DEP: Eureka Still on the Hook for Cleanup Despite Selling Plants
Eureka Resources sold the business at all three of its shuttered Pennsylvania frack wastewater plants. What it did not sell — and legally could not sell — is the obligation to finish hauling the waste out. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) put that in writing last week, and added five words that ought to get somebody’s attention in Williamsport: DEP “is considering alternative enforcement measures.” The news comes, again, not from Eureka and not from a DEP press release, but from the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association, which keeps sending the agency questions and publishing the answers. DEP Northcentral communications manager Megan Lehman replied by email Aug. 20; the Riverkeeper posted the exchange Aug. 24. Read More “DEP: Eureka Still on the Hook for Cleanup Despite Selling Plants”
The single most important piece of pipe for Marcellus/Utica wet gas drillers is about to get a lot cheaper to use — and Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) just said so out loud. On its second quarter earnings call, EPD told analysts that the tolls it charges on ATEX, the 1,230-mile ethane pipeline running from Washington County, PA to Mont Belvieu, TX, now often cost more than the ethane moving through it. Enterprise executive Justin Kreider put it plainly: “There is going to be some degree of a rate reset.” A new analysis from East Daley Analytics puts numbers behind that comment — and finds that roughly half of ATEX’s capacity comes up for renewal in 2028. 
A new report from Global Energy Monitor (GEM) — a group that says it exists “in support of the worldwide movement for clean energy” — was written to sound an alarm about a runaway natural gas buildout. Buried in one of its charts is the best news Appalachian landowners have gotten all year. Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia together added almost exactly as much new gas-fired power capacity in the first six months of 2026 as the entire state of Texas. 
A federal appeals court in Washington on Tuesday threw out all eleven claims that environmental groups and Louisiana fishermen filed against Venture Global’s CP2 LNG export terminal and the pipeline that will feed it. The terminal sits 1,300 miles from Washington County, Pennsylvania — but buried in this decision is a holding that should make every Marcellus/Utica pipeline developer very happy. The case is For a Better Bayou v. FERC, No. 24-1291 (consolidated with Nos. 24-1292 and 25-1157). It was argued March 24 and decided August 25. Senior Judge Douglas Ginsburg, a Reagan appointee, wrote for a unanimous panel that also included Judge Karen Henderson (George H.W. Bush) and Judge Patricia Millett (Obama). 
The International Gas Union (IGU), Snam, and Rystad Energy released the 2026 Global Gas Report this morning (full copy below), and there’s one line in it Marcellus/Utica readers shouldn’t skip past. The record 4,147 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas the world produced last year was driven, in the report’s words, overwhelmingly by North America — and the three basins it names are the Permian, the Haynesville, and Appalachia. That’s us. A bcm, by the way, is a billion cubic meters, or roughly 35.3 billion cubic feet (Bcf). North America’s 54 bcm of added supply works out to about 1.9 trillion cubic feet, or a little over 5 Bcf/d of new gas in a single year. 
Five Senate Democrats have escalated their fight over Cheniere Energy’s $370 million IRS “alternative fuel” tax payout, formally asking Treasury’s internal watchdog to investigate. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), joined by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Edward Markey (D-MA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), sent an Aug. 20 letter to Acting Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) Heather Hill. The letter asks TIGTA to determine how and why the IRS decided LNG tankers qualify as “motorboats” under the Alternative Fuel Excise Tax (AFET) credit—and, notably, whether the call was made to reward President Trump’s campaign donors. 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Yet, again, it’s all about Josh (Shapiro); OTHER U.S. REGIONS: DOE Sec. Wright visits NH co-op to discuss energy challenges; Gunvor in talks to buy Haynesville shale assets for over $1 billion; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures slip in range-bound trading; Peak gas, peak demand? McKibben in fantasy land; The teens taking on data centers; U.S. LNG feedgas demand falls; INTERNATIONAL: Oil drops as Iran diplomacy gains; Woodside retreats on clean energy, doubles down on LNG; Global EV sales rise again in July; Iran, Oman push talks for ‘interim’ Hormuz reopening; A U.S. – Canada trade war would bring dire impacts on oil trade.