Commonwealth Court Judge Bows to Fractivist Pressure to Recuse
In May 2017, Murrysville Township (Westmoreland County) struck a zoning compromise with local drillers on the distance of setbacks (see Murrysville, PA Drilling Ordinance – Anatomy of a Compromise). The far-too-restrictive ordinance (in our opinion) allows drilling wells on only 5% of the land in the town. That wasn’t good enough for local antis who want to block all shale drilling. Antis appealed the ordinance and a county judge ruled against them and in favor of the town in May 2020 (see SWPA Judge Rejects Anti Lawsuit re Murrysville Fracking Ordinance).
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On June 3 we published a post posing the question of whether or not the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would delay the already-years-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) for yet another year (see 
Earlier this month MDN told you that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), under the direction of Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick, had hit the pause button on finishing up final approvals so the agency can take the next six months to complete full environmental impact statements (EIS’s), gauging whether or not five pipeline projects will cause too much mythical, man-made global warming (see 
Politicians derive their power from touching *your* money. They love to take money out of one of your pockets, handle it (siphon some of it off for themselves and their favorite cronies), and then put some (not all) of it back into another of your pockets–all while telling you that you should enjoy the violation you’ve just received. This is the elaborate hoax Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and those who want to slap an insane, regressive carbon tax on all Pennsylvanians are attempting with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)–a carbon tax aimed at eliminating coal-fired power plants and vastly reducing the number of Marcellus-fired power plants.
As we have pointed out more than a few times, one of the biggest problems we have with so-called ESG (environment, social, governance) programs lauded by the oil and gas industry, including those in the Marcellus/Utica, is the lack of an objective standard. Anyone can define ESG any way they want. In fact, last week we published an article in which the president at LNG Europe Institute for Methane Fuels (based in Austria) said, “ESG is an utter waste of space and money to provide a bunch of expensive consultants with ‘good for nothing’ jobs and also to provide cover for managers of mainly public companies” (see 
How’s this for serendipity? We were just thinking about the latest violation of expectations by PTT Global Chemical. In February the company adamantly said a final investment decision (FID) to build the $10 billion ethane cracker plant project in Belmont County, OH would happen by “middle of 2021” (see 
The states that produce Marcellus and Utica Shale are ensuring no rogue local municipalities will get it into their heads to ban the use of natural gas like some municipalities in left-leaning states including California and New York. Both Pennsylvania and Ohio have bills that would “ban bans” of natural gas (see 
“I’m greener than you!” … “No, I’M greener than YOU!!” So we imagine the backroom squabbling that’s going on among Marcellus/Utica drillers as we watch companies engage in a form of brinksmanship for how clean and green their natural gas is versus a competitor’s. EQT announced that in addition to the myriad of environmental programs they already belong to, they’ve joined a United Nations program to further prove their commitment to reduce global warming (see today’s related post). Not to be outdone, Southwestern Energy stepped up its commitment to a program it first joined in 2018 to certify some of its production as responsibly developed. Now ALL of Southwestern’s M-U gas will get the TrustWell certification.
EQT continues to fall all over itself in its efforts to prove the natural gas it extracts from Mom Earth is environmentally friendly and safe and good and yummy and worthy and… We’ve lost track of how many certification programs the company has joined–at least four prior to yesterday. The latest (fifth?) program EQT has joined is the United Nations’ Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s Oil & Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP 2.0).
The West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection (WV DEP) is moving forward with its constitutional duty to evaluate whether or not the state should issue a federal Clean Water Act permit allowing Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to finish crossing water bodies it hasn’t already crossed under a previous permit (which was overturned by the lefties of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit). WV DEP will hold an online, virtual hearing tonight at 6 pm to accept comments from the public.
Last week CenterPoint Energy filed a request with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) to replace portions of its coal-fired generation fleet with two natural gas combustion turbines. The two units would provide a combined 460 megawatts (MW) of electricity as a backup to CenterPoint’s wind, solar, and battery storage. The plants would not operate continuously (which is a shame). Where will the gas come from to feed these new gas-fired plants?
In March we told you about House of Representatives (HR) Bill 1512, the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s Future Act (or CLEAN Future Act). The bill gives vast powers to the unelected bureaucrats at the EPA to set new regulatory demands before permits can be approved for facilities that produce plastics or the raw materials used to produce plastics, such as ethylene or propylene (see 
In May MDN brought you the news that landowner Gateway Royalty was sounding the alarm over a new bill quickly advancing in the Ohio legislature. House Bill (HB) 152 would use forced pooling if 65% of a proposed unit’s landowners are leased (too low a bar) and also would force the landowner to accept a 12.5% royalty and force them to accept post-production deductions with royalties in some cases potentially going down to nothing (see 
What a major disappointment the Joe Biden administration has been for the country as a whole, and the oil and gas industry in particular. The Biden administration is packed with far-left socialists. The Dept. of Energy is the latest repository. A few days ago DOE announced another round of appointments to important positions within the agency. Most of them have zero experience in the energy industry. Most of them are political operatives (i.e. hacks) who ran the Biden campaign in various states during last year’s election. It’s political patronage–nothing new about that (happens on both sides of the aisle). The problem is the great damage this bunch will do to oil and gas during their hopefully brief tenure.
Last night the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) held a virtual hearing on a compromise plan between Energy Transfer/Sunoco Logistics and the DEP to allow ET/Sunoco to complete construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project in the Marsh Creek State Park area (Chester County) where there have been some “issues” that halted work in the area. Given the buildup by the anti-fossil fuel left to turn out and mouth off at the hearing, we’re struck that (so far) it is radio silence in mainstream media about the hearing. We can’t find a single story about the hearing. We do, however, have a report on more than two dozen pro-pipeline speakers who turned out for the virtual hearing. Perhaps that’s why the media is silent?