Industrywide Issues

Accidents | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Marcellus Industry’s Biggest Fines & Biggest Violators
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

NPR’s StateImpact Pennsylvania is only too happy to bring us the breathless news of who the baddest of the bad were in the Marcellus drilling industry in PA for 2013. How do they measure who was naughty and who was nice? Well, they’re all naughty (right?), but the naughtiest were those who paid the biggest fines last year. It may surprise you to know that the when you add all fines together, the company paying the most in 2013 was Williams, a pipeline operator–not a driller. Williams settled up in 2013 for violations going back several years, mostly related to accidents and drilling mud spills that resulted from foul weather (including Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee). Williams’ total fine tab in 2013 was $388,694 (for violations occurring in 2011-2012). Coming in at #2 was National Fuel Gas Company’s Seneca Resources subsidiary. They were clipped $377,000 for violations occurring from 2010 to 2013.

Below are the top 5 violators cumulatively (adding up all of their violations), along with the top 5 biggest single violations from last year, in the PA Marcellus drilling industry:
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Washington County

Mt Pleasant Twp Shenanigans re Range Request for Water Ponds
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

This is what happens when local townships create their own oil and gas zoning laws: chaos and confusion. Like that in Mt. Pleasant (Washington County), PA over water impoundments (ponds) that Range Resources wants to use for drilling in nearby townships. Mt. Pleasant was one of seven infamous anti-drilling townships that sued the state (and eventually won) to overturn the Act 13 law, a law that provided for expert, even-handed and uniform zoning practices throughout the state with regard to oil and gas drilling (see Happy Story Ends Badly Because of 7 PA Towns). What’s left in the wake of overturning Act 13 is petty squabbling by town boards ill-equipped to handle complex oil and gas oversight–i.e., Mt. Pleasant.

We’ve chronicled the long history of Range’s ongoing disagreement with Mt. Pleasant over water impoundments (see previous MDN stories on Range & Mt. Pleasant). The latest Mt. Pleasant town board shenanigan is to impose yet another delay:
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Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Ohio County | Wastewater | West Virginia

What’s the Holdup at GreenHunter Wheeling Frack Wastewater Plant?
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

After hitting a few rough patches with Wheeling, WV Planning Commission, GreenHunter Water finally received a green light to proceed with a frack wastewater recycling facility in Wheeling, along the shore of the Ohio River. Even though one Planning Commission member, Gloria Delbrugge, keeps a firmly closed mind about the facility (see Wheeling Councilwoman Will Shun GreenHunter Ribbon Cutting). Anti-drillers often have closed minds. All seemed fine with the Commission’s approval in hand and GreenHunter was on track to open the facility by the end of last year. But it still hasn’t happened. Why?

The main reason is that they’re still waiting on permission from the Coast Guard to move frack waste water by barge down the Ohio to points where GreenHunter owns some injection wells where they plan to dispose of some of the wastewater (see Coast Guard Wants Frack Wastewater Barges Tested – Every Load). There’s also the matter of receiving permits for trucks entering and exiting the facility (see GreenHunter’s Wheeling Frack Wastewater Facility Hits a Snag). And they’ll permits for the barges when/if the Coast Guard finally approves the barging plan. Oy vey! Regardless, GreenHunter remains laser focused on the Marcellus/Utica and is committed to bringing this (and other) facilities online. Here’s an update:
Read More “What’s the Holdup at GreenHunter Wheeling Frack Wastewater Plant?”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Sandra Steingraber’s Big Gaffe at You Defend It Debate
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

A few days ago we gave you our eyewitness account of a debate between John Holko, president of Lenape Resources and Sandra Steingraber, author, erstwhile biologist and Rachel Carson wannabe (see Fracking Debate at Binghamton U: Holko vs Steingraber). It was a good debate to illustrate the utter lack of credibility and facts used by anti-drillers like Steingraber. In writing up our review, we overlooked perhaps the most outrageous and silly thing Steingraber said Monday night. She was pressing home the point she believes it’s time, right now, for New York to flip the switch and end the use of all fossil fuels (yes, she’s that “out there”). Debate moderator Rob Kilmer was somewhat incredulous and asked her if/how we might accomplish such a feat. She responded there is historical precedence–that at one time in our country’s (evil, vile) history, we could not conceive of a national economy without slave labor–and in the same way we overcame that morally abhorrent practice, we can overcome using fossil fuels today–apparently something equally abhorrent for Steingraber. You read that right–she equated burning fossil fuels for energy (something every single person reading this does, including Steingraber) with the enslavement of Africans in our distant past. How twisted is that?

