PA Supreme Court Rules Against Act 13 Drilling Law, Yet Again
The Democrat-controlled Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled yesterday in another (hopefully final) decision on the 2012 Act 13 Marcellus drilling law passed and signed by then-Gov. Tom Corbett. Four Democrat judges have just struck down more of Act 13, leaving not much left except the part that raises money and gives it away (called an impact fee, otherwise known as a severance tax). You will recall that seven selfish towns sued the state over the Act 13 law and it’s provision that would substitute a statewide, uniform and fair set of zoning ordinances for drilling in place of a patchwork, crazy quilt system of local ordinances for oil and gas drilling. These seven selfish towns wanted their own ordinances and sued, ultimately winning at the Supreme Court (see PA Supreme Court Rules Against State/Drillers in Act 13 Case). The PA Supremes couldn’t, however, be bothered with deciding every tiny bit of nuance and sent some items back to the lower Commonwealth Court for final decisions. Following several cases in the lower courts, some of it came back to the Supreme Court for a final decision, and that just happened. The Supreme’s ruling (full copy of their decision is embedded below) affects the use of eminent domain, what information can be shared by doctors as it relates to privileged trade secrets for drillers, and most importantly, a decision that ends the right of the PA Public Utility Commission (PUC) to keep an eye on the zoning regulations passed by towns, to ensure those regulations don’t supersede state oil and gas regulations. Most of Act 13 is now down the toilet, thanks to four left-wing Democrat judges…
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Last week the Baltimore Sun ran an article (a portion of which we picked up) that said “sources” were telling the Sun that the Maryland Dept. of the Environment (MDE) would miss a deadline to submit revisions to revisions of revisions of fracking regulations that will allow the state to begin fracking on or about October 1, 2017 (see 
Landowners from Bradford, Susquehanna, Wyoming and Lycoming counties (Pennsylvania) attended a rally in Harrisburg, at the Capitol, on Tuesday. They were there to lobby for and support passage of House Bill (HB) 1391, a bill that would guarantee landowners a minimum 12.5% royalty payment regardless of post-production costs. We have extensively covered this issue, which is causing a schism between landowners and drillers (see our most recent article: 
Something noteworthy is happening in southwest Pennsylvania. Landowners and pro-gas supporters are turning out at local hearings to support more drilling. Case in point: Range Resources had applied for a permit to build a drill pad near a local elementary school in Mt. Pleasant (Westmoreland County), PA. Moms Clean Air Force and other anti-drillers turned out to oppose the plan. A local town board meeting was packed to capacity. However, a majority of those packing the meeting were pro-gas and wore t-shirts with “Land Owners United” printed on them. Cool! About time our side began to turn up for these meetings to support the industry…
MDN is pleased to bring you another guest post from our very good friend Chris Acker. Chris is a geological engineer with an MBA. He grew up in the oil fields of Venezuela where his father, a petroleum engineer, was a drilling contractor for all the major players, onshore and off. Chris’ interest in energy economics and policy found him working for Exxon, Petroleum Industry Research Associates and Petroleos de Venezuela. He bought a parcel of land in the PA countryside twenty-five years ago and later semi-retired to work on antique pianos (see 
The legal beagles at the Norton Rose Fulbright law firm recently issued a post on their Hydraulic Fracking Blog with updates on five important bills currently before the PA House and Senate that will affect the Marcellus industry (drillers, midstreamers and landowners)–with details for what’s in the bills and the status for each bill. Likely the most controversial of the bills is House Bill (HB) 1391, which would guarantee PA landowners a 12.5% minimum royalty regardless of post-production costs. That bill is due for a procedural vote today. Other bills are in bottled up in various committees where they may or may not make it out for a full vote. The PA House is in session today, tomorrow, and then Oct 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, and Nov 14, 15. That’s it–just 10 more days in session before the end of the year. The PA Senate is in session today, tomorrow, and then Oct 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26. Just 8 more days for the Senate. So whatever is going to happen must happen quickly. Here’s a rundown on the five important bills, including HB 1391 (“Amendments to Oil and Gas Lease Act”), HB 2275 (“Changes to Environmental Quality Board membership”), HB 2277 (“Amendment to Oil & Gas Act related to bonding requirements”), HB 2319 (“Amendment to Oil & Gas Lease Act”), and HB 2361 (“Pennsylvania Turnpike Right-of-Way Act”)…
