• | | | | |

    New PA Bill Gives Shale Landowners Same Tax Breaks as Investors

    PA State Sen. Camera Bartolotta

    Pennsylvania mineral rights owners (i.e., landowners) are about to get a well-deserved tax break. Thanks to a bill recently passed by the PA legislature, Senate Bill (SB) 654, individual landowners will receive the same tax benefits afforded to investors. If a company buys mineral rights and the right to receive royalty payments from oil and gas well production, the company, under IRS rules, gets to claim a simple percentage depletion allowance. Essentially, the company only pays income tax on 85% of the royalties it receives. Under SB 654, that same allowance will now apply to landowners in PA.
    Read More “New PA Bill Gives Shale Landowners Same Tax Breaks as Investors”

  • | | | | |

    PA House RINO in Fayette Co. Continues NIMBYism re Carbon Capture

    Last fall, MDN shared the sad news that Pennsylvania State Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa (Republican In Name Only from Fayette County) had turned against the Marcellus industry (see Anti-Marcellus RINO Intros Bill to Block All PA Injection Wells). Krupa introduced legislation that would ban the drilling of new wastewater injection wells in the state, making it much harder to drill new shale wells. Companies end up drilling fewer wells without a place to dispose of the naturally occurring water that comes from shale (and conventional) wells for years after an oil or gas well comes online. RINO Krupa, who increasingly sounds like a NIMBY (“not in my back yard”), has now set her sights on blocking carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects in the state, which blocks new hydrogen projects that would use huge quantities of Marcellus gas.
    Read More “PA House RINO in Fayette Co. Continues NIMBYism re Carbon Capture”

  • |

    PA Senate Candidate David McCormick Addresses GOP Convention

    David McCormick

    David McCormick made his case for election to the U.S. Senate at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night, telling the audience gathered in Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum that the election this year is “the most important election of our lifetimes.” He also said, “My friends, the choice this November is clear. It’s a choice between strength and weakness, a choice between America’s greatness or its sad, disgraceful decline.” Never a truer word spoken. McCormick is running against Bob Casey, a trust funder who has held the seat for 18 years. Casey has voted with Biden 98.5% of the time (verifiable statistic). The choice for PA voters who support the Marcellus is crystal clear.
    Read More “PA Senate Candidate David McCormick Addresses GOP Convention”

  • |

    Biden Losing Support from His Radicalized Green Base

    The left sees its hegemony over political power slipping away along with the fading memory of Joe Biden. Biden was their guy as long as he could deliver a win and keep them in power. If he can’t win, the left will turn on him and eat him alive. While it’s too soon to declare the November election over, it’s clear that the Democrat Party is in disarray and believes it will likely lose. There is a fracture running through the Dems, with half wanting to ride the nearly-dead horse of Biden to “victory” (or defeat) in November and the other half advocating to chuck Biden over the side now. The divide is clearly seen in the radicalized environmental movement, where Biden has suddenly lost the support of some big names in the Big Green movement.
    Read More “Biden Losing Support from His Radicalized Green Base”

  • |

    GOP Platform: “Make America Dominant Energy Producer in the World”

    The Republican platform is a breath of fresh air with respect to where our country needs to go with its energy policies. You may or may not agree with some of the non-energy planks in the platform, but if you support oil and gas, you will LOVE what this document says about energy. In fact, of the 5,000 or so words in the Republican platform, 400 of them (8%) deal in some way with energy. Below, we have a copy of the full platform and a review of those sections that deal with energy. You’re gonna love it!
    Read More “GOP Platform: “Make America Dominant Energy Producer in the World””

  • | | |

    Green Lefties Target Trump VP Pick Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance

    U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance

    In the end, it didn’t matter who Donald Trump picked as a running mate. That person would be vilified, pilloried, slandered, lied about, and made out to be Satan himself. And so it is with U.S. Senator J.D. Vance from Ohio, the guy Trump chose to run with him. It’s really quite humorous how “mainstream” media is reacting. Just go to Google News, type in “JD Vance,” and look at the headlines. They will tell you that Vance is a closet Trump-hater, that his New York Times bestselling book, Hillbilly Elegy, is a “con job,” that Vance is a “rubber stamp” for Trump’s “extreme agenda,” that he suspiciously converted to Catholicism, he’s not hawkish enough on foreign policy, etcetera etcetera. Vance is everything the elitist left hates: A Horatio Alger-type person who came from nothing to make something of himself. The elites didn’t give Vance permission to succeed, so, How dare he?
    Read More “Green Lefties Target Trump VP Pick Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance”

  • A Brief Editorial Note on Today’s “Political” Stories

    As it happens, today’s lineup of stories is largely focused on politics. This note is to let you know this is not a new direction for MDN, but rather a one-off. We have always responded to the news of the day to bring you the latest items that impact the Marcellus/Utica shale industry. As it so happens, today’s news largely revolves around politics. We try to keep the political talk to a minimum, other than where politics intersects with energy and (in particular) shale drilling.

    What we are saying is that you don’t have to worry that you will “suffer” through endless political stories from now until November (or even after November). We will cover election-related stories on occasion, as the situation warrants. Politics DO have a direct impact on the oil and gas industry. Our interest, from a political perspective, is in promoting the politicians and legislation that is favorable to the shale industry. We won’t bore you to death (or, in some cases, anger you) with political stories! We promise.

  • Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Jul 17, 2024

    NATIONAL: Employees sue American Airlines, don’t want 401(k)s in ESG; AI, robotics leading transformative changes in oil and gas; Offshore wind energy scandal is even worse than you think; Trump’s proposed tariffs spark concerns for oil industry; INTERNATIONAL: Russia plans compensation cuts after pumping above OPEC quota; Houthis attack oil tanker in Red Sea.
    Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Jul 17, 2024”