Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation
PA Supremes Allow Out-of-Town Hearsay in SWPA Zoning Dispute
It’s hard enough for drillers to get permits town by town in Pennsylvania, where the standards are all different thanks to the seven selfish towns that appealed the Act 13 law passed in 2012 (see PA Supreme Court Rules Against State/Drillers in Act 13 Case). The PA Supreme Court has just made it even harder for drillers–by allowing antis from other towns to offer “testimony” in towns where they don’t live, essentially to trash talk a driller’s request for a permit. At best the “testimony” from other towns is hearsay, not substantiated. The Supremes, ruling in a case in Allegheny County, said towns can allow hearsay. Bad move.
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On Monday Toby and Derek Rice–the Rice brothers (formerly owners of Rice Energy that sold itself to EQT in 2017) sent an open letter to EQT shareholders and a “white” proxy card, asking shareholders to vote for the Rices’ picks as board members (see 
A few new developments to report in the war to control EQT. Late last week brothers Toby and Derek Rice, formerly of Rice Energy, announced they are trimming their slate of proposed EQT board members by two (from nine to seven). There was no explanation for why the two were dropped from consideration, other than the Rice boys said they had reviewed EQT’s proposal to add three new board members (replacing three existing board members), and that two of the three, in the Rices’ opinion, “appear qualified” to serve on the board and “as a result” Rice dropped two of its proposed slate of board members.
In the fight to control EQT, it appears like the momentum has just shifted in favor of EQT’s existing management. No more defense, EQT’s management team and board are now on offense. Yesterday the board and CEO Rob McNally released their list of proposed nominees to be voted on at the annual meeting in July. Three longtime members of the existing board including (surprisingly) board chairman Jim Rohr, will be out. Three new members have been named to replace them. Most important, in a bold move, EQT is adopting a “universal proxy card”–something advocated by Toby and Derek Rice in their attempt to replace the board. We explain this important development below…
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has just fined EQT $330,775 for erosion and sedimentation violations at two well sites in Forward Township, Allegheny County, PA. Water with sediment in it leaked from the well sites in early 2018, which sometimes happens. The reason for the stiff fine is that EQT failed to notify the DEP when it happened. If the DEP finds out via its own inspections first, the cost goes way up.
Fair or not, anything and everything that happens at EQT right now, which is under extreme pressure by the Rice brothers and several other large shareholders (see 
Two days ago EQT issued its first quarter 2019 update. Yesterday they held a conference call to discuss the company’s performance. EQT performed better in 1Q19 both financially and operationally than it did in 1Q18. What most caught our interest were CEO Rob McNally’s remarks, both his prepared remarks at the beginning of the conference call, and his unscripted remarks during the Q&A. We gained some important insights on where and how much EQT plans to drill for the balance of 2019.
On Monday, Toby and Derek Rice filed a proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and sent EQT shareholders a package and special proxy card (for voting) in an effort to elicit votes for their slate of nine board members at the upcoming July annual meeting–so they can take control of the company. Normally proxy statements are pretty dry affairs. Not this one! There are bombshell accusations in the proxy statement made by the Rice boys against EQT’s current management.