PA DEP Makes Effort to Speed Up Approvals for Erosion Permits
Permitting in Pennsylvania, especially permits overseen by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), has been a hot mess for years. A Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit sometimes takes two, three, or even six to eight months for approval — instead of the law-mandated 14 days. It got so bad that in the fall of 2019, PA State Sen. Gene Yaw introduced a bill to allow third-party reviews of these permits in an attempt to speed it up (see PA Sen. Yaw Intros Bill to Allow 3rd Party Review of Erosion Permits). In early March of this year, the DEP said it was making progress in reducing turnaround times for permits, including Chapter 102 permits (see PA DEP Claims Progress in Reducing Out-of-Control Permit Backlog). Apparently not enough progress. Yesterday, the DEP launched yet another initiative to reduce the time required to issue new Chapter 102 permits.
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As we told you earlier this month, the radicals who run the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) are gearing up to block the Iroquois Gas Transmission system from completing its Enhancement by Compression (ExC) project (see 
Encino Energy published its annual Community Progress Report for 2023 yesterday. The report provides insight into the company’s achievements through its Community Partnership Program and highlights its investments in the communities in which it operates. In five years of active operations in Ohio, Encino has donated more than $2 million to 145 community groups and organizations in the state. In addition, Encino employees have donated more than 2,000 hours of time to volunteer. Recipients include first responders at fire and police departments, seniors groups, 4H, hospitals, and many more.
When drilling for oil (or for natural gas), quite often, the hydrocarbon you’re not drilling for comes out of the ground along with the hydrocarbon you are drilling for. Natural gas coming out of the ground along with oil (in an oil play) is called “associated gas.” And in the Marcellus/Utica, other hydrocarbons (aside from methane) come out too, including ethane, propane, butane, and isobutane — called natural gas liquids (NGLs). Production of oil and NGLs are measured in barrels (Bbl), while methane is measured in thousand cubic feet (Mcf) or million Btus (MMBtu). Years ago, the oil and gas industry created a way to evaluate the total output for a given well or wells by converting all of the hydrocarbons into one unit, called barrels of oil equivalent (Boe). Not long after that came a comparison of how much each commodity sells for on an equivalent basis.
According to S&P Global and its crack statistics unit, U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, mostly propane) exports both hit new all-time record highs for the period of Jan. 1 through April 29 this year. And that’s despite the fact that the Freeport LNG export facility has experienced a major outage since January. And speaking of the problem-plagued Freeport facility, one of its three trains, Train 3, received around 830 MMcf of natural gas yesterday. Meaning it’s back online. Finally. Up down, up down, up down. Now, up again.
Energy comes in many forms. Most energy produced and consumed in the world comes from fossil fuels. In the United States, fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal) provided 79% of all the energy we used in 2022, according to the authoritative U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The false narrative that so-called renewables (which are unreliable) like solar and wind are about to take over is just that — completely false. The EIA published a post yesterday to note that U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions coming from the production of energy last year fell by 3% from the previous year, mainly due to the change from using coal to using natural gas to generate electricity.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: New emissions regs have truckers eyeing alternate fuels; NATIONAL: Lower natgas prices squeeze Big Oil’s profits in Q1 2024; INTERNATIONAL: Oil falls as geopolitical risk premium decreases; Four key reasons why U.S. will never stop targeting Russian LNG; Electric grid wars are a direct assault on the Western middle class.