Our good friend Tom Shepstone from the must-read Natural Gas Now website brings us his view of the debate and recounts Steingraber’s “gilding of the lily” with her slavery comment…
Read More “Sandra Steingraber’s Big Gaffe at You Defend It Debate”
Crosstex Energy | Devon Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | EnLink Midstream | Industrywide Issues | M&A

Crosstex, Devon Name Names of Board & Leaders for New EnLink
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

MDN has chronicled the marriage of Crosstex Energy (a midstream company) and Devon Energy’s midstream division (see Crosstex Energy Gets a Name Change, Merger with Devon Proceeds). The new entity will take on the name EnLink Midstream and will continue to have major operations in the Marcellus/Utica region. Not every t has been crossed and i dotted, yet. The two are close to tying the knot–the shareholders of both companies need to approve the deal. But it’s a foregone conclusion that the deal is happening and will happen very soon.

It comes as no surprise that the two companies have today announced who will be on the board of directors for the new EnLink operation, and who will lead it as executive management. Here is the announcement that names names for the coming EnLink when the merger is finalized:
Read More “Crosstex, Devon Name Names of Board & Leaders for New EnLink”
Access Midstream Partners | Chemung County | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | New York | Pipelines | Processing Plants

MDN Plants a Big Fat Kiss on Access Midstream
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

Because it’s Friday and we’re in a jovial mood, we’ve decided to award an “at-a-boy/girl” award today, to… Access Midstream. A few years ago Chesapeake Midstream was spun off into it’s own company and later renamed Access (see Chesapeake Midstream Changes Name to Access Midstream). Access has a serious presence in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region, among other shale basins across the country.

So why the recognition today? Because even though New York politicians like Gov. Andrew “can’t-make-a-decision” Cuomo have obstinately refused to allow shale drilling in the state, Access is building a new office building in Big Flats, NY, near Corning/Elmira. The location happens to be close to the PA border and of course Access will use the office as a regional HQ for its operations in northeastern PA. Access already has a presence in the Big Flats area and has had for several years. They’ve decided it’s time to build a new regional HQ and consolidate several locations into one. The point is, Access could just as easily have built their new building a few miles away in PA, which is what 99.9999999% of other industry-related companies have done (NY is the BIGGEST loser). However, Access decided to throw us NYers a bone and build their facility, employing 135 people, in our high tax, business-unfriendly and drilling hostile state. And so we say, thank you! And, are you crazy?!…
Read More “MDN Plants a Big Fat Kiss on Access Midstream”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania

More Marcellus Airline Capacity Coming to NEPA from Delta
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

We recently told you the story of why United Airlines was eliminating a daily flight between Cleveland and Oklahoma City, a move that may have an impact on Utica Shale development (see The Reason United Canceled Daily Flights Between Cleveland & OKC). Here’s a story on the other side of the isle: Delta is increasing the capacity of the jet it runs between the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. They’re going from a small regional 50-seater jet to an Airbus A319 which seats up to 156 passengers.

Some (many?) who work in the gas fields of northeast PA use the Atlanta connection to reach Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, so this good news means there’s more development opportunity for the Marcellus because more people can reach it faster from places like Texas and Oklahoma, where many PA drillers have their headquarters…
Read More “More Marcellus Airline Capacity Coming to NEPA from Delta”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania | Taxation

PA’s “Coddling” of the Marcellus Industry & Economic Illiteracy
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

It’s now clear that liberals and Democrats (usually the same) in PA are hellbent on imposing an extreme severance tax on the Marcellus drilling industry. Whether the seven townships that sued the state to overturn large portions of the Act 13 law (eventually winning) are part of the tax conspiracy–we don’t know. Whether intentional or not, the lawsuit by the towns has led to the current situation that a wise, circumspect and reasonable impact fee (instead of a tax that redistributes wealth to people who didn’t earn it) is now in jeopardy and likely a goner (see Happy Story Ends Badly Because of 7 PA Towns). So Libs and Dems, or LibDems, are now beating the drums: tax, tax, tax, tax. They’re actually happy that towns will lose out on millions of dollars of impact fee revenue because they want use it as a political issue–as an excuse to tax out the wazoo.

