West Virginia–regions where the company operates. In addition, EQT has given out more than $500,000 in scholarships to high school seniors looking for a career in the oil and gas industry, and another $360,000 in COVID-19-related relief grants to community foundations and food banks.
Reuters is reporting natural gas prices “collapsed” over 7% and hit a “near 25-year low” yesterday. The article says demand destruction from the coronavirus and worldwide shutdowns, along with an excess supply in storage caverns which are “expected to be full by the end of the summer season,” is the reason. Gas in storage is currently 18% above the 5-year average. The July futures NYMEX natural gas price contract, which expires today, was down -9.5% yesterday to $1.44/MMBtu. The August contract closed down -7.9% to $1.53/MMBtu.
We feel as though we keep talking to an empty room. That nobody is hearing, or if people are hearing, they don’t believe what we say when we tell you that Joe Biden and the people surrounding him are promising the total destruction of the fossil fuel industry in the U.S.A.–if he gets elected. All you have to do is listen to what he says! We’re not exaggerating nor overstating the case. If you work for the oil and gas industry, if you sell to the industry, if you care about freedom, you simply cannot vote for Joe Biden for President. To do so is to vote for the destruction of our country as we know it. The stakes are that high! Biden is signaling loud and clear his intent to block all new pipeline and LNG projects if he gets elected.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: In New York, the Town of Freedom isn’t free from big wind; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Investment venture buys Dover natural gas plant; Colorado activists revive anti-fracking ballot initiative; District of Columbia sues four oil majors for misleading consumers on climate change; NATIONAL: U.S. crude oil and natural gas production in 2019 hit records with fewer rigs and wells; Long-lasting shale slowdown leads to a sense of malaise.