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Slowdown in Marcellus/Utica Drilling Hurts Western PA Economy
Anecdotally it seems as though there has been less drilling activity in the Marcellus/Utica over the past year. Some say it’s due to the coronavirus pandemic. Others say there’s more to it than that. If you’ve tracked public announcements by drilling companies, they claim to have pulled back on drilling and won’t increase current levels of drilling even when/if the price of natural gas increases. Why? They must turn a profit, or investors leaving for greener pastures (pun intended). But is there really less drilling happening in the M-U today than say one year ago?
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An important issue we don’t often think about is pipeline maintenance. Natural gas pipelines have to be inspected and sometimes repaired. When that happens, it takes a portion of the pipeline out of service. When pipelines are taken out of service, natural gas doesn’t have a way to get to the same markets it was flowing to, meaning it begins to pile up in the location where it’s extracted. Further meaning too much supply in a given location, which leads to lower prices. That’s what appears to be happening in northeastern Pennsylvania right now.
On July 18, 2019, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act). It is among the craziest and stupidest climate laws in the world, requiring NY to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and by 85% by 2050 (from 1990 levels). The law creates a Climate Action Council charged with developing a scoping plan of recommendations to meet these targets. The Council has multiple “panels” to assist. One of the panels is the Power Generation Advisory Panel, filled with far-left, Big Green people. That panel is about to recommend NY State prohibit the construction of any new natural gas-fired power plants–beginning now.
Somebody’s head is gonna roll at liberal Columbia University (big lib university located in the heart of New York City). Somehow the truth has just leaked out of Columbia about the necessity and benefits of natural gas pipelines and how they are helping to LOWER the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (if you happen to care about such things–which we don’t). How did this happen? Researchers who care about telling the truth and how doing so enhances one’s reputation, have authored the study “Investing in the US Natural Gas Pipeline System to Support Net-Zero Targets” (full copy below).
A new so-called study has appeared sponsored by the radicals at Heinz Endowments. It is bought-and-paid-for “research” that claims the Act 13 law passed in Pennsylvania in 2012 hasn’t done a darned thing to prevent shale wells from being drilled closer than 500 feet from houses and schools. Duke University, Harvard University, and Boston Children’s Hospital took money from Heinz and prostituted themselves, putting their names to this filthy propaganda. Heinz then instructed one of their own, StateImpact Pennsylvania (which Heinz also funds) to publish a “news story” about the study, hoping to catch the interest of leftist, lazy “reporters” (like those at Bloomberg, AP, etc.) to pick up the story and repeat it. This is how news gets manufactured in today’s world.