PA PUC Publishes Fee Schedule for Marcellus Impact Fee/Tax 2024
In December, Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO), the agency charged with providing revenue projections along with impartial and objective analysis of fiscal, economic, and budgetary issues for the citizens and legislature of Pennsylvania, provided its best guess as to how much revenue the PA impact fee (i.e., severance tax) will generate from shale wells drilled or flowing in 2024 (see PA IFO Predicts Impact Tax Revenue to Drop 9% in 2024). The IFO bases its projections on the number of wells and the assessment for each well according to how many years it has been drilled. The agency that publishes the fees to be assessed for each well is the PA Public Utility Commission (PUC). The PUC published the official list of impact fee charges for 2024 in last Saturday’s PA Bulletin. Read More “PA PUC Publishes Fee Schedule for Marcellus Impact Fee/Tax 2024”
It’s alarming! Common sense is breaking out all over. In January, we told you about a Maryland Democrat, General Assembly member C.T. Wilson from Charles County, who is attempting to get the rules changed in the Old Line State to redefine natural gas as “green” energy (see 
The libs and swamp dwellers are apoplectic. The Bidenistas larded up government agencies with thousands of new employees over the past four years. The federal government added approximately 200,000 new employees in the past four years, with the most significant increase occurring in 2023, when the workforce grew by around 85,000 individuals. Donald Trump and his chosen ax man, Elon Musk (via the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE), are trimming the fat. Quickly. Including at the Environmental Protection Agency where 1,100 employees added to the payroll at EPA in the past year were notified that they are in danger of losing their jobs. Trump and Musk are hunting for swamp dwellers. 
Reading between the lines, we’d say the politicians in both Canada and Mexico are puking their guts out after Donald Trump actually did what he said he would do: He slapped a 25% tariff (i.e., tax) on any imports coming to the U.S. from either of our neighbors north and south. The new tax includes a 10% tax (tariff) on incoming oil and gas and other “energy products” from Canada. The new tariffs go into effect tomorrow (Tuesday, Feb. 4). Canada and Mexico will need to firm up their borders to stop illegal aliens from invading our country and to stop the cartels that are flooding America with drugs that are killing our residents. If Canada and Mexico don’t shore up the border and the tariffs remain in place long-term, their respective economies will tank, and their political “leaders” will be voted out of office so fast it will make your head spin. This is how real change happens, folks. 
Pennsylvania’s do-nothing Governor, Josh Shapiro, traveled to Pittsburgh yesterday to put on another shuck-and-jive all-sizzle-no-steak show. He was there to unveil what he calls his “Lightning Plan” for energy in the state. His big plan? Reintroduce and try to bully Republicans into accepting a Marcellus-killing carbon tax and onerous regulations on emissions (called PACER, see 
In June 2019, the New York State legislature passed a horrific “energy” bill that was later signed into law by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (see 
Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR), a subsidiary of Enverus, issued a summary of the fourth quarter and full-year 2024 upstream M&A (mergers and acquisitions) activity yesterday. Two of the top five M&A deals include deals in the Marcellus/Utica. Coming in at #3 on the list was EQT’s sale of non-operated assets to Equinor for $1.25 billion in October (see 
The environmental left is now saying that calling out the scam known as carbon credits is causing companies to stop “investing” (i.e., blowing money) on said credits, and the situation is “devastating livelihoods and communities.” It is an “existential crisis” for the NGOs. Yes, it’s our fault that scholarships, new schools, and water projects are disappearing. Cry me a river. 
There has been a shift in the ongoing war to defeat fossil energy. Have you felt it? It’s a shift in the direction of those of us who support fossil energy. Yes, the election of Donald Trump, who ran on a platform of unapologetically supporting oil and gas (and coal), and his overwhelming victory is a watershed moment in history. However, we propose that Trump’s win is a result (evidence of) and not the cause of this shift. A recent commentary in the Wall Street Journal nails the reason for the shift against radical environmentalism and in favor of fossil energy. The article begins with this lucid and insightful statement: “Momentous social movements begin to die the moment adherents figure out their leaders don’t believe what they say.” 
Last November, three of five supervisors in Cecil Township (Washington County), PA, voted to ban all new fracking via a new setback (distance from well to nearest structure) requirement of 2,500 feet (see 
The PJM Interconnection electrical grid operator that covers Pennsylvania (along with all or parts of 12 other states and the District of Columbia) has caved to the political demands of PA Gov. Josh Shapiro to artificially cap the prices of the next capacity auction scheduled for July 2025. It means electric ratepayers won’t see as high of an increase in their electric rates (yah!), but it also means the risk of a blackout has just gone way up (boo!). As we’ve outlined in previous posts, electric prices are soaring in PJM because of the policies of Josh Shapiro. 
Both conventional and unconventional (shale) drillers in Pennsylvania were supposed to submit a new annual report to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on December 10, 2023, detailing volatile organic compound (VOC) and methane emissions from their operations over the previous one-year period. Shortly before that deadline, the DEP suspended the due date and set a new due date of June 1, 2024 (see