Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Schuylkill County | Williams
Leidy South Compressors Generate $100M Economic Impact, 680 Jobs
Did you know that building just two new compressor stations in Pennsylvania will bring the state an extra $100 million in economic activity and support 680 direct, indirect and induced jobs? We sure didn’t! Last week Williams filed a newly published study with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on the economic impact of their proposed Leidy South Expansion Project (full study embedded below). The study makes an irrefutable case for building the new compressor stations in Luzerne and Schuylkill counties.
Read More “Leidy South Compressors Generate $100M Economic Impact, 680 Jobs”
In April, Pennsylvania State Rep. Mike Turzai, Speaker of the House, and a group of conservative Republicans, announced a plan for the future of PA (see 
There is no way to track exactly how much royalty revenue is received by Pennsylvania landowners, because royalty income is not reported separately on the Pennsylvania income tax return. Royalty income is combined with rental, patent and copyright income on line 6 of the PA-40 state income tax return. However, the crack researchers at the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office, a state government agency created in 2010, has a way of estimating how much revenue has been generated by oil and gas royalties. The IFO just released a report (full copy below) that shows they estimate royalties in 2018 hit their highest level since they began tracking oil & gas royalty revenue in 2010.
The boneheaded new law passed by the Ohio legislature known as House Bill (HB) 6, meant to save a couple of failing nuclear plants along with a few coal-fired electric plants, has just claimed its first casualty. And it’s major. Clean Energy Future Inc. which has already built two natural gas-fired power plants in Lordstown (Trumbull County, OH) announced it is canceling a project to build a third Lordstown power plant–costing the state $1.1 billion of investment. What a disaster.
There is no disputing the fact that the Marcellus Shale has fundamentally changed the economic landscape for Pennsylvania–for the better. A former PA state senator and county commissioner from southeast PA recently went on a tour of shale related infrastructure in western PA and wrote an insightful editorial that outlines the case in favor of building *more* natural gas pipelines in the state.
Pennsylvania state officials in the Gov. Tom Wolf administration (yes, lib Dem Tom Wolf) are drawing up plans, a “playbook,” for how to redevelop the increasing number of coal-fired electric generating plants that are closing in the state. Most of those plans boil down to this: redevelop those sites as natural gas-fired electric plants and/or petrochemical plants. Both are tied directly to PA’s prolific Marcellus Shale. Who knew there was such common sense inside the Wolf Administration?
Fossil fuel haters who refuse to allow a new natural gas pipeline in Massachusetts are causing real economic harm in cities like Holyoke. The mayor of Holyoke is one of those inflicting economic harm–on his own citizens!–by opposing a small 2.1-mile expansion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline. A Holyoke City Council member is floating a resolution to support the pipeline, trying to change hearts and minds. Is he spitting in the wind?
One of West Virginia’s two U.S. Senators, Joe Manchin, is not happy that the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by China and his home state is hush hush. Manchin has not seen a copy of that agreement and he wants to see it, NOW. At a Senate hearing last week, Manchin made noise about the $83.7 billion deal signed by WV and China, part of a Trump Administration effort, back in 2017 (see 
Two weeks ago at the Northeast Petrochemical Conference in Pittsburgh, a panel of speakers from West Virginia, including former Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette, addressed the topic of Advanced Manufacturing and Petrochemicals related to the shale industry. At the end of the prepared talks, the session was opened to questions from the audience. MDN asked the first question, which was this: “The $83.7 billion question is, what’s going on with the proposed investment in shale and petchem promised by China?”