Regulation

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    2 Royalty Bills Focus of PA Senate Hearing Today

    PA Sen. Gene Yaw

    Last week MDN brought you the news that several northeastern Pennsylvania counties are investigating an alliance to push for passage of a bill like last session’s House Bill (HB) 1391 to guarantee landowners receive a minimum 12.5% royalty regardless of post-production costs (see Northeastern PA Counties Explore Alliance to Pass Royalty Reform). However, landowners and those who support them in the PA legislature are not pinning all hopes on a guaranteed minimum royalty bill. Also proposed in the last session (2015/2016) were two bills meant to greatly assist landowners in their quest to monitor royalty payments and how they are calculated. In January 2015 (almost exactly two years ago) PA Senator Gene Yaw, who represents several counties in northeast PA, re-introduced Senate Bills (SB) 147 & 148 (see PA Senate Reintroduces Two Marcellus Royalty Bills, SB 147 & 148). “Re-introduced” in 2015 means both bills were introduced in the previous session (in 2013/2014). SB 147 would have allowed landowners the right to review drilling company records to verify proper royalty payment. It would also have required drillers to pay royalties within 90 days of production. SB 148 prohibits drillers from “retaliating” against a landowner who questions royalty payments by canceling the lease or stopping drilling activity. Both bills were embraced by the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO). They both passed the Senate and stalled in the House. Now, for the third time (going on the sixth year) Sen. Yaw has re-introduced both bills again. This time they are called SB 138 & 139 (full copies below). Sen. Yaw isn’t wasting any time–he’s holding a hearing today to discuss both bills. Will this time be successful?…
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    PHMSA Publishes New Pipeline Rule on Faster Accident Reporting

    Yesterday the U.S. Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a final “rule” (actually 31 pages of rules, which we’ve included below) in the Federal Register, which will become law (i.e. official regulation) on March 24th. The new “rule” requires pipeline operators to report incidents or accidents by phone within one hour of when they become aware of the incident/accident. It also steps up drug and alcohol testing requirements for workers. Here’s the latest in unlegislated laws to come down from on (Washington, DC) high…
    Read More “PHMSA Publishes New Pipeline Rule on Faster Accident Reporting”

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    Trump “America First” Energy Plan Posted on WH Website Day 1

    Well that didn’t take long. Immediately, as soon as Donald J. Trump was sworn into office on Friday at noon, key changes were made to the official White House website. Among them: the page touting man-made global warming nonsense (i.e. “climate change”) came down, and up went Trump’s “America First Energy Plan” instead. Trump’s plan? Support shale, dump Obama’s so-called climate plan, and refocus the EPA. Slap me! Am I dreaming? Will I wake up and find Lord Obama is still in charge? Or worse yet, that Hillary is President? No! Trump won, and the best possible outcome is now happening for American energy (including shale energy) and the American people. A true “all of the above” strategy from Team Trump. Below is a copy of Trump’s energy plan and some of the hysterical reaction by radical environmentalists…
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    Millennium Pipeline Sues Cuomo’s Corrupt DEC Over Expansion Delay

    MDN has previously reported on a $900 million natural gas-fired electric generating plant coming to Orange County, NY (see Orange County, NY Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant OK’d by Judge). The CPV (Competitive Power Ventures) Valley Energy Center project is being opposed by local anti-drilling ninny nannies, including Hollywood star James Cromwell. No matter. It’s already under construction. Unfortunately the very worthy project is marred by corruption inside the Cuomo Administration (see NY NatGas-Fired Electric Plant an Inside Job for Corrupt Cuomo Aide). However, construction continues and the plant will get built. The problem now is getting a 7.8 mile pipeline, an off-shoot pipeline from the mighty Millennium Pipeline, built to the plant to supply the natural gas it will need to run. In November the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the short pipeline (see FERC Approves Pipeline to Orange County, NY NatGas Power Plant). However, as with the Constitution Pipeline, the Cuomo Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is intentionally blocking this pipeline using delays–no doubt at Cuomo’s direction. Millennium is not, like Williams did with the Constitution, sitting on its hands waiting for the DEC. The Millennium is aggressively pushing the DEC to grant the necessary water crossing permits and has just sued the DEC to make it happen…
    Read More “Millennium Pipeline Sues Cuomo’s Corrupt DEC Over Expansion Delay”

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    Meeting Today re NJ Pipeline Slated to Run Through Scrub Pines

