Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA
PA DEP Blocks Revolution Pipe Restart Even Though Repair is Done
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) continues to block Energy Transfer’s Revolution Pipeline gathering system in western PA from restarting. In September the DEP finally, after two years, gave ET permission to fix problems that caused the pipeline to explode. Even though ET has fixed the original site of the explosion, the DEP says there are other areas of concern and forbids certain sections of the pipeline from restarting, until…
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The Enverus U.S. rig count rose by a whopping 20 to 379 over the past week. Prior to that, the count rose by 11, 11, and 13 for each of the three weeks prior, respectively. That’s up 55 rigs over the past month! The Marcellus and Utica each remained constant last week, not adding and not dropping. The Marcellus stands at 27 rigs, and the Utica at 6.
A cool new initiative called 
Yesterday Pittsburgh Business Times‘ ace reporter Paul Gough got EQT CEO Toby Rice to open up and talk about the company’s recently announced deal to buy Chevron’s considerable Marcellus/Utica assets (see 
On Tuesday, Talen Energy Corp., under extreme litigation pressure from the odious Sierra Club, announced it will eliminate the use of coal at all of the company’s wholly-owned facilities. Back in 2017 MDN brought you the news that Talen’s coal-fired Brunner Island Power Plant, located in York County, PA, is investing $100 million to retrofit the plant so it can burn 100% Marcellus Shale gas by 2028 (see 
Eureka Resources, which operates three frack wastewater treatment facilities in the Marcellus Shale, is doing really cool stuff. In October 2019 the company began extracting lithium from Marcellus wastewater at one of its plants in Bradford County, PA (see 
According to the president and CEO of BP Energy, one of BP’s largest North American subsidiaries, “Demand for gas to be liquefied and exported from the US has recovered beyond pre-pandemic levels to nearly its maximum capacity.” Whoa, who knew? We are far from being over and done with the COVID-19 pandemic, yet LNG demand is already back and has exceeded demand from before the pandemic. This is seriously good news for the Marcellus/Utica and the export of our molecules.
Our worst fears have been realized. The federal EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is about to be overrun with Communists and leftists. On Tuesday the Harris/Biden campaign, even though it hasn’t actually won anything yet, announced various people to head up its “transition” (i.e. power grab). Biden has selected the radicalized Patrice Simms from Earthjustice to head up the EPA transition. A COMPLETE disaster. You don’t get any more radical. Still glad you voted for Biden? We’re praying the courts will honor Trump’s request to count only legal ballots and that he remains in power.
This has been going on for more than a year. Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 303-mile pipeline from West Virginia to southern Virginia, has not been able to finish a project that is now 92% in the ground and complete because of repeated lawsuits by the Sierra Club and colluding leftist Democrat judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The delays are costing MVP $20 million per month! Yesterday the clowns did it yet again. They blocked a Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP12) that was reissued by the Army Corps of Engineers after being reworked because of an earlier rejection by the same court. NWP12 would allow the pipeline to cross creeks and rivers and wetlands.
We’ve been tracking the daily price of the NYMEX December futures contract at the South Louisiana Henry Hub on and off for the past few months. Yesterday it closed down again, at $2.86/Mcf (or MMBtu). However, the “spot price” for gas–actual physical gas bought and sold at various trading points along pipelines–has all but crashed and burned in the Marcellus/Utica. It’s bad. Like, historic record low bad.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been declared the victors of the election (prematurely) by the Democrat mainstream media. President Trump is rightly challenging massive voter fraud and “software glitches” in vote tabulating software used in 28 states (which you won’t read about in Democrat media). So it’s not over yet. However, let’s assume Biden/Harris seize power and occupy the White House, which seems the likely outcome. Their win means the decimation of the shale oil and gas industry in this country. Oil and gas are the biggest losers. This is what you’ve voted for, America. We hope you “enjoy” the result.
That didn’t take long. Following the Democrat media’s declaration Biden won (even though the election has not yet been certified), Biden released a new energy “transition” plan–this morning. In the plan, Biden calls for cutting natural gas usage nationwide by electrifying everything and eliminating all “non-carbon” power production. His minions are gushing about how Biden will transform the EPA and other federal agencies away from “dirty” fossil fuels and to “clean energy.” Let the carnage begin.
Radical anti-fossil fuel groups have not given up hope they can somehow, at the last minute, block the $10 billion Shell ethane cracker plant (about a year from being completed) from ever starting up. Perhaps Biden’s “victory” has given them a little boost of irrational exuberance? In 2015 the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued an air permit for the cracker plant. Shell needs to tweak the permit with new information. Antis are asking PA to deny the new tweaks, claiming Shell wants to pollute the region even more. Shell says the tweaks reflect new realities, including LOWER emissions.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and his Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) continue to push a plan that will raise Pennsylvania residents’ electric rates by 50% or more, a carbon tax plan called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The DEP will conduct 10 three-hour virtual public hearings between Dec. 8 and 14. There will be no in-person hearings due to concerns over COVID-19.