Industrywide Issues

Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

OH Schools Save $60M, PA Schools Save $45.5M Last Year from Shale
June 9, 2014June 9, 2014

The American Petroleum Institute released a new study at the end of May titled, “The Unconventional Energy Revolution: Estimated Energy Savings for Public School Districts and State and Local Governments” (full copy embedded below). The study shows school districts and government offices have saved a boatload of money thanks to the ongoing shale revolution. BIG money. To further drive the point home and make it understandable, the API has released a number of press releases breaking down the numbers state by state. For example, the study says schools in Ohio saved $60 million on their utility bills last year thanks to shale, and Pennsylvania schools saved $45.5 million on utility bills last year thanks to shale…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

Discussion over Geological Layers has Real Consequences in PA
June 9, 2014June 9, 2014

There’s a controversy brewing in Pennsylvania–over how to define what’s conventional and what’s unconventional in oil and gas drilling. It may sound like a boring exercise in obscure geological speak because it involves concepts like the Elk formation. The theological equivalent of “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” However, the outcome of this argument/controversy has the power to change the economics of drilling in PA and will impact drillers, landowners, and the state government (i.e. tax revenue). It’s a big deal and the outcome is vitally important…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Raises Another $225M with Impact Fee – List of Who Gets What
June 5, 2014June 5, 2014

Pennsylvania did it right when it came to taxing the shale drilling industry. PA Republican Gov. Tom Corbett crafted a part tax/part fee called the impact fee, part of the Act 13 law (which is now threatened to be overturned in court by seven selfish PA towns). The impact fee raises money from drillers. Some 60% of what is raised stays in the towns and counties where the drilling happens. The other 40% is a true tax–“walking around money” that greases the hands of Harrisburg politicians so they can dole it out in political patronage. Still, it’s one of the best systems of taxing drilling we’ve seen. On Tuesday, the latest results were released for who will get how much, by county and township (and other entities). We have the list below…
Read More “PA Raises Another $225M with Impact Fee – List of Who Gets What”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lebanon County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Lebanon, PA Group Coaches Blind Followers to Oppose Pipeline
June 5, 2014June 5, 2014

The pattern endlessly repeats itself. A handful of people with an irrational hatred of fossil fuels turn their hatred on anything related to fossil fuels–like a much needed pipeline. Those same people can’t use objective evidence to support their views–they can’t even openly admit what motivates them for fear that they’ll lose support. So they begin a campaign to spread lies (i.e. “talking points”) to mind-numbed robots who can’t think for themselves. They pack a public meeting and all pretty much say the same thing–endlessly regurgitating the talking points handed to them. Many of them, MDN has observed, are old hippies–men bald on top with gray ponytails in the back. You laugh–but it’s true! They also enlist kindred spirits in young people who are frankly inexperienced and too stupid to know better. That pattern is repeating itself once again–this time in Lebanon County, PA…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Wastewater

New Texas Technology Cleans Frack Water Really Fast
June 5, 2014June 5, 2014

Frack wastewater is pretty big deal. Although many drillers recycle it, some don’t or can’t, and it ends up going back into the ground–via an injection well. How much better would it be to clean it up and re-use it? A Texas company is doing just that–with the help of Texas A&M University researchers. ARANA Water Technologies has innovated a new recycling process with some amazing results. Raw frack water goes in, and 26 minutes later the water coming out is 99+ percent free of petroleum hydrocarbons, and metals in the water like arsenic, aluminum, iron, and selenium have been reduced by 90+ percent. While this isn’t strictly a Marcellus/Utica story, we expect this technology will soon be available in the Marcellus/Utica and so is worth highlighting…
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Allegheny County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Supply Chain

“Dumping” Leads to 177 Jobs Lost at PA Marcellus Pipeline Plant
June 5, 2014June 5, 2014