The sycophantic and slavish media has picked up the meme and LibDem editors are writing op-eds calling for a nosebleed severance tax–like the editors of the Scranton Times-Tribune. The TR editors say the PA state legislature, by not imposing a nosebleed severance tax, has been “coddling” the drilling industry. What they’ve been doing, sychophantic, slavish LibDem TR editors, is fostering an economic miracle happening in PA all around you–an economic miracle that’s the envy of the world! You’re now about to pee all over it and ruin it. Try boning up on an economics course sometime…
Read More “PA’s “Coddling” of the Marcellus Industry & Economic Illiteracy”
Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Research

Biggest Producer of “Fugitive” Methane is… Cows?!
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

None other than the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that in 2012 the single largest producer of so-called fugitive methane (CH4) that escapes into the atmosphere was not from landfills, like it used to be. It also was not from oil and gas drilling, as is falsely claimed by anti-drillers. Nope. The biggest producer of methane that steals away into the nighttime sky like a thief, rising to toast us all into marshmallows, is none other than cow burps. Which will of course send the global warming nutters into a tissy, demanding that farmers afix a breathalyzer over the mouths of cows to monitor and capture all of that fugitive, evil methane. Watch out farmers–the nutters are coming for you!

Here’s the story of those impolite cows and their burping, farting ways…
Read More “Biggest Producer of “Fugitive” Methane is… Cows?!”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Attorney General Actively Works Against 70K NY Landowners
February 27, 2014February 27, 2014

As hard as it is to believe, New York’s Attorney General continues to work against his own constituents. We’ve known since his election that Democrat Eric Schneiderman is anti-drilling–what we didn’t know was was how much of an activist he would be, using his office to further his own distorted views on oil and gas drilling. He’s misused the power of the subpoena to go after drillers (see NY Attorney General Schneiderman Subpoenas Shale Drillers). He’s abused the power of his office to investigate town board members in towns that voted to “wait and see” (i.e. not ban) shale drilling (see NY Attorney General Investigates Towns Who Won’t Ban Fracking).

Now, unbelievably, he has asked the court (and succeeded) in delaying a lawsuit brought by 70,000 New York residents–the people he’s sworn to protect–against Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It seems that Cuomo is the only person in the state Schneiderman wants to protect. He’s Andy’s personal junk yard guard dog–on a not-so-short leash. The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) recently sued Cuomo with an Article 78 lawsuit, in essence asking the court to force Cuomo to do the job he won’t do and release new oil and gas drilling regulations (see D-Day: JLCNY Files Lawsuit Today Against Cuomo, Martens, Shah). Schneiderman has gotten the court to delay any action on the lawsuit from March 7 to April 4, to give Schneiderman and his lieutenants, what, more time after 5 1/2 years?…
Read More “NY Attorney General Actively Works Against 70K NY Landowners”
Boardwalk Pipeline Partners | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Serious Concerns about Boardwalk Pipeline Partners Continue
February 27, 2014February 27, 2014

Two weeks ago MDN told you about the developing story that Boardwalk Pipeline Partners has hit a serious rough patch and their stock price was plummeting (see Boardwalk’s Stock Drops Like a Rock – Trouble in Midstreamland?). The situation has not improved and their stock price is down nearly 50% from where it was just a short time ago. Why do we care?

Boardwalk is in a joint venture with Williams to build the Bluegrass NGL pipeline from the Marcellus/Utica all the way to the Gulf Coast. The Bluegrass has hit trouble, ironically, in the Bluegrass state of Kentucky with anti-drillers opposing it every step of the way (see the list of MDN’s Bluegrass pipeline trouble stories here). With one of the two Bluegrass pipeline partners in financial straights, what does that mean for the pipeline project? Especially since they have competition and it’s a horse race with a Kinder Morgan/MarkWest joint venture (see “Midstream Knife Fight” – Who Will Have 1st Operational NGL Pipeline to Gulf?). Here’s the latest analysis of how, and why, Boardwalk finds itself in the position they are now in…
Read More “Serious Concerns about Boardwalk Pipeline Partners Continue”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

Happy Story Ends Badly Because of 7 PA Towns
February 27, 2014February 27, 2014

Who doesn’t like a county (or state) park, or a newer trend–converting old railroad beds into “rail trails”–resurfacing them for walkers, joggers, bikers and roller skaters? We sure love and use them. This story begins happily, with York County spending $100,000 to improve the Old Northern Central Railroad tracks and a portion of the York County Heritage Rail Trail that runs alongside them. Where did the money come from–taxpayers? Nope. It came from the Marcellus Shale industry, from the impact fee levied as part of the Act 13 law. In fact York County has received, so far, nearly 3/4 of a million dollars from that fund–even though there’s no active shale drilling in the county–thanks to Act 13.

