Ohio Issues New Form Landmen Must have Landowners Sign & Return
You may recall news from last year that an Ohio Supreme Court ruling requires landmen to have a real estate license in order to get paid–IF they are compensated via a commission and/or royalties for the deals they broker (see OH Supreme Court Rules Independent Landmen Need Real Estate License). However, IF a landman is paid a “day rate,” (flat rate by the day) or if the landman is an employee of the drilling company–someone whose compensation is not directly tied to the number and value of deals–that landman does not need a real estate license. But they do need landowners to fill out a new form and sign it in six places.
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Two of the eight Pennsylvania House bills that are part of an initiative called Energize PA will be considered and debated before the PA House State Government Committee on September 17. Both bills, House Bill (HB) 1106 and 1107, are aimed at streamlining and speeding up the permitting process at the semi-dysfunctional Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). Enviro-leftists are screaming–they don’t want the dysfunction to stop. Having shale permits issued more quickly is not in their game plan.
Well, score a victory for the forces of evil. Sometimes Darth Vader wins–that’s life. Yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that PennEast Pipeline cannot use the power of eminent domain to “condemn” (take possession of) land that is owned or otherwise controlled by the State of New Jersey because it violates the Eleventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. According to the judges, the Eleventh Amendment says states have sovereign immunity from such actions.
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), which once supported (in court) Sunoco Logistics Partners method of requesting permits for the Marcus Hook facility (near Philadelphia), has just flip flopped and change sides, now siding against Sunoco and the permits the DEP itself issued for the Marcus Hook facility. DEP is now siding with the radical Clean Air Council demanding that all of the work at the Marcus Hook facility be done under a single emissions permit, not separate permits.
Just prior to taking a long Labor Day holiday weekend, MDN brought you news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has overruled New York State to allow the Constitution Pipeline to move forward with construction (see
Taking a chapter from the corrupt New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (a political tool of NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo), the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP) is trying to run out the clock on the PennEast Pipeline by telling the project that its latest (now second) application for a federal “401” water crossing permit is “incomplete” and therefore they won’t even consider it. It’s a political move by a corrupt state agency–done at the request of Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy.
Last week CNN inflicted a seven-hour “town hall” discussion with Democrat presidential candidates about so-called climate change (man-made global warming) on its handful of viewers. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson called it an
This story is befuddling–we’re still trying to wrap our heads around it. The North Carolina Utilities Commission has filed a protest with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) objecting to Williams’ Leidy South expansion project, a project that is being built 100% in Pennsylvania! Why are NC regulators objecting to work being done in another state 500 hundred miles away?
MDN first told you about plans to build the Chickahominy Power Station, a 1,650 megawatt state-of-the-art natural gas-fired power plant, in June 2018 (see 
You can’t say we didn’t see this one coming. Last week the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruled that the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) took too long to deny a federal Clean Water Act “Section 401” water crossing permit for the Williams Constitution Pipeline project (see 
A brief pause to enjoy an unqualified victory over the wackadoodles at the litigious New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club. Williams has just placed into service its Rivervale South to Market Project in New Jersey, now flowing enough fracked Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale gas to service an extra 1 million homes in the northeastern U.S. The Clubbers opposed the project and ultimately couldn’t do a thing to stop it.
In October 2016, Dominion announced a new pipeline project called Eastern Market Access Project (see