    In January 2014, MDN brought you the story that due to incessant nagging from the NJ Sierra Club and the NJ League of [Liberal Democrat] Women Voters the Pinelands Commission, which oversees a stand of scrub pines in South Jersey, nixed a plan for a new natural gas pipeline to bring cheap, clean, abundant Marcellus Shale natural gas to South Jersey for use by residents and to feed an electric plant a local utility wants to convert from burning coal to natgas (see Sierra Club, LWV Chooses Coal over NatGas in South Jersey). In May 2014, NJ Gov. Chris Christie replaced two of the “no” voters on the Pinelands Commission, much to the consternation of the antis (see Marcellus Pipeline May Come to South Jersey After All). In August 2015, the staffers who actually do the work of the Commission decided to act, saying that they had the authority to approve the pipeline without a full Commission vote to do so. A panel of three New Jersey Appellate Division judges in November 2016 rejected that claim and said if you want to build a pipeline through the scrub pines, the full Commission must vote to do so (see Court Setback for NJ Pipeline Slated to Run Through Scrub Pines). The full Commission is now ready to act. Today the Commission is holding a hearing on the project and perhaps as soon as today the Commission will vote–in all likelihood to officially approve it…
    Read More “Meeting Today re NJ Pipeline Slated to Run Through Scrub Pines”

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    Debate & Misinformation re Frack Chemical Disclosure Rages in VA

    Two weeks ago MDN told you about an effort in Virginia to ensure new changes in Virginia’s environmental regulations that require “mandatory disclosure of fracking chemicals, baseline water testing and monitoring, and spill prevention and response planning” would still protect trade secrets–the exact combinations of chemicals used by drillers when fracking (see Proposed VA Law Would Protect Frack Chemical Trade Secrets). As we said at the time, Big Green groups are demagoging the issue, claiming drillers want to keep fracking chemicals secret from first responders and doctors. Not true. But that doesn’t stop the headlines from continuing, like “Citizens have a right to know about fracking chemicals” and “King George supervisors lobby for disclosure of fracking chemicals.” Ah, sorry to burst the anti bubble, but fracking chemicals ARE required to be disclosed. The proposed law that modifies the regulations doesn’t change that. The new law only shields the exact combinations of chemicals from being disclosed–and even the exact combination can/will still be exposed for doctors and first responders…
    Read More “Debate & Misinformation re Frack Chemical Disclosure Rages in VA”

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    FERC Approves $1.8B Leach & Rayne XPress Pipeline Projects

    Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voted to approve and issue a certificate to Columbia Pipeine’s Leach XPress and Rayne XPress pipeline projects. This is fantastic news for the Marcellus/Utica region. MDN has covered these projects from their beginning. In August 2014 Columbia, then a subsidiary of Nisource, committed to building the two projects that will flow Marcellus/Utica gas to the Gulf Coast (see Columbia Gas: $1.75B for 2 Projects to Send Marcellus Gas to Gulf). The Leach XPress project involves construction of approximately 160 miles of natural gas pipeline and compression facilities in southeastern Ohio and West Virginia’s northern panhandle, flowing 1.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas all the way to Leach, Kentucky (hence the name). Rayne XPress works hand in glove with Leach. There is an existing natgas pipeline from Leach, KY all the way to the Louisiana Gulf Coast. That pipeline is called the Rayne, for Rayne, LA. The Rayne Xpress project will beef up the Rayne pipeline with new compressor stations to add an additional 1 Bcf per day of capacity–Marcellus and Utica Shale gas capacity that will flow to the Gulf Coast. It wouldn’t make sense to approve one without the other, and yesterday FERC approved both…
    Read More “FERC Approves $1.8B Leach & Rayne XPress Pipeline Projects”

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    Northeastern PA Counties Explore Alliance to Pass Royalty Reform

    One of the issues that isn’t going away is the demand by landowners in some Pennsylvania counties, like Bradford, for lawmakers in the state to pass a bill that guarantees them what they believe they are already guaranteed–a 12.5% minimum royalty, based on a 1979 law that states they should get such a royalty. We’ve extensively covered what we call a civil war between two parties who are otherwise friendly toward each other–landowners and shale drillers. Last year the issue came to a head with House Bill (HB) 1391 (see our list of stories here). In a nutshell, landowners say Chesapeake Energy and some other drillers are taking post-production deductions out of landowners’ royalty checks, resulting in royalty payments far below 12.5%. In some cases landowners are receiving bills for money owed to the driller–after the driller pulled the gas out of the ground! Who in their right minds leases land for drilling so they can PAY the driller! It is an outrage and landowners want it stopped. Drillers, on the other hand, say you can’t just change contracts after they’ve been signed, punishing the entire industry for the bad actions of a few. Drillers say the proper response is for landowners to sue the bad apples. Frankly, it’s all a mess. The new news is that landowners from Bradford and several other northeastern PA counties, tired of being outmaneuvered by drillers, are actively talking about forming an alliance to try and garner enough support in Harrisburg to get a bill like HB 1391 passed this year…
    Read More “Northeastern PA Counties Explore Alliance to Pass Royalty Reform”