A strange and sad story. McKeesport (Allegheny County), PA has for many years been known as “Tube City” because of the steel pipes manufactured there by U.S. Steel. Some 157 steelworkers and 20 manager (177 total) were just told they’re being laid off by U.S. Steel. That plant in particular has been manufacturing steel pipes used in the shale drilling industry! The industry is going great guns and expanding like crazy–so why on earth are they laying off people? In a word, dumping…
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Albany County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Fate of NY Fracking Now in Hands of 7 Judge Court of Appeals
June 4, 2014June 4, 2014

Yesterday was an important day for the future of fracking in New York State. Attorneys Tom West (from Albany) and Scott Kurkoski (from Binghamton) argued before the New York State Court of Appeals, NY’s highest court, in the Dryden and Middlefield town ban cases. MDN has some of the comments made at the trial by both sides, a statement from the Joint Landowner’s Coalition of New York (JLCNY), and a rough estimate of when a decision will be rendered…
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Belmont County | EMG | Energy Services | Guernsey County | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | M&A | MarkWest Energy | Noble County | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Summit Midstream

Summit Midstream Cuts $377M Check for 40% of Ohio Gathering
June 4, 2014June 4, 2014

Ohio Gathering is a midstream (pipelines and processing plants) company operating in the southeastern Ohio area–Harrison, Guernsey, Belmont, Noble and Monroe counties. It is a joint venture owned by MarkWest, EMG and until recently, Gulfport Energy. In January MDN told you that Summit Midstream would be buying Gulfport’s 40% ownership interest (see Summit Midstream Closes Deal to Buy 40% Stake in Ohio Gathering). These things take time with lots of lawyers and due dillgence and enough paperwork to re-paper the walls in a dozen homes. The paperwork is done and Summit has cut the check–a $377 million check that will go into the bank account of MarkWest and EMG…
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Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Statewide NY | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Dominion Asks FERC for New Compressors in Upstate NY, WV
June 4, 2014June 4, 2014

Dominion announced yesterday they have filed applications with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to get permission to beef up two different pipeline systems in the Marcellus region–giving them more capacity to flow abundant, cheap Marcellus gas to northeastern markets. One of the pipelines to receive an upgrade is in upstate New York. The other is a pipeline in West Virginia. In both cases, the upgrades involve either building new compressor plants along the pipeline–or expanding existing compressor stations. The pipeline in WV also includes a new interconnection with another pipeline. Here’s the details on both projects…
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Broome County | Delaware County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | New York | Otsego County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Schoharie County | Statewide NY | Susquehanna County | Tennessee Gas Pipeline | Williams

KM Announces Marcellus Pipeline Parallel to Williams Constitution
June 4, 2014June 4, 2014

A “this is pretty interesting” story recently crossed our radar. MDN has reported, for several years now, about the Williams Constitution Pipeline being built from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY where it will connect to both the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) and the Iroquois pipeline (see New Marcellus Constitution Pipeline Announces “Final” Route). We even took you along for an inside look at one of the public comment sessions, called a scoping hearing (see Vicariously Attend FERC Scoping Hearing on Constitution Pipeline). The Constitution will begin construction very soon. Now comes word from Kinder Morgan that they want to build a second pipeline from the Marcellus Shale gas fields of Susquehanna County to their TGP, taking virtually the same route…
Read More “KM Announces Marcellus Pipeline Parallel to Williams Constitution”
Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Mitch McConnell: EPA Killing Coal is Attack on Middle Class
June 4, 2014June 5, 2014

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican from Kentucky) may not be a true-blue conservative, but he has his good days. Yesterday was one of those days. McConnell blasted the new EPA takeover of the U.S. energy industry by proposing draconian cuts in the stuff you breathe out with every breath–carbon (see Obama’s Climate Madness Metastasizes – EPA Kills Coal Electricity). Kentucky is a coal state and McConnell is hopping mad over the proposed new carbon limits. So he introduced the “Coal Country Protection Act” to defang the EPA. We love his statement on the Senate floor. In it he compares Obama and the Democrats to a Ginsu knife pitchman who deceived us once (on Obamacare) and is deceiving us again (on carbon). Fool me once…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PPG Op-Ed: Don’t Kill the Marcellus Goose Laying the Golden Eggs
June 4, 2014June 4, 2014

