Industrywide Issues

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Jobs

Steingraber: Only Jobs for Women in Fracking are Maid & Prostitute
April 21, 2015April 21, 2015

Yesterday we told you about Ithaca College’s Sandra Steingraber and how she approaches the weighty issues of shale drilling–by making things up (see Sandra Steingraber’s Irrational Hatred of Fossil Fuels Continues). On April 6th we told you that Steingraber was due to deliver a lecture at the University of Pittsburgh on fracking and feminism (see Funny! NY Fractivist Steingraber Says Fracking is a “Feminist Issue”). It seems Steingraber delivered just what radical feminists wanted to hear. Steingraber actually said this about the jobs generated by the drilling industry for women: “The jobs for women are ‘hotel maid’ and ‘prostitute’.” Steingraber maintains that fracking is a man’s world. Who knew Steingraber was such a sexist? Once again Sandra Steingraber makes things up out of her rather fertile imagination…
Read More “Steingraber: Only Jobs for Women in Fracking are Maid & Prostitute”
Alternative Energy | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Going Amish? NY Nutters Push to Dump All Fossil Fuel Use by 2030
April 21, 2015April 21, 2015

Have you noticed how anti-drilling nutters have become even more shrill lately? They never were “reasonable” people–able to be reasoned with. But lately…wow. How about this example: A fringe collection of 70 “groups” (each “group” is a single person or perhaps half a dozen people a most) that you’ve mostly never heard of are supporting an initiative in New York called 100% Renewable Energy by 2030. They are true global warming believers–and God help you if you try and talk any sense to them on that topic. This group of 70 is attempting to build on the success of pressuring the spineless Andrew Cuomo in banning fracking by banning the use of fossil fuels by 2030. Yes, they’re totally nuts–we know that. Yes, they ignore facts like the materials used to make their precious windmills and solar panels are highly toxic and put the health of workers in places like China in constant danger. They never let facts get in the way of a good fantasy. And so now they peddle this concept that “if we only had the political will, we could be using 100% so-called renewable energy” in 15 short years. We call it psychotic…
Read More “Going Amish? NY Nutters Push to Dump All Fossil Fuel Use by 2030”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Schlumberger

Schlumberger Cuts Another 11K Jobs, 15% of Workforce Gone in 4 Mos
April 20, 2015April 20, 2015

Wow–it’s getting savage out there in the oil (and gas) fields with respect to jobs. In January we told you that Schlumberger (pronounced Shlum-Bur-Zhay), the world’s (and the U.S.’s) largest oilfield services company, cut 9,000 jobs from the company (see Schlumberger Firing 9,000 to Reduce Head Count, “Low Oil Prices”). Since that time, other companies like Halliburton and Baker Hughes (both competitors of Schlumberger) have cut 6,400 and 7,000 jobs respectively. Ouch. Looks like that was just getting the ax sharpened. Last Thursday Schlumberger announced another round of job cuts–this time 11,000. Analysts are predicting this is the opening round of more cuts to come from other companies, a so-called second round…
Read More “Schlumberger Cuts Another 11K Jobs, 15% of Workforce Gone in 4 Mos”
Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County | Wastewater

Range Loses 2nd Appeal, Must Provide PA Well Site Chemical List
April 20, 2015February 8, 2019

Three families who live near a former drill site and frack wastewater impoundment at the Yeager Marcellus Shale site in Washington County, PA sued Range Resources in May 2012 claiming the air they breathe and the water they drink had been contaminated by Range’s operation at the site (see EPA Investigating Range Drill Site in Western PA). Litigation ensued, and years passed. In 2013, a Washington County court ordered Range (not its contractors, but Range itself) to disclose a list of all chemicals used at the site–right down to the type of motor oil used in vehicles coming and going at the site (see PA Judge Forces Range, Contractors to Provide Chemical List). It will be an almost impossible task to construct such a list at this point, especially in light of the fact they’re in the process of closing the site. So Range appealed. Last June they lost that appeal (see Court Says Range Resources Must Disclose Chemicals in SW PA). Range appealed again, and last week they lost that second appeal…
Read More “Range Loses 2nd Appeal, Must Provide PA Well Site Chemical List”
Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Why Some WV Landowners Resist MVP Pipeline: Threats & Low $$
April 20, 2015April 20, 2015

