Former PA DEP Sec. Krancer Defects to Dark Side, Favors Carbon Tax
Some days it’s tough. You try to keep your head held high, but then you read of someone you (used to) highly respect, someone like former Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, Mike Krancer, who now supports Pennsylvania being forced to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which is nothing more than an obscene carbon tax that would force gas-fired power plants out of existence. Krancer bases his support on the flimsiest of excuses: That the tax revenues raised by RGGI (coming out of the pockets of ALL Pennsylvanians) will help plug a few more of the hundreds of thousands of old/abandoned conventional oil and gas wells throughout the state. Really Mike?
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The vicious, relentless attacks on our freedoms and liberties in New York State continue. We can’t even catch our breath with the assaults coming so fast and furious. The latest salvo is by NY State Sen. Jessica Ramos (Democrat, East Elmhurst) who has proposed the Clean Futures Act (S.5939) which would not only ban the permitting and building of new natural gas-fired power plants throughout the state, it would also ban “the permitting of all new major facilities that burn fossil fuels, not just those that sell power to the energy grid.” In other words, any large office building, factory, etc. that gets built would not be able to heat with natural gas or fuel oil. New York is already closed for business, can you imagine the wholesale flight from the state should this Communist law get passed?
The Enverus U.S. rig count continues to climb (a good sign). For the week ending March 31, the U.S. rig count climbed another 6 active rigs to 519. The oil-focused Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale each added four new rigs. The Marcellus stayed even at 33 active rigs, and the Ohio Utica stayed even at 12 active rigs (although the Marcellus dry gas lost a rig and Marcellus wet picked up a rig). The other major shale gas play, the Haynesville, picked up a rig and now operates 48 active rigs.
This is how stupid liberals are: They think banning fossil fuels, like natural gas, will lead to less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It doesn’t. Citywide (and soon statewide) bans preventing the use of natural gas for cooking and home heating actually force the use of *more* natural gas, not less. We explain how and why below.
According to S&P Global Platts, natural gas production from the Marcellus/Utica in 1Q21 is up nearly 1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), now averaging 33.2 Bcf/d. That’s an increase of 2.8% compared with 1Q20. The problem is the interstate transmission pipelines flowing M-U gas are nearly full and the increase in production means we are beginning to see too much natgas piling up, leading to lower spot prices here in the northeast. However, not all sub-regions in the M-U are seeing an uptick in production.
Republican U.S. Senators (at least a few) have noticed the alarming situation at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) under new Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Sen. John Barrasso is questioning FERC over its recent decision to reconsider whether or not the Weymouth, Mass. compressor station should have been approved. That’s after the station has been up and running with no problems. It is not right for a new administration to reopen an already-approved (under a different administration) project and threaten to cancel it. It’s not fair nor right in anybody’s book. It’s lawless. Sen. Barrasso tells FERC it has some splainin’ to do. 
In February Chesapeake Energy finally emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy shedding $7.8 billion worth of debt (see 
Joe Biden visited Pittsburgh yesterday to make a major policy announcement. Fortunately, he was lucid enough to actually know which city he was in! Biden unveiled a $2 trillion “American Jobs Plan” which raises corporate and individual tax income rates. It is half of his total package (another plan with another $2 trillion is coming in a few weeks). The Jobs Plan is supposed to be a plan to rebuild roads and bridges and other infrastructure. The Jobs Plan is misnamed. Much of the money has nothing to do with infrastructure and jobs. Instead, it’s the Green New Deal under another name, targeting the elimination of fossil energy in the name of saving the planet.
Epsilon Energy concentrates most of its effort on the Marcellus in Susquehanna County, PA. Epsilon doesn’t typically do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy, and the other company typically does the drilling. Epsilon, according to its website, owns ~4,000 net acres in the PA Marcellus. Epsilon sued Chesapeake Energy earlier this month over lack of access to drill wells on acreage Chesapeake says it doesn’t want to drill. A Texas bankruptcy court judge has tossed Epsilon’s lawsuit. Looks like bankruptcy is a “get out of your contracts for free” card for Chesapeake.
Shale and conventional oil and gas drillers in West Virginia listen up: If you file for a modification to a previously filed permit request, it’s going to cost you $2,500. Currently, it costs nothing. Two weeks ago we told you about Senate Bill (SB) 404 (see 
Stiff opposition from officials in Marcellus/Utica-producing counties in West Virginia has flared up over House Bill (HB) 2581 (see 
For years PA’s small, independent conventional oil and gas drillers have objected to the one-size-fits-all regulations concocted by the Wolf DEP that applies the same regulations to small conventional drillers as those used for big shale drillers. The two types of drilling are apples and oranges. Making small conventional drillers jump through the same hoops as big shale drillers will bankrupt many of the smaller companies. As in previous years, a bill will soon be introduced to separate the regulations for the two…
Elon Musk is like a god to the wacko environmental movement. For those who don’t know, Musk founded PayPal in 1999. He then founded SpaceX in 2002 and Tesla Motors in 2003. Tesla manufactures electric-only cars. Musk became a multimillionaire in his late 20s when he sold his start-up company, Zip2, to a division of Compaq Computers. In January 2021, Musk reportedly surpassed Jeff Bezos as the wealthiest man in the world. But some of the bloom is coming off the rose of Elon Musk–at least for woke leftists. You see, Elon has a nasty natural gas habit. The god has fallen…
Hey, it’s that time of year when thoughts turn to the events of some 2,000 years ago and a Jewish rabbi named Jesus who was raised from the dead. Although nowhere near as world-changing as that event, we have another rise-from-the-dead situation: Williams’ Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project. We told you in May of last year after the corrupt Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, and Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey refused to grant permits to build NESE, that Williams had walked away form the project (see 
The Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is purposefully dragging its feet in an attempt to derail Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline project. DEQ is telling the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that it will take the rest of this year to review and plan for roughly 120 stream crossings in the state, requesting a time extension of at least six months to do so. If the Army Corps (now controlled by Joe Biden) agrees to DEQ’s request, there is no way MVP, currently 92% complete, can reach 100% completion by the end of this year.
Eureka Resources currently operates three frack wastewater treatment facilities in the Marcellus Shale, two in Williamsport (Lycoming County), PA (where the company is headquartered), and one in Wysox (Bradford County), PA. In October 2019 the company began extracting lithium from Marcellus wastewater at its Wysox facility (see