Quebec Government Publishes Draft Utica Fracking Regulations
Although the primary focus of Marcellus Drilling News has always been on Marcellus and Utica Shale gas (and oil) as found in the northeastern U.S., the Utica Shale also underlies part of Canada’s Quebec province. And from time to time we highlight news concerning the Utica in Canada. There hasn’t been much news to highlight over the years since Quebec has had a moratorium on fracking at least as long as New York’s moratorium (NY’s ban as of today has been 9 years, 1 month and 29 days). But as we reported back in December, something of a minor miracle happened–the Quebec National Assembly voted to pass Bill 106, ostensibly to support Quebec’s “clean power plan” (see Fracking in Canadian Utica Shale Takes Big Step Closer to Reality). The bill includes a section that “lays out a framework for oil and gas development” in Quebec. Fracking will not begin immediately. The bill does, however, mean that new regulations will come along in 2017 and after that, it’s an almost certainty that fracking will begin. Those draft rules have finally been released (full copy of the 266-page document below), nearly 10 months later. Questerre Energy, which owns Canadian Utica leases in Quebec and has long lobbied get the government to allow Utica drilling, shares the good news that we have taken another step closer toward fracking in Quebec…
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A Pennsylvania Senator from Wilkes-Barre, John Yudichak (Democrat) has floated a “memoranda” among his Senate colleagues asking them to join him in sponsoring a resolution (copy below) for an “independent performance review” of the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and its shale permitting program. Since Tom Wolf assumed office as governor of Pennsylvania in January 2015, the DEP has been in a downward spiral when it comes to the speed with which they approve permits for the Marcellus Shale industry. The DEP has a policy of issuing erosion and sedimentation permits 14 days from the date of application. These types of permits are common and necessary when building roads, well pads, etc. Lately it has taken the DEP 250 days to issue those permits! Permits related to drilling wells are supposed to take no more than 45 days. Those permits now average 93 days. The DEP is hopelessly backlogged–and it’s getting worse. When PA’s traitorous Republican Senate sold out and signed on to a Marcellus Shale severance tax back in July, the Senate also approved (as part of the budget bill) fixes to speed up the permitting process (see
As we have reported, history was made last Friday when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) overruled the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) denial of a water permit for Millennium Pipeline’s tiny 7.8 mile pipeline spur from the main Millennium Pipeline to a natural gas power plant under construction in Orange County, NY (see 
Rover Pipeline–$3.7 billion, 711-mile natural gas pipeline that (will eventually) run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and on to Canada–began flowing natural gas through a large portion of the pipeline on Sept. 1st (see 
In August, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled in a case that may have long-term, very negative consequences for the oil and gas industry related to pipeline development (see
Bad news for the Sisters of the Corn and the radicals at Lancaster Against Pipelines. On Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted Williams permission to begin construction on Atlantic Sunrise, a $3 billion, 198-mile pipeline project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from northeastern PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. Last week the Sierra Club and a mish mash of other nutball groups begged FERC to delay issuing an order that Williams can commence with construction, claiming FERC’s delay in considering a rehearing delayed a lawsuit and the lawsuit hasn’t had enough time to work it’s way through the court system (see
TransCanada, one of Canada’s leading midstream/pipeline companies, cooked up a deal last year to pipe natural gas from Canada’s West Coast to the East Coast in order to fend off cheap supplies of Marcellus/Utica gas that will flow into Canada when/if the NEXUS and Rover pipelines get built (see
In July when the Pennsylvania Senate passed their awful budget bill that includes a variety of new taxes, including a new severance tax on the Marcellus industry, they also slipped in Section 1610 which changes established lease law with respect to oil and gas wells that no longer produce anything (see
Last week the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued the final permit needed by Williams to begin construction on Atlantic Sunrise, a $3 billion, 198-mile pipeline project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from northeastern PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County (see 
West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (WVDEP) capricious decision to yank a permit it previously granted for the Mountain Valley Pipeline is “the last straw” according to the legal beagles at the Blank Rome law firm. Last week WVDEP, under pressure in a lawsuit brought by the radical Sierra Club, decided to revoke a previously granted water crossing permit (see
Well they did it. Yesterday at a regularly scheduled meeting of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), representatives for the five voting members voted to begin the process of formalizing a permanent ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin. It wasn’t unexpected, but it was hotly contested–by both sides in the debate. As we’ve previously chronicled, the DRBC is composed of five voting members: the governors of Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, New Jersey, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The governors all sent people to represent them at the meeting, with clear instructions. The three Democrat governors–Tom Wolf (PA), Andrew Cuomo (NY), and John Carney (DE) all voted in favor of a resolution to take the next step in the process of a permanent ban, voting to adopt a draft resolution MDN previously shared (see
Following yesterday’s vote by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to take the first step in a permanent ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin (DRB), reaction from those who support drilling was swift. The American Petroleum Institute issued a statement saying, among other things, that the DRBC’s intention to permanently ban fracking in the DRB is “bad public policy.” More than a few Pennsylvania legislators took issue with PA Gov. Wolf’s vote to endorse a permanent frack ban. Three ranking State Senators–Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, and Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Chair Gene Yaw, ripped into Wolf with a joint press release yesterday, saying they “strongly objected” to Wolf’s vote. The three said a permanent ban on natural gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin is “arbitrary, short-sighted and a blow to economic development, job-creation and landowner’s rights.” We appreciate their support. However, those same three Senators recently sold out the gas industry when they voted for a severance tax. They were part of the high-tax cabal that made the job of the House that much harder (thank God the House passed a no-severance-tax budget yesterday, see today’s companion story). While we appreciate the Senators’ support on the DRB frack ban issue, their bloviating against Wolf on the frack ban vote doesn’t remove the stain of their betrayal of the gas industry in voting for the severance tax. All three Senators need to go at the next primary…