Two weeks ago MDN told you that EQT, NextEra US Gas Assets and their Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project have sued 103 West Virginia landowners to force them to allow access to their property so they can survey it for potential paths for the MVP (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Sues 103 WV Landowners for Survey Access). MVP is a 330-mile pipeline that will stretch from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. But landowners in, of all places, WV seem to be turning against the pipeline. There are so many projects underway in WV and other Marcellus/Utica areas, it almost seems as if there is pipeline fatigue setting in. Make no mistake, pipelines like the MVP are desperately needed to move large volumes of Marcellus/Utica gas to markets outside of the immediate region. Without the pipelines, the drilling will stop–which is what anti-drillers want to happen. But sometimes otherwise supportive landowners are not so supportive of a given pipeline project. Let’s get an inside perspective to better understand some of the reasons why…
Read More “Why Some WV Landowners Resist MVP Pipeline: Threats & Low $$”
Education | Energy Companies | Exxon Mobil | Industrywide Issues | New York | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide NY | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

ExxonMobil Donates $47M to Higher Ed, Including Marcellus Region
April 20, 2015April 20, 2015

ExxonMobil runs an incredibly generous program called the Educational Matching Gift Program under which they have just donated $47 million to ~900 colleges and universities across the United States. Here’s how it works: for every $1 ExxonMobil employees, retirees, directors and surviving spouses contribute to the Matching Gift Program, ExxonMobil matches it with $3. In Pennsylvania, the total pot donated to higher education was $3.8 million. In Ohio, it was $909,000. Virginia colleges are getting $1.3 million. New York State colleges and universities are getting a whopping $3.4 million–after New York State has screwed ExxonMobil royally (the company has lost millions of dollars in lease expirations when it couldn’t drill shale wells in the state because of Andrew Cuomo’s fracking ban). And yet, ExxonMobil gave money to the Empire State anyway, to some of the very schools who provide shelter and sponsor anti-drilling zealots. It shows the caliber of the people who run the company. One more: New Jersey, big users of oil and gas, but haters of pipelines and shale drilling, got $1.1 million…
Read More “ExxonMobil Donates $47M to Higher Ed, Including Marcellus Region”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Cayuga County | Industrywide Issues | New York

Sandra Steingraber’s Irrational Hatred of Fossil Fuels Continues
April 20, 2015April 20, 2015

There is no middle ground, no compromise, no basis on which to have a rational, intelligent discussion with a person who refuses to acknowledge reality. The reality we’re talking about is the fundamental and necessary role of petrochemicals–i.e. fossil fuels–in every society on earth, save a few jungle tribes. If you live in any modern civilization on earth today, fossil fuels make it possible. From the clothes on your body to the shoes on your feet, the chair you sit in, the carpet you walk on, the walls and roof of the house or dormitory where you live, the vehicle you drive–the materials that compose it, manufacture it and and power it are based on fossil fuels. And yet there are so-called intelligent, learned people, like Ithaca College’s Sandra Steingraber, who insist we must adopt a tribe-like existence and dump all fossil fuels–now. Forever. One of Steingraber’s favorite methods in talking about fossil fuels (and fracking) is to wax “poetic.” Her latest discourse, recently delivered at Wells College in beautiful Cayuga County, NY (Finger Lakes region), is described this way: “Rather than dissect the dispute [about fracking] through science, charts and graphs, visiting speaker Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., instead probed the use of fossil fuels through anecdotes and imagery.” In other words, she just makes it up. She concocts erroneous analogies and stories, comparing fracking to things like smoking, and relies on her oratory skills to convince people that fracking, indeed fossil fuels in general, are from the devil himself. And young people at places like Wells College just lap it up…
Read More “Sandra Steingraber’s Irrational Hatred of Fossil Fuels Continues”
Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA Brainwashes Kids: Quit Taking Baths, Check Toilet for Leaks
April 20, 2015April 20, 2015

Below is a sterling example of why the federal Environmental Protection Agency should not only be stopped–it should be dismantled. Immediately. The article appears on the Heartland Institute’s website and sports this title: “EPA Tells Kids to Avoid Baths and Asks them to Check Toilets for Leaks”…
Read More “EPA Brainwashes Kids: Quit Taking Baths, Check Toilet for Leaks”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Energy Companies | HG Energy | Industrywide Issues | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Domestic Eco-Terrorism: Worker Shot at Rural WV Oil Well Site
April 17, 2015November 3, 2015