We suppose sooner or later it had to happen–the increasingly anti-drilling Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran an op-ed that tells the truth about PA Democrat’s plans to slap a severance tax on drilling–on top of an already high impact fee. The result will be, according to energy lawyer Kevin Colosimo, to kill the goose laying the golden eggs. To be sure the editorial writers at the PPG had nothing to do with the editorial–and probably didn’t want to run it. The argument is made by anti-drillers and money-grubbing PA Democrats that “everyone else has a severance tax, even Texas and Oklahoma and all those evil, nasty oil and gas states have a severance tax. We should too.” Just a teeny, tiny problem with that argument…
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Chesapeake Energy | Crime | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues

Corp Raider Carl Ichan Investigated for Insider Trading – Denies
June 4, 2014June 4, 2014

What’s this? Corporate raider Carl Icahn is accused of insider trading. Say it ain’t so! Icahn, as you may know, is despised on this site for the way he’s systematically gutted Chesapeake Energy by using his toady Doug Lawler to fire thousands of people and sell off huge portions of the company–all in a bid to drive the stock price up, which Icahn will then turn around and sell at a handsome profit. It should be illegal, but it isn’t. Perhaps old Carl is getting sloppy in his waning years. Apparently there was some funny business with one of his deals a few years ago. Something to do with “well-timed” trades of Clorox stock, a company Icahn tried to take over. It’s complicated and the FBI and SEC are investigating Ichan, golfer Phil Michelson and Las Vegas gambler William “Billy” Walters…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Flaming Idiot Rachel Maddow Features Debunked Flaming Hose Video
June 4, 2014June 4, 2014

No one ever accused Rachel Maddow of intellectual heft. And no ever accused MSNBC, the channel where she hosts a show immodestly called The Rachel Maddow Show, of being a real news channel. But Rachel disgraced herself even more than usual recently when she showed a clip from Josh Fox’s fictional Gasland movie with a Texas landowner lighting a garden hose on fire. That clip has since be proven to be a fraud (by a Texas judge) perpetrated by Fox and the landowner, but there was Rachel showing it and talking about it as if it were a common occurrence wherever there’s fracking. Simply boggles the mind…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Smoking Gun in NY? Cuomo Political Aides Met with Shah & Martens
June 3, 2014June 3, 2014

Let’s give credit where it’s due. Gannett repeatedly filed Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to get schedule details about former Commissioner of the New York State Dept. of Health (DOH) Nirav Shah. Gannett has been fishing to see who Shah talked to in his now 1.5+ year “review” of proposed fracking regulations–a process that Shah himself said should only take a few weeks to complete (see NY Health Com. Nirav Shah Says Fracking Health Review Almost Done). Not long after that statement, Shah did some major backpedaling and refused to peg a date when he would finish his review (see Cuomo Underling Shah: “No Timetable” on Fracking Decision). It’s now a year and a half later. The question we posed at the time was, who’s pulling Shah’s strings? Thanks to some (rare) investigative reporting by Gannett–now we know. Andrew Cuomo was and is pulling the strings, and there’s a smoking gun to prove it…
Read More “Smoking Gun in NY? Cuomo Political Aides Met with Shah & Martens”
CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Good News: Maryland Approves Dominion Cove Point LNG Plant
June 3, 2014June 3, 2014

First the Dept. of Energy approved it (see Celebrate! Dominion Wins DOE Approval for MD LNG Export Facility), then the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see FERC Final EIS: Cove Point Won’t Hurt Environment), and now, the Maryland Public Service Commission has approved Dominion’s plan to build a ~$3.5 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Cove Point, MD. Specifically, the PSC issued a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) last Friday. The certificate is needed to allow Dominion to install two 65-megawatt steam turbine generators that produce electricity. The waste heat from two combustion turbines, which are used to drive compressors to produce LNG, will be recycled to produce steam to drive the steam turbines. The PSC’s action is yet another important milestone/hurdle passed by Dominion on their inevitable way to building and operating the plant…
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