PA DEP: Clay Material Near Marsh Creek State Park NOT Drilling Mud
Never jump to conclusions. It can come back to bite you. Even MDN is sometimes (rarely, but sometimes) guilty of violating that truism. Last week, we told you that drilling mud left in the ground from Energy Transfer’s Mariner East Pipeline project work near Marsh Creek State Park (Chester County, PA) had, more than three years after the work was completed, begun to leak out of the ground once again (see More Drilling Mud Surfaces Near Marsh Creek State Park in PA). Energy Transfer (Sunoco Pipeline) swung into action to clean up the new “spill,” and the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) investigated. Guess what? After testing the substance, the DEP found it was not actually bentonite (drilling mud) after all but was “naturally occurring” clay.
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The radicalized environmental left does itself no favors with its antics and histrionics aimed at bullying public officials. Case in point: On Wednesday, Feb. 21, a small group of activists (six or seven) with Third Act Virginia were removed from Attorney General Jason Miyares’ office in Richmond after staging a sit-in. The wackos were there to deliver a petition to the AG demanding that he shut down work on the final 1% of Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). The AG and his staff refused to meet with the wackos, so they pitched a fit like two-year-olds and had to be removed.
The Bidenistas at the EPA announced last night the agency will delay, until AFTER the November election, implementing harsh new regulations aimed at closing down gas-fired power plants across the country. The unstated purpose is to remove this highly unpopular edict as a campaign issue so the bag of bones known as Joementia can try to get himself reelected. We suppose this is good news, as it means these regs will likely never get implemented for existing power plants — they will certainly be dropped in a DJT administration. Still, the threat looms over the industry, and nobody will build a new plant under these harsh regulations, which WILL apply to any new gas-fired power plant project effective immediately. So all work on new plants will stop forthwith. That’s the downside to the announcement.
Yesterday, the Biden White House announced it is nominating three new members to join the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). There are supposed to be five commissioners, although the commission can still function with as few as three. Currently, there are three (two Democrats, one Republican), with one of the Dems, radical Allison Clements, leaving at the end of her term in June. Two active commissioners are not enough for a quorum to vote on important matters. So finally, after months and months of stalling, Joementia got around to nominating some new blood — two Dems and one Republican.
Penneco Environmental Solutions wants to build a second wastewater injection well in Plum Borough (Allegheny County), PA, next to an existing injection well. Penneco’s first wastewater injection well in Plum finally opened for business in mid-2021, overcoming all sorts of smears, slanders, and lawsuits by the enviro-left (see 
The U.S. benchmark Henry Hub daily natural gas price averaged $1.50 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on February 20, 2024, the lowest price in inflation-adjusted dollars since “at least” 1997. In fact, when you look at the ten lowest daily Henry Hub natgas spot prices since Jan. 1, 1997, six of the ten lowest prices were in February 2024. The other four were in 2020, as the pandemic was taking hold. Amid this depressing news, there is a silver lining…
Earlier this month, MDN told you about Pennsylvania’s two U.S. Senators, John Fetterman and Bob Casey, and their wishy-washy, mild criticism of Joe Biden’s decision to “pause” any new LNG export permits (see 
A coalition of major oil companies is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on a key aspect of numerous ongoing nationwide lawsuits filed by cities, counties, and states. The lawsuits by multiple “blue” states and cities accuse Big Oil companies of deceiving the public about their role in causing mythical manmade global warming. The companies being targeted are the biggest of the big, with deep pockets. It’s nothing more than elaborate shakedown. Sunoco, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Marathon Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, and others have asked the Supremes to intervene in a climate case filed against them by the City and County of Honolulu. The case serves as an important precedent for a number of other cases.
Charlie Angus, an MP (Member of Parliament) in Canada, belongs to the country’s radical left NDP, or New Democratic Party. He represents the Timmins—James Bay area in Ontario. Angus recently introduced a bill, C-372, also known as the Fossil Fuel Advertising Act. The bill is as anti-free speech as anything you’ll find in Communist Russia or North Korea. C-372 says if you, as an individual, speak well of the oil industry, doing so would carry a summary conviction and a fine of up to $500,000. If you work for an oil company and stick up for your industry, the punishment could be as strict as two years in jail or a fine of $1,000,000. It’s pure insanity.
West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore has sent notices to six additional financial institutions warning them of potential inclusion on the state’s Restricted Financial Institution List (can’t do business with the state) after his office made an initial determination that the institutions appear to be engaged in boycotts of fossil fuel companies as defined under state law. This is not the first time Moore has put Big Banks on the blacklist (see 
Epsilon Energy, a relatively small company, used to concentrate most of its effort on developing Marcellus Shale wells. However, over the past year and a half, the company has expanded into other plays and now owns assets in the Anadarko (Oklahoma and Texas) and the Permian (Texas and New Mexico). Epsilon typically does not do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy (in the Marcellus), and the other company typically does the drilling. Yesterday Epsilon announced closing on another Permian Basin acquisition.
Atlas Energy Solutions Inc. entered into a definitive agreement with Hi Crush Inc. to acquire all of Hi-Crush’s Permian Basin proppant production assets and the company’s North American logistics operations in a transaction valued at $450 million. Although Atlas focuses solely on the Permian, Hi-Crush sells proppant to multiple basins, including deals with drillers in the Marcellus/Utica. The combination of both companies into one new company will create the largest frac sand producer in the U.S.
The American Petroleum Institute (API), which is no friend of independent shale drillers, together with six other O&G groups, filed an application for rehearing on the Dept. of Energy’s (DOE) indefinite pause on new and pending liquefied natural gas (LNG) permit approvals for non-FTA countries. The application for rehearing is a legal filing, the first stop on the way to a full-blown court case. The filing asks the DOE to reconsider and stop its pause on advancing requests to export LNG. If the DOE denies the rehearing request, the Bidenistas can expect to be sued in federal court to overturn the pause.
Swampy leftists in the Democrat Party view the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as their own personal playground — a birthright. If a Republican takes the White House, as Donald Trump did in 2017, and sets about to scale back some of the extremist policies implemented by previous presidents like Lord Obama, the lefties go berserk (see