We have what appears to be an act of eco-terrorism, (possibly attempted murder) in southwestern West Virginia, by what appears to be an anti-driller who has had a snap with reality. Mark Miller, a 39 year-old married father of two who works for oil and gas company HG Energy, was visiting a conventional oil well site in Lincoln County on Monday. Miller said in an interview he was at the well, which has a history of leaks, to take pictures of an existing leak. The well is located on state-owned land, in a rural wildlife management area. Miller, in an unmarked pickup truck, started to drive away when a “tall, lanky man dressed in camouflage, with black stuff rubbed all over his face” approached the truck. Miller stopped to see if he could help, assuming the man’s vehicle was broken down somewhere nearby. The man approached the passenger side window, didn’t talk but held up a recorder which played something about not drilling, and he stuck a gun through the window, pointing it at Miller’s head. Miller tried to knock the gun away and the man pulled the trigger, shooting Miller in the hand, shattering bones in his left hand…
Read More “Domestic Eco-Terrorism: Worker Shot at Rural WV Oil Well Site”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

“Peaceful” Protesters Removed from LNG Export Hearing in Philly
April 17, 2015April 20, 2015

Another example of a “peaceful, non-violent” protest occurred yesterday in Philadelphia. City Councilman David Oh organized a meeting to discuss the feasibility of locating a facility inside city limits to liquefy and export natural gas. The city owns Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), the largest municipal-owned utility in the country. PGW already has a small LNG facility in the city, but currently it’s set up to import LNG, not export it. Councilman Oh wanted to explore the possibility of converting the site to export LNG. You may recall the corrupt Philly City Council nixed a potential deal to sell PGW to UIL Holdings (see Philly City Council Kills the Phila. Gas Works $1.86B Deal). Since that time, City Council members like Oh have tried to save face and figure out how they might turn around the near-bankrupt PGW. One of the most promising ideas is to set up a small exporting operation. A meeting to discuss that idea was held on the campus of Drexel University. A meaningful portion of those attending were anti-drilling nutters who wouldn’t shut up and had to be escorted out by Drexel security personnel. Yep, just more of your “peaceful, non-violent” types out to make a point…
Read More ““Peaceful” Protesters Removed from LNG Export Hearing in Philly”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pike County | Pipelines | Susquehanna County | Tennessee Gas Pipeline | Wayne County

Kinder Morgan Hops on the Pipeline Payola Bandwagon in NEPA
April 17, 2015April 17, 2015

Look–we’ve written about this before and we’re not going to belabor the point–about pipeline companies using payola to buy support for the pipelines they plan to build through communities. The Constitution Pipeline did it last March in New York (see Constitution Pipeline Payments to Groups – Donations or Payola?). PennEast recently did it this March in southeast Pennsylvania and New Jersey (see PennEast Payola? Buying Support One Community at a Time). Now it’s Kinder Morgan’s turn. KM handed out checks this week in Wayne, Susquehanna, Pike and Luzerne counties in northeastern PA. It’s amazing how much good press, and good will, a $10,000 donation can buy you–especially when you give it to a school…
Read More “Kinder Morgan Hops on the Pipeline Payola Bandwagon in NEPA”
CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Cove Point LNG Plant STILL Waiting for Final DOE Approval?!
April 17, 2015April 17, 2015

Something a tad strange caught our eye. Yesterday America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) released a white paper (copy below) and held a conference call to step up pressure on the Obama Dept. of Energy–with pleas to do the right thing and grant final approval for a list of LNG export projects currently on the list. Some of those projects have been waiting years for a final approval. We knew all of that–but one of the projects named by ANGA on the call and in the white paper is Cove Point. Which made us scratch our head. We thought Cove Point was already was already fully approved by the plethora of government agencies, including DOE, that need to approve it. We reported that Dominion began construction of the facility last October (see Dominion Breaks Ground on Cove Point, MD LNG Export Facility). Just last month Dominion threw a big party to celebrate the project’s approval and future prospects with no less than the Japanese ambassador attending (see Dominion Needles Anti-Drillers by Throwing Party for Cove Point LNG). But now here’s ANGA saying the DOE needs to provide a “final” approval for Cove Point. What gives?…
Read More “Cove Point LNG Plant STILL Waiting for Final DOE Approval?!”
Energy Services | Erie County (OH) | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Spectra Energy

Erie County, OH Rolls Out Red Carpet for NEXUS Pipeline
April 17, 2015April 17, 2015

