Industrywide Issues

Berks County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Inergy | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | UGI Energy Services | WGL Holdings

Berks County Officials Think Commonwealth Pipeline Will Rise Again
May 1, 2013May 1, 2013

The Commonwealth Pipeline, a joint venture between Inergy, UGI and WGL Holdings, was suspended indefinitely just a few weeks ago (see PA’s Commonwealth Pipeline Project Suspended – Indefinitely). However, officials from Berks County, PA, in the southeastern part of the state and a county through which the Commonwealth Pipeline was slated to pass through, don’t buy it. They believe the project will come back to life and pass through their county, eventually…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Athens County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Wastewater

Athens Politicians Support Injection Well Ban for Frack Wastewater
May 1, 2013May 1, 2013

Although no Utica Shale permits have been issued for drilling in southeastern Ohio Athens County so far, the potential does exist (see Athens County, OH Upgraded to “Good” on ODNR Utica Map). Along with drilling comes wastewater. Many drillers recycle it, but some dispose of it via deep injection wells throughout Ohio. Athens County commissioners have voted to support a ban on all fracking wastewater disposal by injection wells.

Are the Athens commissioners trying to send a message to the drilling industry to stay away?…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

EPA Extends Deadline for Public Input on Fracking
May 1, 2013May 1, 2013

Yesterday, Apr. 30, was to be the final day for the general public to “submit data and scientific literature” to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assist the EPA with their multi-year study of fracking. However, the EPA posted a notice in yesterday’s Federal Register (see it embedded below) extending the deadline to Nov. 15. A final report from the EPA is due in 2014–no word if this extension will prompt a slippage in that date too.

Why the change in deadline?…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Anti-Fracking Group Ramps up the Propaganda Machine
May 1, 2013May 1, 2013

A highly misleading brochure full of half-truths and outright lies is being mailed to 84,000 households in the Southern Tier area of New York State by a small group called Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, in an attempt to scare residents and apply pressure to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The Southern Tier area includes counties like Broome, Chenango, Chemung, Tioga and Steuben that are most likely to see fracking if and when Cuomo ever gets off his rear-end.

Here, boys and girls, is a glittering example of anti-fracking, anti-capitalist propaganda:
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Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

No. of US Shale Wells Up 44% in 2011, Drilling Money Up 88%
May 1, 2013May 1, 2013

How much money was spent, and how many shale oil and gas wells were drilled in the U.S. in 2011 (the latest year with full statistics)? The American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s largest trade association, knows. And the numbers may surprise you…
Read More “No. of US Shale Wells Up 44% in 2011, Drilling Money Up 88%”
Crime | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Mahoning County | Ohio | Wastewater

Alleged New Case of Illegal Shale Waste Dumping in OH
May 1, 2013May 1, 2013

An Ohio company close to the Pennsylvania border has been accused of illegally accepting and disposing of (burying) drilling wastewater and drill cuttings. Since the landfill where the material is buried sits close to the Mahoning River, there is a concern that some nasty substances may have or are leaking into the river.

An alphabet soup of OH state and federal government agencies served Soil Remediation Inc. in Lowellville (Mahoning County), OH with a search warrant early last week…
Read More “Alleged New Case of Illegal Shale Waste Dumping in OH”
Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide PA

Did PBT “Badger” PA Gov Corbett on Shell Cracker Plant Date?
April 30, 2013April 30, 2013

Yesterday MDN told you about comments from PA Gov. Tom Corbett that seemed to indicate he’s changed his story about when a final final final decision may come from Shell about whether or not they will move forward with building an ethane cracker plant in Monaca, PA (see Corbett Story Changes: Decision on PA Cracker Plant Delayed Again). However, Corbett’s may not be the only story that got changed. According to a spokesman for the governor, the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Business Times “badgered” Corbett into forecasting the 2014 date when a decision may be made, and then shaded their coverage to make it seem as though Corbett has changed his story…

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Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Says Deal for Ethane Cracker Coming This Year
April 30, 2013April 30, 2013

The race to secure an ethane cracker between Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia continues. Last week, WV’s Secretary of Commerce, Keith Burdette, said he is “100% certain” that WV will have a deal for an ethane cracker plant signed sometime this year. Bluster or quiet confidence? We’d bet the later if we were betting…

MDN friends from the excellent Gas Business Briefing attended a conference last week in WV and filed this report:
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Accidents | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania General Energy

PA DEP Fines PGE for Spills, Discharges in Lycoming County
April 30, 2013April 30, 2013

The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fined Pennsylvania General Energy Co. $125,500 for two different sets of violations in Lycoming County, PA that occurred in 2011 and 2012. The fines were for three spills and for excessive sediment discharges into a local creek.

