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Chesapeake Fined $1.9M for Wetland Violations at 76 PA Well Sites
At some point in the distant past (during our lifetime) swamps got renamed to “wetlands.” Don’t you just love how the left euphemizes everything? Chesapeake Energy is a bad actor when it comes to shafting landowners out of royalties, we’ll grant you that. However, the company must now pay Pennsylvania and the federal government (DOJ and EPA) a combined $1.9 million for “failure to identify and protect wetlands at 76 oil and gas well sites in Pennsylvania.” In other words, failure to protect swamps.
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Conventional (and maybe shale) oil and gas drillers in West Virginia need to be aware of a late-breaking amendment that will create a new fee (we’d call it a tax) of $100 per year for unplugged wells producing 10 Mcf (10,000 cubic feet) of natural gas. According to the amendment’s sponsor, Sen. William Ihlenfeld II (D-Ohio County), roughly 13,000 wells statewide fit that classification and would generate an extra $800,000 per year for the Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Oil and Gas.
New Fortress Energy (NFE), which likes to build and own as much of the LNG supply chain as possible, built and operates an LNG import terminal in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After the facility was up and running, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) dinged the company, asking for an explanation as to why they built it without FERC “Mother May I?” permission. New Fortress responded last July saying FERC told them no permission was needed (see 
Yesterday we brought you the news that LOLA Energy continues to transform itself with the purchase of what was EdgeMarc Energy’s shale assets in Butler County, PA (see 
We have to confess we’re not impressed with West Virginia U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (Democrat). We had hoped he might be somewhat independent from the radicals in his own party and provide some balance to an out-of-control leftist agenda being pushed by Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden. Manchin is failing in that regard. He’s just another toady for his party. (We’re not surprised.) The latest evidence that Joe Manchin is not the “man of the people” and “conservative/moderate” Democrat he claims to be comes from his opposition to WV Gov. Jim Justice’s plan to phase out the state income tax–which does have implications for the shale industry.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Belmont County port authority official optimistic about fracking; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: California senators calling on Biden to set date for phasing out gasoline cars; NATIONAL: U.S. oil activity jumps as executives remain wary of OPEC, Biden; Biden’s high-cost plan to accelerate U.S. adoption of electric vehicles; Don’t ban fossil fuels: absolutism in climate change policy is a vice; INTERNATIONAL: The ripple effect on trade of one giant ship stuck in Suez.