But the story ends badly, because quite likely starting next year, all of that impact fee money will disappear (see PA Supreme Court Won’t Reconsider Act 13, Impact Fee Now in Doubt). There will be no more impact fee money because seven townships in PA got their knickers in a twist, insisting their own layman zoning regulations were better than a set of statewide, uniform regulations designed by geologists and experts. So the seven petulant towns sued to toss out large portions of the Act 13 law, and it now looks like the impact fee will be tossed out too….
Read More “Happy Story Ends Badly Because of 7 PA Towns”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Mass. Anti-Drillers Finally Wake Up, Begin Opposing TGP Project
February 27, 2014February 27, 2014

About a month ago MDN noted, with some shock, that townships across Massachusetts were reacting to overtures by Kinder Morgan to expand the Tennessee Gas Pipeline across the state (to bring in more abundant, cheap Marcellus Shale gas) with reasonableness and an open mind (see Reaction to TGP’s Planned Pipeline Across Massachusetts). We always thought Massachusetts residents as a whole were slightly left of Vlad Putin. But we were (happily) wrong! We observed it’s funny how a 10x price jump in natural gas had turned New Englanders into a more reasoned, considered bunch.

However, some of the nutty bugs have now come crawling out of the woodwork to oppose the pipeline because it will bring that filthy, nasty “fracked” natural gas into the state. It just took them a little longer to come out of their fugue and get organized, but now they have–at least a small handful of them…
Read More “Mass. Anti-Drillers Finally Wake Up, Begin Opposing TGP Project”
Braskem | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Odebrecht | Processing Plants | Research | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wood County

Economist Releases Report on WV Cracker Plant’s Economic Impact
February 26, 2014February 26, 2014

West Virginia’s coming ethane cracker plant continues to generate positive economic news. Yesterday the former director of West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research and professor emeritus at WVU, Tom Witt, released a study he conducted on behalf of Braskem America (i.e. Odebrecht, the company building the cracker). The new study details specifics for how many jobs and how much money the proposed cracker and associated petrochemical plants will generate. And it’s truly astonishing.

Here’s an overview of the economic miracle about to hit WV (and beyond)…
Read More “Economist Releases Report on WV Cracker Plant’s Economic Impact”
Accidents | Chevron | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Chevron Well Fire Update: 2nd Well Capped, Work on 7 Wells Stopped
February 26, 2014February 26, 2014

We’ve been monitoring the tragic well fire in Greene County, PA that claimed the life of one contract worker. On Sunday afternoon Chevron reports the original well to explode and catch fire, the Lanco 7H, was capped (see Greene County Chevron Well Fire: 7H Well Capped, 6H in Few Days). Chevron now reports the second well to catch fire from the first, the Lanco 6H, is also capped as of yesterday afternoon (see the announcement below). What we somehow missed in the coverage was the fallout from the fire. Last week the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection asked Chevron to suspend drilling operations at other wells in the area pending a review. Chevron responded they had already stopped drilling operations at 7 nearby wells.

Here’s the latest official announcement from Chevron (that does not mention shutting down operations on other wells), along with a story from last week about the DEP’s tete-a-tete with Chevron:
Read More “Chevron Well Fire Update: 2nd Well Capped, Work on 7 Wells Stopped”
Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Public Opinion | Research | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Survey Says! OU Survey of Local OH Officials on Utica’s Impacts
February 26, 2014February 26, 2014

Two days ago the Ohio University Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs released the findings of its much anticipated Ohio Shale Development Community Impact Survey. During summer of 2013, the Voinovich School distributed more than 500 surveys to local elected officials across 17 counties experiencing the majority of shale activity and development in Ohio. The survey assesses the impact of shale development within 17 counties in eastern Ohio, with a focus on population, housing, public safety, infrastructure, environment, local employment, area business activity, and economic development. Some 200 of those surveys were returned and the data tabulated.

What did the survey find? Ohio’s local elected officials say Utica Shale drilling has caused an marked increase in jobs and the occupancy rate at hotels. But Utica drilling has also caused some pollution issues and a big increase in the demand for water supplies. This is a very interesting study (full copy embedded below)…
Read More “Survey Says! OU Survey of Local OH Officials on Utica’s Impacts”