PA Bill to Regulate Unregulated Gathering Pipelines Fails
Two weeks ago MDN wrote a post outlining an initiative to begin regulating small, low-pressure gathering pipelines–something not now done (see PIOGA Opposes Bill to Regulate Unregulated PA Gathering Pipelines). Media articles about this issue misstate and obfuscate, purposely, what is happening. Senate Bill (SB) 1235 would “enhance” the existing 811 law in PA. (811 is the number you call before you dig, to be sure there are no buried pipelines or electric lines or other underground structures.) One of the “enhancements” in SB 1235 is that it removes an exclusion for low-pressure natural gas gathering pipelines from being required to be part of the 811 system. Many owners of excluded lines voluntarily participate in the programs. The bill would also transfer regulatory enforcement power over the lines from the Department of Labor to the Public Utility Commission. The Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) pushed back against the removal of the exclusion for conventional production lines and rural (“Class 1” under federal law) gathering lines. PIOGA is not against knowing where pipeline are buried–they are against onerous new regulations on those pipelines. PIOGA instead pushed for another year to sort out the issue, instead of passing SB 1235 as/is and throwing the conventional oil and gas industry into regulatory chaos. PIOGA won…
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This is not an electioneering site. We are not on the payroll of any candidate. We have tried to avoid most comments on the upcoming presidential election. You obviously know where our political sympathies lie, if you’ve read this site for any length of time. Below we bring you someone else’s words outlining, in succinct form, the energy positions and proposed policies of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. When you read it, objectively, there is only one candidate who supports the oil and gas industry and is worthy of your vote next Tuesday, November 8th…
MDN reported on Monday of this week that we are down to the wire with passing Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 1391, a bill that would guarantee a 12.5% minimum royalty payment for PA landowners (see 
One of the largest banks in the world (#11) is the German-based Deutsche Bank. They have major branches in dozens of countries, including the U.S. The Equity Research – North America operation of Deutsche Bank attended the Platts 9th Annual Appalachian Oil & Gas Conference in Pittsburgh earlier this week. The DB analyst who attended wrote up notes and shared them. We found the writeup interesting and thought you would too…
It will be fun watching far left Democrat politicians in New England point fingers at each other this winter when electricity and natural gas prices go through the roof. It won’t be fun watching the residents of New England pay 4-10 times what people in other parts of the country pay for their electricity and natural gas–but they’re the ones who elected the dolts that “lead” them. So we don’t have too much sympathy. An agreement by the New England states to seek new natural gas pipeline infrastructure and LNG resources has fallen apart because of squabbling among the states. In large part because of political pressure being applied by lunatic global warming scaremongers. Connecticut is the latest state to throw in the towel, canceling an RFP (request for proposal) that would bring cheap, abundant, clean-burning natural gas from places like the Marcellus, just a few hundred miles away, to the state. What a shame. The only thing to do now is sit back and watch the fun begin. We’ll be here to chronicle the sad decline of (and mass exodus from) New England…
Two weeks ago the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) filed a court challenge to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) onerous new Marcellus drilling regulations (see 
MDN has extensively covered the story of what will become the largest natural gas-fired electric generating plant in Pennsylvania, being built by Invenergy in Jessup Township in Lackawanna County (see 
In June 2014 Dominion filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to construct and operate new compression facilities at existing compressor stations in Marshall County, WV and Monroe County, OH, and certain other facilities, collectively called the Clarington Project (see 
The bullies at the rogue, out-of-control federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are leaning hard on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over FERC’s approval for two Marcellus/Utica projects–Leach Xpress and Rayne Xpress Expansion projects. The EPA thinks FERC should consider man-made global warming flummery as part of their evaluation process. FERC is resisting. So the EPA bullies are demanding a meeting, to help FERC get it’s head straight (see 
“What is all the fuss over Pennsylvania’s Chapter 78a drilling rules going into effect anyway? We mean, come on, those rules were hashed out over the past five years! Can’t the drilling industry just bend over and take it like a man? It can’t be all that bad, can it?” With pleasure, we bring you a response to that line of thinking–a line of thinking YOU may have thought! The writer, Colin McNickle, is a former editorial page chief for the superb Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. McNickle tackles Chapter 78a head-on in this excellent rebuttal. It is nothing short of a declared war on shale gas and oil…
We’ve written a number of stories about Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 1391 that would guarantee landowners receive a 12.5% minimum royalty on the gas extracted from their land, regardless of post-production costs. The issue has led to what MDN calls a civil war between landowners (particularly in Bradford County, PA) and the drilling industry. The clock is ticking and this week is it for this legislative session in PA. If supporters of HB 1391 don’t get the bill passed this week, it will have to be reintroduced and go through the entire process again next year. Supporters like Doug McLinko, a Bradford County commissioner, have warned of serious consequences for the industry if the bill doesn’t get passed. The industry appears to have convinced enough lawmakers to keep the bill bottled up so it doesn’t come to the floor for a vote, which riles landowners. HB 1391’s supporters in the legislature are sounding like it’s already over for this year, and that they will have to fight again next year. We’re concerned what this ongoing situation will do for what has, in the past, been good relations between landowners and drillers. That relationship appears to be souring, at least for some landowners…
The rogue and out-of-control federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues its bullying ways when it comes to the oil and gas industry. Just coming to light (for us) is an action last week by the EPA to fine Crestwood Midstream’s Finger Lakes LPG Storage subsidiary $312,000–for not filing the right paperwork for their facility in upstate New York. Note that the fines are NOT for leaking methane or propane, NOT for endangering the public, NOT for actually doing ANY kind of environmental harm. The fines are for not filing the proper paperwork. The EPA is behaving like the mob running a protection money racket. Crestwood has to pay the EPA $154,000 in fines, and then pay $158,000 for new equipment for three local fire departments located near the facility. The antis are already using this paperwork violation as yet another reason to bleat and blat about Crestwood’s proposed underground propane storage facility along the shores of Seneca Lake. The paperwork violation is for a Crestwood/Finger Lakes LPG Storage facility in the next county–nowhere near Seneca Lake where the proposed propane facility is located. Makes no difference. Antis say it’s yet more evidence that Crestwood can’t be trusted to safely operate the propane storage facility…
Some more disappointing news for Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project, a $3 billion, 198-mile project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. One week ago MDN brought you the news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced it is actively reviewing two alternative routes for the Central Penn Line (an important part of the Sunrise project), accepting public comments on the two alternative routes until Nov. 14 (see