Regulation

Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Congressman Proposes Bill to Compensate NY’s Jilted Landowners
January 27, 2015January 27, 2015

Congressman Tom Reed (Republican, Conservative) from the Southern Tier/Twin Tiers area of New York (Corning region) is “leading the charge” in Washington by proposing new legislation that would require states, like New York, to compensate residents when it causes them harm by action or inaction–like the recent Gov. Andrew Cuomo decision to ban fracking in the state. Under Reed’s proposal, called the “Defense of Property Rights Act,” landowners would be entitled to receive $20,000 or 20% of the value of their land. Below is the press release from Reed’s office, a few extra details we’ve gleaned from news accounts, and our own opinion of this strategy…
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Guest Post: Bradford Co Landowner Asks Gov. Wolf to Support HB 1684
January 27, 2015January 27, 2015

MDN has written plenty about Pennsylvania’s HB 1684–the Guaranteed Minimum Royalty Act (see these MDN articles). In essence, some companies (cough *Chesapeake Energy* cough) have gotten creative with deducting post-production costs from royalty checks. According to the PA Guaranteed Minimum Royalty Act of 1979, royalty owners (landowners) must receive no less than 1/8, or 12.5%, by law. But when Chessy and others start deducting this and that, never spelled out in the original lease agreement, landowners are getting the shaft–way lower than 12.5%. In some cases they get royalty checks for a few dollars! Bradford County landowner John Williams is concerned, both about HB 1684 and newly elected Gov. Tom Wolf’s stand on that bill, and about Wolf’s proposed 5% severance tax. Will the severance tax be the next deduction gas companies take, further reducing royalty checks? Is the severance tax Tom Wolf proposes a tax that will be paid, in essence, by landowners? We thank John for his guest post…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

As Maryland Gets Ready to Frack, Will New Gov Change Regs?
January 26, 2015January 26, 2015

Two members of the Maryland Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, writing in the Baltimore Sun yesterday, say that with only a few weeks left before new rules to allow Marcellus Shale drilling in western Maryland go into effect, the state’s newly elected Republican governor, Larry Hogan, has “every right to thoroughly review, modify or even pull back the draft regulations.” But the two commission members–Harry Weiss, a partner at the Ballard Spahr law firm, and Jeffrey Kupfer, former deputy secretary at the U.S. Dept. of Energy–say before Hogan goes changing things, he should consider…
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Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Research | Sand/Proppant | Wyoming County (PA)

DEP Begins Air Study Near Proposed Frac Sand Facility in NEPA
January 23, 2015January 23, 2015

For some time, MDN has followed the developing story in rural Tunkhannock, PA (Wyoming County) where D&I Silica, now owned by Hi-Crush Partners, wants to build a frac sand transfer station along a rail line. D&I lacked only one thing before they could begin construction–a permit from the county. Residents in the area are concerned that the silica, or frac sand, will become airborne and create health issues–so the county resisted in granting the permit. D&I took the county to court and the case was settled last November, allowing D&I to move forward. However, the county wanted to conduct an air quality study. The state Dept. of Environmental Protection said they would conduct an air quality study, but the county a private, third party company to do the study (see Deuling Air Quality Studies for NEPA Frac Sand Transfer Station). Once the county found out the air quality study would cost them $130,000, they decided the DEP’s study will do just fine, thank you very much. The county decided to pay $7,500 instead to have their independent, third party consultant review the study done by the DEP. Yesterday the DEP showed up and started to set up equipment for the study…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Anti Group Asks PA Court for a Do-Over on State Land Drilling Decision
January 23, 2015January 23, 2015

Earlier this month we reported the crushing defeat of the litigious anti-drilling group Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) in their lawsuit that attempts to stop all drilling and leasing of state-owned lands for oil and gas drilling (see PA Court Rules to Allow More Leasing/Drilling of State-Owned Land). Even though it was a victory for pro-drillers, it was a “dirty” win because it relied on and reinforced the flawed PA Supreme Court “Robinson” case on Act 13 zoning (see Troubling Win in PA Court Victory that Allows State Land Drilling). The litigious PEDF is back to take yet another bite at the apple. They’ve filed an “Application for Reargument” in the case. They want the judge to call a “do-over” so they can try, once again, to ban drilling on state-owned land…
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Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

Sen. Inhofe Outsmarts Democrats, Votes to Say Climate Change is Real!
January 23, 2015January 23, 2015

Sen. Jim Inhofe from Okalhoma, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, has changed the debate on man-made global warming once again, much to the consternation of the wacko left. We saw a press release from Inhofe’s office yesterday (below) saying that Sen. Inhofe and virtually every other Republican in the Senate had just joined the Democrats in voting 98-1 in favor of an amendment on the Keystone XL Pipeline bill that says “climate change is real and it is not a hoax.” We did a double-take. Really? Inhofe says he now believes in climate change?! Then we read further. In the next breath, Inhofe said: “How arrogant is it for people to say that man can do something about changing the climate?” Inhofe, by co-sponsoring and voting for the amendment, is pointing out the corrosion of our language…
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Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Senate Reintroduces Two Marcellus Royalty Bills, SB 147 & 148
January 22, 2015January 22, 2015