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    Antis Worried Trump Will Stop Delaware River Basin Conservation Act

    The (for now) taxpayer funded PBS StateImpact Pennsylvania is so “in the tank” and biased for radical environmentalism, they are a reliable mouthpiece for Big Green. Want to know what Big Green thinks? Just read StateImpact. Which is how we know Big Green is now very worried that the incoming Trump Administration will stop implementation of the ill-conceived Delaware River Basin Conservation Act. We wrote about the Act when it was still just a bill (see New Bill Aims to Keep Drilling/Pipelines Out of Dela. River Basin). The Act, which was passed by a spineless Republican Congress in December, vests the already out-of-control U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) with power and money to “identify and implement conservation activities” in the Delaware River Basin. The tip-off that it’s anti-drilling is that it was pushed and promoted by the odious William Penn Foundation as well as the Delaware River Basin Commission. USFWS is an Executive Branch (i.e. now Trump Administration) agency, so Trump can decide to drag his heels on implementing this disastrous legislation. Hey libs, how does it feel to be out of power? The thought that Trump will deny them their precious money to make mischief has them worried, as evidenced by the propagandists at StateImpact…
    Read More “Antis Worried Trump Will Stop Delaware River Basin Conservation Act”

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    More on PA DEP’s Onerous New Methane Capture Regs

    In December, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) unveiled new regulations to clamp down on methane emissions and other other air pollution that allegedly comes from shale drilling sites (see PA DEP Releases New Regs re Methane & Air Pollution at Drill Sites). The onerous new regulations, not in effect yet, are prompted by bullying from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, an agency which is about to get gutted (see Master Stroke: Trump Selects OK AG Pruitt to Lead EPA). That hasn’t stopped Gov. Wolf’s DEP from plowing forward with new rules (copies here). We spotted an Associated Press article that highlights some of the aspects of the proposed new methane capture rules…
    Read More “More on PA DEP’s Onerous New Methane Capture Regs”

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    PA DEP Rejects Revisions to Regs re Drilling Near Coal Mines

    Here’s a story we admittedly don’t know much about, a story that kind of came out of left field. It may affect some shale drillers in southwest PA. Sometimes drillers want to lease and drill under coal mines. Since coal mines sink large holes in the ground, there are existing guidelines in place for how closely an oil/gas well can be drilled on or under a coal mine–guidelines put in place in 1957. As a result of legislation passed in 2011 called Act 2, a review was conducted to see if the standards for oil/gas drilling near coal mines might be modified–we’re assuming “relaxed,” allowing such drilling to happen in conditions not currently allowed. A column of rock called a pillar needs to be of a certain size/width in order for drilling to take place. An independent study to review the size of pillars, called “Gas Well Pillar Study Update, PO 4300311202 and 4300400813,” was completed in March 2016. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently completed its own review of that study (copy of the DEP review below) and has rejected changing existing 1957 standards for pillar dimensions. Yeah, kind of technical. Short version: DEP is keeping super-strict standards in place claiming it’s safer for coal miners, limiting options for shale drilling under some coal mines…
    Read More “PA DEP Rejects Revisions to Regs re Drilling Near Coal Mines”

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    Potter Twp (Finally) Approves Permit for Shell Ethane Cracker

    In December the Potter Township Board of Supervisors convened a public hearing on the proposed Shell ethane cracker plant–to be built in Potter Twp–that ended up going on for 10 hours (see Potter Twp Declines to Approve Permits for Shell Cracker, For Now). The intent was to approve Shell’s request for permits to begin construction on the multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant. That didn’t happen. Instead, the supervisors decided to hold another hearing the following night. They did, and that hearing went for over an hour, in closed-door session. At the conclusion, the supervisors made a couple of requests from Shell, which Shell agreed to. However, the supervisors were still not ready to approve the permits and instead asked for more paperwork to be filed. Potter Township supervisors are certainly no rubber stamp for the cracker project. They are working hard to ensure area residents are protected when (not if) it gets built. But that’s not good enough for radical, anti-fossil fuel nutters who (irrationally) want nothing to do with natural gas. Last week the supervisors held yet another meeting and the antis behaved like they always do–like petulant children, hollering and booing and making a$$es of themselves. One supervisor said he was “appalled” by the conduct of the crowd at last week’s meeting. That’s all in the rearview mirror now. Last night Potter Township held another meeting and yes, they finally voted to grant the cracker project the necessary town permits to proceed. Oh! The crowd last night? While it had a few crazies, it was packed with local residents who support the project. Nice to see the good guys come out in force to counteract the nutters…
    Read More “Potter Twp (Finally) Approves Permit for Shell Ethane Cracker”