The details from the DEP:
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Beaver County | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide PA

Corbett Story Changes: Decision on PA Cracker Plant Delayed Again
April 29, 2013April 29, 2013

In what looks to be like more backpedaling, PA Gov. Tom Corbett told the Pittsburgh Business Times on Friday he now doesn’t expect a final decision on whether Shell will build a new $2 billion ethane cracker plant in Monaca, PA until 2014. Last December he said Shell needed another six months (until the end of June) for lawyers “dotting I’s and crossing T’s” (see Gov Tom Corbett: Shell Cracker Plant in PA Not “Off the Rails”). Now the story is, “I’ve always thought it would be early next year,” meaning 2014. Hmmm. Then why didn’t he say that last December?

From the Pittsburgh Business Times:

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Forced Pooling | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

Ohio Force Pooling Requests: 4 Granted, 5 Pending, 2 Other
April 29, 2013April 29, 2013

An extensive article on “unitization” (what MDN calls “forced pooling”) in Ohio appeared in the Sunday Youngstown Vindicator. The article gives a good overview of the history of unitization in Ohio, along with current requests pending with the ODNR.

The article begins this way:

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Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Ohio | Processing Plants | Tuscarawas County

New Processing/Fractionation Plant Coming to Tuscarawas County OH
April 29, 2013April 29, 2013

MDN first told you about a new natural gas processing and fractionation plant that may be coming to Tuscarawas County, OH back in early March (see Kinder Morgan to Build Processing & Fractionation Plants in OH?). Good news for Ohioans—Kinder Morgan has confirmed that the necessary EPA permits have been secured and once they have customers lined up, they plan to move forward with construction…

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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Ohio Moves One Step Closer to Quarterly O&G Production Reports
April 29, 2013April 29, 2013

It looks like Ohio may finally move from reporting oil and gas production every 12 months to every three months. A provision in the state budget (passed by the Ohio House nearly two weeks ago) will require drillers in Ohio to provide production numbers every three months. According to the head of Ohio’s Oil and Gas Resources division at the Dept. of Natural Resources, Rick Simmers, drillers have dropped their opposition to more frequent reporting…

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Crime | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines

Fired Pipeliner Sentenced to Year in Prison, Fined for Vandalism
April 29, 2013April 29, 2013

Henry Benton, a fired pipeline worker used a backhoe to intentionally damaged a buried pipeline in northern Lycoming County, PA on three separate occasions in June 2011. He recently plead guilty and has just been sentenced. Benton was ordered to pay $150,000 to the company installing the pipeline ($50K in damages from what he did). He’s also been sentenced to a year in prison:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research

House Members to EPA: More Details on Fracking Research or No $$
April 29, 2013April 29, 2013

On Friday, House Republicans at a hearing of the Energy and Environment subcommittee focusing on fracking raked the EPA representative over the coals because of the agency’s so-called research that has “misled the public” on the environmental and health risks of fracking. The House spent $45 million last year on said research, and the EPA is requesting another $38 million this year. House Republicans want to know more about that research before they’ll spend another dime on it…

Read More “House Members to EPA: More Details on Fracking Research or No $$”
Air Quality | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA Says Oops, Methane Leaks Much Less than We Thought
April 29, 2013April 29, 2013

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has “dramatically lowered” its estimate of just how much methane leaks into the atmosphere during the drilling/extracting process. The EPA considers methane a potent so-called greenhouse gas with the power to elevate the earth’s temperature.

The EPA data is “kind of an earthquake” in the drilling debate according to the Breakthrough Institute. Of course the unreasonable anti-drilling nutters like 350.org refuse to believe it, calling natural gas the energy equivalent of a “fad diet”…

Read More “EPA Says Oops, Methane Leaks Much Less than We Thought”