CNG/LNG | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Litigation | Pennsylvania | UGI Energy Services
UGI Sues Scranton Suburb for Refusing to Allow LNG Storage Site
In early September, MDN told you that UGI Corporation, one of PA’s largest utility companies, plans to store trailers of LNG in the parking lot of a storage facility near Scranton, PA, and is seeking a zoning variance to do so (see UGI Seeks to Store LNG in Trailers in Scranton Suburb During Winter). UGI wants to locate LNG storage (and regasification) in the parking lot of Scranton Storage LLC’s property at 1011 Business Route 6 in Dickson City (a former K-Mart). However, the borough of Dickson City is refusing to issue a zoning variance to allow the use of the site for that purpose. UGI has filed two lawsuits in Commonwealth Court challenging the borough. Read More “UGI Sues Scranton Suburb for Refusing to Allow LNG Storage Site”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (6th Circuit) slammed the brakes on a pipeline project in Tennessee on Friday. In January, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a certificate of public convenience for Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) subsidiary to build the Cumberland Project, a 32-mile, 30-inch pipeline to feed 245 MMcf/d of natural gas (from the Marcellus/Utica) to the Tennessee Valey Authority’s (TVA) proposed Cumberland gas-fired power plant. 
The stakes in this November’s election are incredibly high—for the country as a whole and for shale energy everywhere, including here in the Marcellus/Utica. Pennsylvania has been the focus this election season due to the presidential race. However, there is another M-U state, Ohio, where the outcome of a statewide race is also very important: that of the Ohio Supreme Court. There are seven judges on Ohio’s high court, with Republicans holding a slim 4-3 majority. There are three seats up for election. It is anticipated that the Ohio Supreme Court will handle an appeal by anti-fossil fuel zealots of the state’s law that allows drilling under (not on) state land and state parks. If the high court tips to the radical left, drilling under state land is in jeopardy. 
California law firm Sher Edling received more than $3 million in unreported dark money to push high-profile climate litigation on behalf of dozens of Democratic-led cities and states, according to a congressional report obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Sher Edling, the Senate Commerce Committee and House Oversight Committee report found, received $2.9 million last year from the Collective Action Fund for Accountability, a shadowy group managed by the New Venture Fund. Because the contributions were made in 2023, the New Venture Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based dark money organization, isn’t required to disclose its contributions until it files its next annual 990 form with the IRS in mid-November. 
EPA Administrator Michael Regan used a considerable amount of fossil energy and emitted tons of carbon dioxide to jet over to Dubai last December to participate in the COP28 confab, where he released a final rule that was “two years in the making” to force the U.S. oil and gas industry to cut methane emissions by using budget-busting new technologies and onerous (frequent) inspections (see 
Yesterday, the Ohio Supreme Court issued a “slip opinion” dismissing a challenge to a tiny 3.7-mile, 30-inch pipeline Columbia Gas wants to build in Maumee, a city in Lucas County, Ohio, a suburb about 10 miles southwest of Toledo. The owners of a commercial office building claimed they would suffer “irreparable financial harm” if the pipeline were built near their office building. The pipeline does not cross any land owned by the company but does cross land adjacent to the building. We searched our considerable archives (over 28,000 posts!) and found no references to this project. 
The province of Québec, Canada, with a huge supply of Utica Shale gas sitting beneath it, passed a new law in 2022 outlawing all oil and natural gas production throughout the province (see 
Today, we bring you news about a lawsuit filed just over three years ago, in September 2021, by four landowners in southwestern Pennsylvania who leased their land to Range Resources for drilling. The lawsuit is just now coming on our radar screen. Range did drill and, claims the landowners, deducted expenses from royalty checks for both methane and NGL production that were not allowed. The case is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of PA and continues to advance. On September 30, a judge certified the case as a class action with the potential to affect 204 landowners with leases containing specific language. 
The Bidenistas at the EPA attacked coal and gas-fired power plants in April, threatening to destabilize the existing electric power grid with new regulations (see 
In January, MDN told you about a long-closed landfill that seeks to reopen in Liberty and Pine Townships in Mercer County, PA (see 
In July 2022, MDN brought you news of a possible frac-out, or “inadvertent return” that happens when drilling mud pops out of places where it’s not supposed to — places outside the borehole being drilled (see 
On July 12, Williams asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to bring the final pieces of the Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project online by the end of July (see 
The liberal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a string of rulings this year that have greatly damaged the country’s LNG export industry. Those rulings, if left unchallenged, put future LNG growth in this country in doubt. So says energy expert David Blackmon, writing for the Forbes magazine website. The D.C. Circuit has been coloring WAY outside the lines by using White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) criteria for what should be included in environmental reviews conducted under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
In 2015, a group of nearly 60 landowners in northeastern Pennsylvania who had leased their land for fracking filed a lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy, Anadarko, Statoil (now Equinor), Mitsui E&P, and Access Midstream (later bought by Williams), alleging the companies had improperly deducted post-production costs (e.g., gas gathering and transportation expenses) from royalties owed to the landowners in breach of their respective leases. The lawsuit also alleged collusion and conspiracy to defraud the landowners. The lawsuit was on hold for many years while other lawsuits played out. Earlier this year, a federal court in Scranton unpaused this lawsuit, and yesterday, the judge ruled, tossing out the landowners’ claims.