We’ve written plenty about President Obama’s so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP), introduced last summer, a plan to force electric generators to convert to using more “renewable” sources of energy–and less fossil fuels (see 
Yet another desperate attempt by radical environmentalists to stop the much-needed PennEast Pipeline from getting built. Yesterday the New Jersey Conservation Foundation (NJCF) and Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association (SBMWA) asked (more liked begged) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to withdraw the PennEast application, something called a “no alternative” action, and just let it die a stillborn death. Their argument to FERC seems to rely on the old tactic of “if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull$#@!.” Because a few sympathetic rads exist within government agencies like the EPA and Fish & Wildlife Service, and because those agencies were co-opted into sending negative comments about the project to FERC, the radicals at NJ Conservation and Stony Brook Watershed tell FERC it’s best just to scrap the whole thing. No sense in continuing. Move along–nothing else to see here. A nice try at bamboozling FERC, but it’s an agency wise to such deceptions…
Last Friday MDN ran a guest post from an executive who works for a Pennsylvania exploration and production company (E&P, what we call a “driller” here on MDN). In the post, titled 
Running a bulldozer a few feet into a swamp–without written permission–can land you in a lot of hot water. That’s what Spectra Energy is learning following such an incident. Well, we don’t know if it was actually a bulldozer or not, but here is what we do know. On August 28, 2016, Algonquin Gas Transmission (a Sepctra company) experienced a break in the drill stem while attempting the pullback of a 5,000-foot-long HDD (horizontal directional drill) along the Hudson River in New York. The work being done is for Spectra’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) Project. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had an on-site Compliance Monitor, and that person WAS informed that Algonquin believed the break was within a wetland (i.e. swamp) adjacent to the drill entry side, and that Algonquin would like to “excavate the wetland” which includes removing a few trees, to access the drill stem. The Compliance Monitor (sort of like the old Soviet political officer) told Algonquin that he needed more information before taking such an action. Then it all gets muddled. Algonquin says it was a misunderstanding, and the FERC Compliance Officer says they ignored him (our interpretation of what’s being said). At any rate, the upshot is if Algonquin had waited for the written permission slip from the political officer, er, a, Compliance Monitor, there wouldn’t be a story. But Algonquin went ahead, encroaching on about 381 square feet of swamp–about the size of an average living room. And because of it, FERC has rained down hell fire on Algonquin…
Maya van Rossum, who is THE Delaware Riverkeeper (the river’s mamma), got 182 of her friends, whom she calls “organizations” to sign a letter and sent it to the U.S. Senate demanding (she always demands, never politely asks) for hearings into the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Why? Because they’re actually doing their job–and that just can’t stand. Instead, she wants FERC shut down so no new pipeline projects will get approved. That’s the only acceptable outcome for Mamma Maya. She alleges that FERC is misusing its power under the federal Natural Gas Act. One of Mamma Maya’s friends, CORNball Paul Gierosky (cofounder of COalition to Reroute Nexus, or CORN) says: “FERC is corrupt and needs to be reformed.” What hubris…
One of the interesting tidbits to come out of yesterday’s first day of the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh was an off-the-cuff remark from Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s special assistant for infrastructure, Yesenia Bane, who said that Gov. Wolf is “willing to talk” with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to ask him to approve the Williams Constitution Pipeline project in the Empire State. Bane said Wolf has met with Williams and other stakeholders in the Constitution project, and apparently Wolf was impressed enough that he’s willing to add his own voice to those calling for an approval of the Constitution. Democrat on Democrat. Mano a mano. Should be interesting, if Wolf ever gets up the nerve to do it…