Radical PA Green Group Sues State to Block State Land Drilling
In June 2017, the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) won a case at the PA Supreme Court by the skin of their teeth (see PA Supreme Court Hands Antis Partial Victory re State Land Drilling). The case dealt with the narrow issue of how PA can spend revenue raised from drilling for oil and gas under state-owned land. A divided court ruled that money from royalties (not lease signing bonuses) must be used only for “environmental” purposes. Certain aspects of that case were referred back to the lower Commonwealth Court where it’s still being litigated. Not happy with that victory, the radicals at the PEDF have just filed a new lawsuit that aims to permanently block all drilling on state-owned land by (ab)using the state Environmental Rights Amendment (ERA).
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The smart folks at IHS Markit, a global analytics company that tracks data in the oil and gas industry, are predicting a major slowdown in shale oil production in 2020, and essentially no growth in production for 2021. Although this prediction, based on evidence and the intuition of people who study this stuff is about shale oil, the prediction *does* relate to the Marcellus/Utica as well.
Consolidated Edison, the huge gas and electric utility that services much of New York City and its suburbs, recently said the company will cap its investment in the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. There is an amount beyond which they will not go. Con Ed is one of five investor/owners of MVP. The primary owner and builder of MVP is Equitrans (EQM Midstream Partners), the former EQT Midstream.
This is a huge disappointment. In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a precedent-setting decision that disallows PennEast Pipeline from using the federally-delegated power of eminent domain to cross properties either owned by, or with easements granted to, the state of New Jersey (see 
Yesterday MDN reported on Dominion Energy’s third quarter update from last Friday, a session in which CEO Tom Farrell commented the company’s commitment to building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) is “unwavering” (see 
For some time we have criticized the 100 year-old Jones Act that prevents LNG carriers built and/or crewed by other counties from transporting LNG from one U.S. port to another U.S. port (see 
Dominion Energy released their third quarter 2019 update late last week. The company reports earnings of $975 million ($1.17 per share), an increase of 14.2% from the previous year. Dominion, as you may know, is a huge company involved in not only the pipeline business, but the utility business. They generate and deliver electricity to millions of customers. They deliver natural gas to millions of customers. The key issue right now for us with regard to Dominion is the status of their Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project. CEO Tom Farrell says that ACP is still a go.
Before environmentalist wackos got really wacko in opposing *anything* remotely related to natural gas, including gas-fired powered plants, Competitive Power Ventures got their 680-megawatt CPV Valley Energy Center in Wawayanda (Orange County), NY approved and (eventually) built and online (see 
With friends like these, who needs enemies? Two utility companies–National Grid and Eversource, both operating in Massachusetts–are the primary customers for the gas that flows through the Spectra Energy/Enbridge Atlantic Bridge pipeline project. The last piece of that project is to build a compressor station in Weymouth, MA. National Grid and Eversource now say the Weymouth compressor is not necessary–they have enough gas without it. Thanks guys! You just screwed Enbridge royally.
Williams, one of the largest midstream (pipeline) companies in the U.S., released its third quarter update yesterday. The company has major operations in the northeast, including the Marcellus (mainly) and the Utica. Williams is the operator of the mighty Transco pipeline system that carries a significant amount of Marcellus gas south. The company wants to build a new 23-mile pipeline to the New York City/Long Island region, called the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline, which is currently being blocked by both New York and New Jersey. We have news from yesterday’s 3Q update on NESE, Transco and the Williams northeast PA gathering system.
Yesterday MDN brought you the news the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging whether or not the state Attorney General’s office has the right to use a consumer protection law to prosecute companies like Chesapeake Energy and Anadarko over royalty payment shenanigans (see 
Paul Driessen is the senior policy advisor for the 
In December 2015, Pennsylvania’s felony-indicted Attorney General, Kathleen Kane (who later was convicted and did jail time) brought a lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy and Anadarko accusing them of royalty fraud (see