PA DEP Still Figuring Out How (or If) It Can Regulate Gas Storage
Last November, one of the ten natural gas storage wells at the Equitrans Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County (in Pennsylvania) began to leak. The well leaked roughly 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of gas into the atmosphere (see Equitrans Gas Storage Well in Cambria County, PA is Leaking). It took two weeks (14 days) for the leak to get fixed, after it had leaked roughly 1.4 billion cubic feet into the air (see Storage Well Leak Fix in Cambria County Failed, Leaked 1.4 Bcf). Both the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) investigated (see Feds Investigate Equitrans Storage Well Leak in Cambria County, PA). The PA DEP is still trying to figure out what role it can legally play in that disaster, and what role it can play in the regulation of similar storage fields (some 50 of them) across the state.
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We read with some amusement a column by the CEO of Qamar Energy (an OPEC-tied consultancy based in Dubai, UAE) that says yep, American shale oil output has hit its zenith. It’s all downhill from here. The Big Oil companies have taken over all of the good shale assets in the States and they plan to drill less in places like the Permian Basin (in West Texas and eastern New Mexico). This latest prediction makes us laugh out loud. How many times before have we heard the same thing uttered from noobs, both domestic and (in this case) foreign. They consistently underestimate American ingenuity. Just when everyone predicts “peak oil” and declares shale production is all over, a new discovery is made. A new piece of technology is introduced. A new shale layer is explored. A new technique is adopted. This is the American way. And it confounds the “experts” every single time. Such is the power of free enterprise and capitalism.
Yesterday the Bidenistas at the Dept. of (In)Justice (DOJ) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a “settlement” (i.e. bullying) with three pipeline companies–Williams, MPLX, and Kerr-McGee Gathering. The settlement requires the three to pay a combined $9.25 million in civil penalties and make improvements at 25 gas processing plants and 91 compressor stations in 12 states, including Ohio and West Virginia, worth another $16 million. The two federal agencies claimed the pipeline companies were violating federal and state clean air laws related to leak detection and repair (LDAR) requirements for natural gas processing plants at various facilities they own and operate across the country.
We appear to finally be at the end of an eight-year road with respect to new shale drilling regulations in Pennsylvania adopted back in 2016. Two days ago, the PA Supreme Court overturned a Commonwealth Court decision that blocked the Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) ability to control shale drilling near schools and public playgrounds. In October 2016, after five years in the making, PA adopted new shale drilling regulations called Chapter 78 (see 
We sometimes ponder (and despair) over this question: Does the truth matter anymore? Do people actually care whether or not they are being lied to–by the government, by the media, by so-called experts? The trigger for our dark reflection on metaphysics comes from the news that the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) yesterday approved, by a vote of 3 to 2, a new regulation controlling volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and by extension, methane emissions, for Pennsylvania’s conventional oil and gas drillers. How is that news event related to truth and lies? We will explain.
Some 16 so-called “climate activists” (i.e., far-left extremists) were arrested Wednesday at the headquarters of investment giant Vanguard in Chester County, PA (near Philadelphia) for blocking the entrance to the facility. They were there to pressure and bully Vanguard to stop investing in anything remotely connected to fossil energy. Earth Quaker Action Team, a group of “non-violent” Quakers and “people of diverse beliefs” based in Philly, was behind the action.
For years, going back to the time when MDN editor Jim Willis worked in Washington, D.C. during his youth (mid-1980s), the joke circulating around D.C. was, “The most dangerous place to be in Washington is between Chuck Schumer and a camera.” And that was back when Chuck was just a lowly Congressman! These days, the most dangerous place to be anywhere in the country is between an anti-fossil fuel zealot and a microphone at a public hearing. Antis DEMAND to have access to microphones anywhere and everywhere in order to spew their fossil fuel hate speech. And God help you if you deny them that “right”! Antis got denied yesterday in Philadelphia, and they are hopping mad about it.
Tomorrow is the annual day when environmental wackos demand fealty to Mother Earth. You WILL bow down and worship the creation (instead of the Creator), or risk being excommunicated from polite company. We thumb our noses at Earth Day worshipers and declare our love for the miracle of fossil energy on this Earth Day. We invite you to join us in celebrating the greatest invention of mankind–fossil fuels.
One of the world’s largest chemical companies, the Chemours Company (which you used to know as DuPont), along with TC Energy (which you used to know as TransCanada), announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the potential development of two electrolysis-based hydrogen production facilities at or near Chemours’ Washington Works and Belle manufacturing sites in West Virginia. Both companies are part of the effort to attract a hydrogen hub to West Virginia called Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2). The financial terms of the Chemours/TC Energy deal were not disclosed.
According to data recently compiled and shared by the Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA), during 2021 (the most recent year available), the oil and gas industry in Ohio paid a cumulative $57.6 million in ad valorem property taxes to the state. That is separate from a severance tax also paid by drillers in the Buckeye State. The O&G industry not only provides millions in tax revenue, but it also employs “more than 200,000” people in Ohio, and of course, all of those workers pay state income tax too. The economic impact of oil and gas (largely shale) in Ohio is enormous.
Lately, we keep reading predictions that the price of natural gas, while in the basement right now (low $2 range), will soon begin to go higher. And the price will stay higher. So say some experts (see our recent stories, 
Apart from the obvious benefits rural landowners (farmers) receive when leasing their land for shale gas drilling, did you know that modern agriculture, those same farmers, could not exist without natural gas? U.S. agriculture is a MAJOR part of the U.S. economy, creating 17.2 million jobs (5 million direct jobs) and contributing a mind-blowing $1.75 trillion to our country’s GDP (gross domestic product). The agricultural sector accounts for nearly 15% of U.S. commercial and industrial natural gas demand. Key feedstocks like ammonia, which is used to make nitrogenous fertilizer, are produced from natural gas. America’s farms and ranches have been key beneficiaries of the growth in U.S. natural gas production.
Some 23 extremist so-called environmental groups from Pennsylvania (and beyond) sent a letter to federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan asking him to rachet up federal regulations to be so extreme it forces the remaining electric power plants in PA that use coal and natural gas to close down. The extremist groups include PennFuture (headed by former PA Dept. of Environmental Protection Secretary Pat McDonnell), the so-called Clean Air Council (funded by the Haas and Heinz families), and the Philadelphia Solar Energy Association.