Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Regulation | Statewide PA
Victory Lap! Gov. Wolf Signs Tax Break Bill for New Petchem Plants
It’s time for a victory lap. Pennsylvania Republicans, with the help of some brave Democrats (and former Democrats), passed and convinced Gov. Wolf to sign a bill into law that will grant tax breaks to companies willing to build brand new petrochemical plants in the Keystone State–plants that use huge quantities of Marcellus Shale gas. Wolf signed the bill yesterday, after vetoing a similar bill earlier this year. The normally chatty Wolf press operation barely mentioned his signature on the bill.
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We’re pretty certain Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (RINO) doesn’t read MDN, but we’re glad to see he took our advice from yesterday when we said he’s “stupid if he vetoes the bill to repeal House Bill (HB) 6. Does he not realize he will be given the political equivalent of an anal exam to see if his palms were greased by FirstEnergy too?! The only reason the bill passed was bribery. It’s poisoned. It must be overturned.” A day after DeWine expressed support for the bribe-ridden HB 6 that became law when he signed it last year, DeWine reversed course and now says he supports repeal of that terrible law.
In March 2016, MDN reported that 47 dumpsters full of concentrated frack waste from OH, PA and WV was illegally dumped in a Kentucky landfill in Estill County, KY (see 
Earlier this week Kinder Morgan, one of (perhaps THE) largest pipeline company in the U.S., issued its second-quarter update. While most headlines blare that the company “lost” $637 million during 2Q, what they don’t say (until you read a few paragraphs in) is that it was a paper loss. Yes, revenue was down. But if you take the impairment (writedown) charge away, KM actually made $363 million in profit during 2Q. It was not, however, KM’s financial performance that caught our attention. It was the update on Marcellus/Utica projects like the Elba Island LNG export facility and a new project to expand Tennessee Gas Pipeline to provide more gas into New York City that caught our eye.
New Fortress Energy, which likes to build and own as much of the LNG supply chain as possible, built and recently finished an LNG import terminal in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently dinged the company, asking for an explanation as to why they built it without FERC permission (see 
Once again the Enverus onshore rig count added more active rigs over the past week. Last week at this time the rig count stood at 279. This week, as of yesterday, the count stood at 290, a gain of 11 rigs! However, the Marcellus/Utica counts remain pretty anemic. The Marcellus lost a rig from the dry gas area of northeastern PA. The total Marcellus count is 27. The Ohio Utica remains steady at a paltry 7 active rigs.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: EQT rolls back curtailments of natural gas production; Shareholders OK doubling of EQT’s authorized shares; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Duke Energy’s natural gas plant near Asheville now producing power; NATIONAL: Frac is back; U.S. weekly LNG exports edge up; Is Warren Buffett right about natural gas?; COVID not done wreaking havoc on oil and gas industry; Natural gas rallies as traders eye Gulf of Mexico storm activity.