Shapiro’s DEP Money-Back Guarantee for Permit Delays is Bogus
Two weeks ago, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (liberal Democrat) launched, with much fanfare, PAyback.pa.gov, a new online money-back guarantee system that allows residents, businesses, charities, and schools to check their eligibility for a refund of their permit, license, or certification application fee and request a refund if they believe they are eligible. Shapiro promised individuals and businesses a money-back guarantee if the permits they applied for were not issued within the statutory time limits they were supposed to meet. We were hopeful that shale drillers would now have recourse to nudge the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) into doing its job on time. Except it’s all a sham. It’s bogus.
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For more than a decade, MDN has brought you stories about shale development on and under land controlled by the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD), an agency formed in 1933 to help control flooding and promote water conservation in the Muskingum River watershed area of Ohio, an area that covers 8,000 square miles (
Yesterday, MDN brought you the news that the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) is sounding the alarm that more than half of the U.S. and parts of Canada, home to around 180 million people, could fall short of electricity during extreme cold again this winter (see
Earlier this year, Sempra Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Sempra, announced it had reached a positive final investment decision (FID) for the development, construction, and operation of the Port Arthur LNG Phase 1 project in Jefferson County, Texas (see
An innovative financial solutions company based in Houston, TX, called OneNexus, just announced a new “insurance” plan for drillers called WellSecure that will pay out money to plug an old oil or gas well when it hits end-of-life. WellSecure is the only insured financial contract that provides long-term financial security for the purpose of funding oil and gas decommissioning liabilities. No more worrying about whether a company will have enough money to plug old wells. With WellSecure, the money is (literally) in the bank!
A new study from the Texas Public Policy Foundation finds that the actual hidden costs of fueling an electric vehicle, which some allege equates to $1.21 per gallon of gas, is more like $17 per gallon — all things considered. In a new paper recently published called “Overcharged Expectations: Unmasking the True Costs of Electric Vehicles” (full copy below), the study’s authors argue that while the direct cost of “fueling up” to an EV owner may appear low, the real costs and considerations add up to be significantly more. The wheels are beginning to fall off EV cars.
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