US Steel Caves to Antis, Cancels Plan to Drill Marcellus Wells
Here’s a new truism of life you may not have heard before: Be careful that the corporation you climb into bed with actually has a spine. Interestingly, U.S. Steel in East Pittsburgh, whom you would assume has a steel spine, doesn’t have a spine at all! Merrion Oil & Gas found that out the hard way. Merrion, a privately-owned oil and gas company headquartered in New Mexico, signed a lease with U.S. Steel to drill a series of up to 18 shale wells on the Edgar Thomson Works property in Allegheny County. Following blowback from loud-mouth anti-fossil fuel nutters, U.S. Steel decided the project isn’t worth the negative press. So they caved and canceled the lease with Merrion. Shame on U.S. Steel.
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The issue of expired leases has once again reared its head for EQT–this time in West Virginia. In 2006 a group of WV landowners/rights owners sued Equitable Production Company (now EQT) claiming, among other things, “damages for improper deductions of post-production expenses from their royalty payments and damages for breach of lease agreements, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, violation of the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act…violation of the flat rate royalty statute… and punitive damages, all related to the improper payment of royalties.” That case was settled in 2010. However, a subgroup within the larger class action group has a new/different claim: that EQT let leases lapse and then reentered and drilled on property out-of-lease. It’s called trespass.
The Biden-controlled U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has just granted anti-fossil fuel zealots enough rope to strangle the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, or enough rope to strangle themselves. We hope it’s the latter, we fear it may be the former. The “rope” in this case is time. The Army Corps announced Friday it will give antis an extra 30 days to comment on (complain, manipulate, lie about) a proposed water crossing permit for MVP in West Virginia and Virginia. Even with the extra 30 days antis still are not satisfied.
Here’s an interesting twist on building new oil and gas pipelines in Ohio. Due to a late filing made by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA), from now on interstate pipeline builders will *not* need to seek and receive a federal section 401 water permit under the Clean Water Act from the Ohio EPA to build the pipeline. Instead, the pipeline builder can just ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP12). Ohio EPA has been problematic for pipelines in the past (see 
Ohio’s House Bill (HB) 6 law granted billions (plural) of dollars to FirstEnergy in an attempt to prop up the company’s economically failing nuclear power plants. FirstEnergy is accused of bribing state legislators to pass, and keep passed, HB 6 by paying out $61 million (see 
In 2019, a truly dreadful, jobs-killing piece of legislation in New York State was passed (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Dimock Township, PA receives $95K state investment; Treasurer Riley Moore criticizes reported plans to cut funding for oil, gas industry; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: California governor seeks end to oil drilling in state by 2045; NATIONAL: U.S. LNG terminals seen running at full capacity to meet global demand; Billionaire’s low-carbon frac dream proves a tough sell; How natural gas production has continued to outpace crude since COVID hit; The Green New Deal will impoverish America; There is no climate emergency.