New PA Bill an Overreaction to Court Ruling on Strippers
As previously reported, liberal Pennsylvania House of Representatives Democrat Pam Synder has now introduced a bill (HB 1283, copy below) to “clear up” what the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) is a loophole in the Act 13 law that may allow some drillers to avoid paying impact fees (i.e. drilling taxes) on some Marcellus Shale wells (see PA Lib Dem Introducing Bill to “Fix” Strippers Once and for All). In 2012 Pennsylvania passed the Act 13 law that includes a fee on wells targeting shale layers, including the Marcellus. Snyder Brothers, headquartered in Kittanning, PA, drills mostly conventional (vertical only) wells in southwestern PA. In 2011-2012 they drilled 45 vertical-only wells, targeting the Marcellus–all of the wells fracked. Initially those wells produced more than 90 Mcf/day, but by December of the year they were drilled, they produced less than 90 Mcf/day. The way the 2012 Act 13 law is written, if a well produces less than 90 Mcf/day during “any” month it is considered a stripper well and exempt from paying the impact fee. The state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) assessed the fee anyway because for 11 months the wells produced more than 90 Mcf/day. Snyder Bros. sued and after an appeal of the case, won their case in March, exempting those wells from paying impact fees (see PA Court Says Snyder Bros Wells are Strippers, No Impact Fees Due). That sent the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) into a tizzy. The PUC and the PA Democrat Party is using the court case to try and accomplish two things they haven’t been able to accomplish heretofore: (1) claim this is a prime example of why a nosebleed high severance tax is needed, in this year’s budget, and (2) fundamentally change the intent of the Act 13 law by passing a “clarification” as introduced by Snyder’s HB 1283 bill. Below we explore this issue in depth and tell you why the Snyder case win is NOT a way for drillers to avoid paying impact fees. In fact, the court’s decision makes it clear that drillers cannot simply reduce production for one month and then claim it’s a stripper well under the 90 Mcf/day definition. Snyder’s bill is an overreaction and does not clear up anything. Instead, it changes everything…
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The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection has just fined driller Seneca Resources $325,000 for a series of violations that occurred between 2013 and 2015. It seems in moving dirt around when building drill pads, Seneca caused erosion to occur. They also spilled ~100 barrels of crude oil in one location, and ~500 barrels of wastewater at another location. The violations happened in Forest, McKean, and Elk Counties. Here’s the notice issued by the PA DEP…
The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY), a group representing over 70,000 landowners with a collective 1 million acres of land that could be leased for oil and gas drilling, only if, has just sent off a letter to President Trump asking for his help. The JLCNY, via the letter, alerts Trump to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s shenanigans in blocking natural gas pipelines. The letter also asks Trump to support legislation we’ve previously highlighted by Congressman Tom Reed to protect landowners in New York (and other states) from government actions that block oil and gas development (see 
Earlier this month MDN brought you the sad (and angering) news that once again Gov. Andrew Cuomo has caved to political pressure from environmental Nazis and instructed the now-corrupted Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to deny stream crossing permits for National Fuel Gas Company’s (NFG) Northern Access Pipeline project (see 
In April of 2016, Mountaineer NGL Storage announced an open season for a new underground NGL storage facility in Monroe County, Ohio, near Clarington, along the Ohio River (see 
Last December the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) said it would go on a “listening tour” in early 2017, to focus on so-called environmental justice (see 
We reported back in February that a group of far-left House of Representatives Democrats sent a letter to President Trump imploring him to appoint new members to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see 
Big Chemical–companies like Dow Corning, BASF, Eastman Chemical and others, via their trade association, have launched a war to try and block American-made natural gas from getting exported to other countries. The reason? They want the natural gas they buy (in very large quantities) to be as cheap as possible. They recently sent a letter (copy below) to Secretary of Energy Rick Perry asking Perry to create barriers to exports of natural gas, ’cause you know, it’s “America First” now baby, and we want that gas all to ourselves. Strumming the patriotic heartstrings, the the Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) says keeping all the gas here will grow more American jobs–and The Donald loves jobs for Americans. These are the same companies that, at the drop of a hat, left our shores and built plants in other countries. To play the patriotic “keep it all home” card is disgustingly hypocritical…
The issue of returning mineral rights to surface owners has long been an issue we’ve tracked on MDN–for Ohio. In Ohio, the issue revolves around legislation called the Dormant Minerals Act (DMA). In September 2016, the OH Supreme Court ruled in three DMA cases, saying all of the other cases come under those three (see 
In January 2016, Invenergy announced their intention to build a natgas-powered electric plant in Elizabeth Township, in Allegheny County (see 
As MDN reported last week, the battle lines have been drawn and both sides have come out swinging in a battle over whether ratepayers should bail out economically failing nuclear power plants (see 
Duke Energy Ohio, an LDC or “local distribution company” serves some half a million customers with natural gas in Ohio. The company has a 12-mile pipeline to flow the gas it needs, to move it from one point to another in Hamilton County (Cincinnati), in the southwest corner of the state. The Duke pipeline has been in service since the 1950s. Duke needs to replace that pipe or some of those half million Duke customers won’t get natural gas any more. Because anything to do with “fracking” or “pipelines” has been so thoroughly bastardized by the media and anti-fossil fuel protesters, there has been, of course, opposition to Duke’s plan. So Duke “listened” and has scaled back their plans. Instead of building a 30-inch gas pipeline running at 600 psi (pounds per square inch), the revised plan calls for a 20-inch pipeline running at 400 psi (see 
Big Green is a big business. Radical enviros have worked hard over the eight years of Obama’s reign of terror to build and expand the Environmental Protection Agency far beyond its originally intended purpose. The Obamadroids’ abuses via the EPA were breathtaking–many of which were chronicled here on MDN. Things like the odious and misnamed Clean Power Plan, the fruity Waters of the United States (WOTUS) regulation. Capturing every last molecule of so-called fugitive methane from oil and gas operations. The EPA became the modern day environmental equivalent of the Gestapo. So no wonder the environuts are apoplectic over President Trump’s mission to put the EPA on a diet and shrink it back to its pre-regulatory-obese size. But don’t think for a minute that the radicals will just stand by and watch it happen. They are fighting and fighting hard to prevent the enormously bloated agency from shedding budget, people, and regulations. We stumbled across their game plan for how they intend to fight Trump every inch of the way…