Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA
PA Dept. of Health to Release $2.5M Study on Shale & Kid Cancer
In December 2020, then-Gov. Tom Wolf announced a $2.5 million contract had been awarded to the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) Graduate School of Public Health to “conduct research on the potential health effects of hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania” (see Pitt Researchers Get $2.5M for Fake Study to Link Shale & Kid Cancer). As we have pointed out from the beginning, to study a single potential cause for cancer (fracking) and not any other causes (like a nearby abandoned uranium dump) is not real science. Next Tuesday, August 15, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Health and Pitt researchers will unveil their “research” in an in-person and online extravaganza.
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In 2015 Cunningham Energy, a small oil driller based in West Virginia, struck oil in the Big Injun sandstone formation in Clay County, WV (see 
At the end of May, WhiteHawk Energy, headquartered in Philadelphia with ownership of mineral and royalty interests for 850,000 gross unit acres and over 2,500 producing horizontal shale wells between the Marcellus and the Haynesville, sent a letter to the board and management of PHX Minerals, based in Fort Worth, Texas, owner of 75,000 leased mineral acres principally located in the SCOOP and Haynesville plays. The letter proposes marriage–a combination of the two companies. WhiteHawk received no response and tried again about three weeks later. Still nothing. So WhiteHawk has gone public to catch the attention of PHX shareholders, hoping to convince them to pressure PHX’s board–the M&A equivalent of a shotgun wedding.
Yesterday MDN editor Jim Willis had a nice chat with a renewing MDN subscriber (a landowner with wells and leases in Ohio). The question arose, “What do you see happening right now?” Jim’s response: “As long as the price of natural gas stays below $3, not much!” Jim made the point that price drives this industry, and ongoing prices in the basement aren’t helping. Can we get an amen? Both Jim and the subscriber agreed that gas prices may be heading higher soon. That conversation seems to have been prescient. Yesterday the front-month Henry Hub NYMEX futures price rocketed to a six-week high, close to $3 (closing at $2.96/Mcf). Are we finally going to go above, and stay above, $3 gas?
In May, the Bidenistas at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a hellscape of new regulations (681 pages) aimed at forcing coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to close (see 
Once a month, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) analysts issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months. The latest monthly report, issued Tuesday, predicts that U.S. natural gas production AND demand will rise to record highs in 2023. EIA projected that dry gas production will rise to 103 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2023 and 104.12 Bcf/d in 2024. The current record high is 98.13 Bcf/d set in 2022.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: The future of gas in New Jersey; NATIONAL: Key Republican casts doubt on bipartisan permitting deal; At least 13 projects vie for $1.2B in carbon removal; House Dems urge SEC to set ‘strong and durable’ climate rule; Clean methanol gains momentum as a shipping fuel.