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    PA Senator Reintroducing Bill to Reduce Marcellus Waste Reporting

    PA State Sen. Elder Vogel

    On Tuesday, PA State Sen. Elder Vogel (Republican from Beaver, PA) circulated a co-sponsor memo that states his intent to re-introduce a bill that will remove some of the hassles drillers now face with the recent adoption of new Marcellus drilling regulations. Specifically, Vogel wants to change the DEP (Dept. of Environmental Protection) regulation requirement that drillers must file paperwork to report the amount and disposition of drilling waste–which would include wastewater and drill cuttings–from monthly to every six months. Every gallon of frack and produced water that comes out of a well, and every square inch of leftover rock and dirt, must be tracked and a report filed. The new Chapter 78a drilling regulations adopted by the DEP requires monthly reports to be filled out–a virtual blizzard of paperwork. Vogel wants to make it more manageable with biennial reports instead…
    Read More “PA Senator Reintroducing Bill to Reduce Marcellus Waste Reporting”

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    Scott Pruitt Bested Democrat Hacks at EPA Confirmation Hearing

    Scott Pruitt – Next EPA Administrator

    Oklahoma Attorney General (AG) Scott Pruitt, who is Trump’s pick to drain the swamp at the Environmental Protection Agency, was on the hot seat yesterday on Capitol Hill. Confirmation hearings were held and Pruitt was grilled for seven hours in three different rounds of questioning. This man is a true gem. During the hearing he said this: “Process matters, rule of law matters, federalism matters. Those issues matter because Congress has said so. It is Congress that gives authority to the EPA. The EPA is an administrative agency; it is not a legislative body.” What a breath of fresh, unpolluted air! The Democrats on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works did their best to rattle Pruitt, but he remained calm. Crazie Bernie Sanders was among those who behaved like jackasses–asking questions and not letting Pruitt finish answering before they would interrupt and ask more questions. The Democrats’ behavior was disgraceful and certainly not worthy of someone holding the office of Senator. Here’s a review of what happened, what was said, and a copy of Pruitt’s excellent opening remarks…
    Read More “Scott Pruitt Bested Democrat Hacks at EPA Confirmation Hearing”

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    PA Gov Wolf Signals his Support for Mariner East 2 Pipeline

    PA Gov. Tom Wolf

    PA Gov. Tom Wolf has been, to be frank, a disaster as a governor. On many issues. But the issue that primarily concerns us is the oil and gas industry. Wolf will soon introduce his third budget and for a third straight year he will call for a Marcellus-killing severance tax. He still owes the teachers unions payback for supporting him and getting him elected. Wolf pretty much screwed up the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) when he installed an anti-driller as its head, John Quigley. He later fired Quigley when it was discovered Quigley was colluding with Big Green groups. Given Wolf’s treatment of the industry, it was with some surprise to read that Wolf, in comments made to a Chamber of Commerce group last week, mouthed his support for the Mariner East 2 NGL (natural gas liquids) pipeline that will traverse the state. The pipeline is opposed by a few anti-fossil fuel zealots and some townships along its route. The DEP is reviewing permits for the project and the hints coming from Wolf and the DEP are that the project will receive its approvals soon. Which is really good news…
    Read More “PA Gov Wolf Signals his Support for Mariner East 2 Pipeline”

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    Kinder Morgan Asks FERC to Approve Orion Pipe Project by Jan 31

    In October 2015, Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) filed their official, full application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) seeking approval for their Orion Project (see Tennessee Gas Pipeline Files PA Orion Project with FERC). The project will cost $143 million and construct 13 miles of “looping” pipeline in Pike and Wayne counties, Pennsylvania. The project will boost capacity on the TGP by another 135 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d), allowing TGP to pump more Marcellus Shale gas to Mid-Atlantic and New England states. According to the original plan, the TGP Orion upgrade will be complete and in-service by June 2018. They still want to meet that timetable–but can’t unless FERC gets off their rear-ends and approves the project. So TGP filed an official request with FERC to get Orion approved by January 31st. Otherwise, all bets are off for a June 2018 in-service date…
    Read More “Kinder Morgan Asks FERC to Approve Orion Pipe Project by Jan 31”