Marc. Shale Coalition Files Lawsuit to Block PA Chapter 78a Regs
On Oct. 8, after five years in the making, Pennsylvania adopted new shale drilling regulations (see PA’s New Chapter 78a Drilling Regs Go into Effect Oct 8). Although the regs were ready at the end of the Gov. Tom Corbett Administration, Corbett fumbled the ball and the regs didn’t get adopted, which left them vulnerable to the incoming left-leaning Tom Wolf. Wolf’s people mangled the regulations under the Dept. of Environmental Protection Dictator/Secretary John Quigley, who got fired over unethical collusion with Big Green groups (see Smoking Gun: Copy of the Email that Got John Quigley Fired). Some of the good stuff remained, but onerous new elements were introduced. Although the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) represents PA’s conventional (non-shale) drillers, [Correction: PIOGA represents BOTH conventional AND unconventional (shale) drillers] they immediately filed an appeal of the new regs with the PA Supreme Court (see PIOGA Makes Legal Play to Stop Chapter 78a Regs from Taking Effect). The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), which represents shale drillers–the group affected by Chapter 78a–has made noise about the new regs, but hasn’t done anything to stop the regs–until now. Yesterday the MSC filed its own lawsuit to block the new regs [Note: we now have a copy of the lawsuit, see it below]. The MSC’s lawsuit was filed in PA Commonwealth Court…
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We spotted a press release issued yesterday by Cabot Oil & Gas, providing an update for the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. Which kind of surprised us. Why would Cabot issue an update on someone else’s pipeline? Is Cabot an investor in the project? We asked–the answer is “no.” However, Cabot is the major shipper that will use the Central Penn Line portion of the Atlantic Sunrise project. And that’s what the announcement was about. Cabot said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has announced it is actively reviewing two alternative routes for the Central Penn Line, accepting public comment until Nov. 14. OK, so that sometimes happens. Is it worth a press release? Then we read that this development means yet another delay for the Atlantic Sunrise project–and investors immediately punished the stock for both Williams and Cabot. Ah, now we understand! The press release is to reassure investors that Cabot believes FERC, while slowing things down a little, won’t delay things too long. THAT’S what the press release is really all about…
Dominion recently announced a new pipeline project called Eastern Market Access Project. The project will beef up two compressor stations in Virginia, build a new compressor station in Maryland, and add a couple of pipeline taps near Washington, D.C. The purpose of the $145 million project is to deliver more gas to Washington Gas, and to deliver gas to a new gas-fired electric power plant being built in Maryland. We suspect Marcellus/Utica gas will be the added gas flowing to both Washington Gas and the new electric plant in Maryland. [Note: A Dominion spokesman later confirmed to us that the gas will come from either the Marcellus or Utica plays.] You may recall that in May 2015 Washington Gas announced a plan to invest in Marcellus wells in Greene and Clearfield counties in PA (see 
This is so unusual, it qualifies as news: Supervisors in Buffalo Township (Butler County), PA have approved a new compressor station to be built by Mountain Gathering–a subsidiary of XTO Energy. The reason it’s news is for how the approval process was handled. Town residents who live near where the station will be built understandably had some concerns. Those concerns were aired. Town officials visited other compressor stations built by Mountain Gathering. They had XTO officials in to answer questions. There was no bleating and blatting, no parading in front of cameras and microphones, no “die-ins” and radical protests. Just deliberative, calm, adult discussions. And at the end of it, the supervisors voted to grant permission for the compressor station to get built. Unusual!…
In September the Ohio Supreme Court finally ruled on a series of cases involving the state’s Dormant Mineral Act, or DMA (see 
We have, as long as we’ve been writing the MDN website, warned that the federal Environmental Protection Agency, particularly under B.H. Obama, is an out-of-control, lawless, aggressive cancer on the country. The EPA has repeatedly attempted to UNCONSTITUTIONALLY control oil and gas drilling–something only state governments have the right to regulate. The EPA has repeatedly sought to influence (i.e. control) o&g development via other means–like expanding the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and Waters of the United States (WOTUS). The latest evidence of EPA’s illegal overreach comes with EPA’s bullying of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). EPA is telling FERC to get its head screwed on straight with respect to an approval for two Marcellus/Utica projects–Leach Xpress and Rayne Xpress Expansion projects. EPA says FERC is ignoring mythological man-made global warming bullcrap in their review of the projects, and EPA is demanding a meeting with the top brass at FERC to bully them into submission…
Yesterday MDN ran a story reporting that a landowner rebellion against post-production cost deductions from royalties is spreading beyond just Bradford County in northeastern Pennsylvania–to counties in southwestern PA (see 
MDN previously reported that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) planned to publish the final regulations in the Oct. 8 Pennsylvania Bulletin (see 
The refrain is growing louder. In the past couple of weeks MDN editor Jim Willis has heard that Obama’s EPA regulations haven’t killed the coal industry–it was lowly natural gas that slipped in with a knife and did the dirty deed. We first heard that at the recent Benposium East event (see today’s story for Jim’s notes from that event), and also from Our Dear Leader himself, BHO (see 
Since April of 2014, MDN has written about and monitored a new project to build a $615 million electrical generating plant in Marshall County, WV that will burn Marcellus Shale gas (see 
The Obama Administration has once again made a naked power grab–violating the Constitution in the process. On Monday the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued an Interim Final Rule (“IFR”) to implement the agency’s “expanded authority to address unsafe pipeline conditions or practices that pose an imminent hazard to life, property, or the environment.” That is, if PHMSA bureaucrats decide something is important enough, or may imminently “harm the public”–they can just dispense with all other laws and regulations which require hearings and public notices, wave the regulatory wand and make a decision. No input. No consultation. No following the law. PHMSA is doing this as a result of a new law signed by President Obama in June, called the PIPES Act, which grants the DOT Secretary godlike powers to issue emergency orders when he/she thinks there’s a danger to the public…