It doesn’t seem to happen often enough, which is why this is noteworthy: The Erie County, OH Board of Commissioners (with three members) sent an official letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to endorse and support the proposed $1.5 billion NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline from Ohio through Michigan and into Canada (see NEXUS Gas Pipeline Pre-Files with FERC, New Details Come to Light). The NEXUS, like all other proposed pipelines in the northeast, has encountered plenty of opposition (see CORNy Opposition to NEXUS Pipeline in Eastern Ohio). But all three Erie County commissioners want FERC to know their county stands behind the pipeline and welcomes it through their neck of the woods–which means new pipeline trenches would be dug in places where pipelines have not previously been installed. The commissioners are rolling out the red carpet for this “greenfield” project coming through their county. Refreshing!…
Read More “Erie County, OH Rolls Out Red Carpet for NEXUS Pipeline”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

Exclusive: PA Feb Natgas Production Numbers Show Decrease from Jan
April 16, 2015April 16, 2015

Kudos to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection. On April 1 they published the very first monthly production numbers for oil and gas production in the state–for the month of January (see PA’s First Monthly O&G Production Report Goes Live). At the time, the DEP said going forward new production numbers would be released 45 days after the end of a calendar month, and that February’s numbers would be released by April 14. Those numbers were released–just before midnight on the 14th! They kept their word and are to be commended for it. MDN has analyzed the numbers from February, comparing them to January. Unfortunately several drillers have failed to file their monthly reports on time–most notable among them is EQT. Because EQT’s numbers are missing for February (one of the larger drillers in PA), it throws off any kind of meaningful analysis. However, we have enough of the picture from other major drillers who did file on time–drillers like Cabot Oil & Gas, Range Resources and Southwestern Energy–that we can tell you this: Production in PA from January to February went down by an appreciable amount. Currently, without EQT’s numbers in the mix, February production decreased 17% from January levels. Once missing numbers are added, we expect production to have decreased somewhere around 8-10% overall. Below we have a couple of charts with the natural gas production data rolled up, something you won’t find anywhere else!…
Read More “Exclusive: PA Feb Natgas Production Numbers Show Decrease from Jan”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Taxation

Celebrate! Ohio Severance Tax Increase Dead in 2015
April 16, 2015April 16, 2015

Very good news for the Ohio Utica Shale industry: RINO Gov. John Kasich’s plan to raise the severance tax is dead–at least for this year. Yesterday Ohio legislators stripped out a proposed tax hike from the state’s budget bill. We’re still not out of the woods yet as far as a tax increase down the road. Legislators decided to set up a “study committee” made up of both House and Senate members to consider a severance tax increase in the future. This is the third year in a row Kasich has tried and failed to raise the severance tax. Perhaps sensing yet another defeat on the tax issue, last month Kasich made a not-so-subtle threat that if the drilling industry doesn’t accept his 6.5% severance tax now, a ballot initiative may just pop up out of thin air to enact a higher severance tax–and that imitative would probably be for 10% or more (see OH Gov Kasich the Bully: Accept My 6.5% Tax or Risk a 10%+ Tax). In other words, you take my “minor” shakedown or I’ll be sure you get screwed over big-time. Will Kasich carry out his threat?…
Read More “Celebrate! Ohio Severance Tax Increase Dead in 2015”
Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Meigs County | Ohio | Regulation | Wastewater

GreenHunter Releases 2014 Update, Plans to Barge Brine in 2015
April 16, 2015April 16, 2015

GreenHunter Resources, the fresh water and wastewater subsidiary of Magnum Hunter Resources, reported their fiscal year 2014 and 2014 operating results yesterday–in both a press release (below) and an analyst phone call (excerpts below). MDN eagerly scoured the announcement and a transcript of the analyst call for mention of the ongoing controversy of barging brine down the Ohio River. GreenHunter is building and has nearly completed four new injection wells in Meigs County, OH. They plan to begin barging brine to those wells sometime this year, according to GreenHunter COO Kirk Trosclair. GreenHunter has a major/ongoing disagreement with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) over whether or not guidelines issued in 1987 allow them to transport brine from shale wells (see GreenHunter Keeps Pressure on USCG to Barge Brine on Ohio River). While there’s no mention of the USCG or lack of a USCG permit, there was plenty of talk about barge operations beginning by the end of this year…
Read More “GreenHunter Releases 2014 Update, Plans to Barge Brine in 2015”