The “funny business” of shorting royalty checks in Pennsylvania–particularly by Chesapeake Energy–may soon come to an end. A pair of bills that didn’t make it past the House last session have been re-introduced in the Senate and both have already passed the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee unanimously. State Sen. Gene Yaw, Republican from northeast Pennsylvania, re-introduced Senate Bills (SB) 147 & 148. SB 147 allows landowners the right to review drilling company records to verify proper royalty payment. It also requires 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 are embraced by the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO)…
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Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Pro-Drilling New Yorkers Protest Gov. Cuomo During State of State
January 22, 2015January 22, 2015

You want to know how biased local liberal media can be? Get this: Yesterday, on the day that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivered his Santa Claus impersonation, er, State of the State address, more than 70 pro-drillers gathered outside the State Office Building in downtown Binghamton, NY for an hour during the middle of the work day to protest Gov. Cuomo’s decision to ban fracking. The only daily newspaper in Broome County, the local newspaper of record, the Press & Sun-Bulletin–didn’t carry a single word about the protest. Not one word. That’s how biased (and frankly censored) the Press & Sun-Bulletin is. Fortunately, three local television stations did cover the protest. The “new news” from the protest, aside from the fact that 70+ people took time out of their busy work days (yes, pro-drillers actually have jobs and pay taxes, unlike anti-drillers), is that the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) is actively pursuing “options” to have the federal government intervene in New York’s frack ban. This issue is FAR from over–our side has just begun to fight…
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Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide VA | Virginia

VA May Repeal Law Allowing Pipelines Access without Permission
January 22, 2015January 22, 2015

Accessing a landowner’s property without permission, and later (potentially) forcing that landowner to allow a pipeline across the property via eminent domain have never been supported by MDN. Neither, it seems, is it supported by other pro-drillers, especially those in Virginia. State Sen. Emmett Hanger from Augusta County, VA (located in the Shenandoah Valley on the western edge of VA) is a conservative, business-friendly and pro-drilling Republican. Hanger, like MDN, supports Dominion’s $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (see Enormous Benefits for All Virginians from Atlantic Coast Pipeline). But Hanger, also like MDN, is not in favor of access without permission. Hanger is attempting to get a 2004 Virginia law repealed that allows access to private property without permission so Dominion (and others) can survey the property for pipeline routes. As Hanger points out, that kind of behavior is working against them in terms of community goodwill…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Important Expose on John Quigley, Nominee to Head PA DEP
January 22, 2015January 22, 2015
MDN friend Tom Shepstone, who writes the excellent Natural Gas Now blog site, has just posted a must-read article on John Quigley, PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s choice to lead the Dept. of Environmental Protection. Tom does some real investigative journalism–something you won’t read in the Harrisburg Patriot-News, the Philadelphia Inquirer, or Democrat Party satellite publications like StateImpact Pennsylvania. You certainly won’t read anything detailed about Quigley in the Scranton Times-Tribune! Real investigative journalism has gone out of vogue in those publications. But not with Tom. Rather than copy his excellent work here, we’ll ask you to click on the link below and take time to educate yourself on the “real” John Quigley.
- Natural Gas Now/Tom Shepstone (Jan 21, 2015) – Will the Real John Quigley Please Stand Up?
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Regulation | Statewide NY

Poll: Majority of NYers Support Cuomo’s Frack Ban – Or Do They?
January 21, 2015January 21, 2015

Results of a new statewide poll for New York were released yesterday by Siena College. Siena provides one of the leading polls of political issues and politicians in the state. We’ve covered their polls many times. The media coverage of this latest poll is a meme that Siena themselves are pushing: there is “overwhelming support” for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s ban on fracking in the state–both Upstate and Downstate. That’s the meme, that’s the template/narrative they want you to believe. However, when we look at the poll numbers, we find a lot that Andrew Cuomo should be VERY concerned about. For example, how does he launch a legitimate campaign for president when nearly half of all New Yorkers (40%) either have an “unfavorable” opinion or indicate they have “no opinion” of him? Nearly half! There’s no way you win a national election when the voters in your own state don’t like you. Let’s dig in to the numbers and see what the real story of this poll tells us…
Read More “Poll: Majority of NYers Support Cuomo’s Frack Ban – Or Do They?”
Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Regulation

Obama’s Faint Praise of Natgas in State of Union, Inhofe’s Rebuttal
January 21, 2015January 21, 2015

Last night was the second-to-last State of the Union speech to be given by our Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama (hallelujah!). While Obama gave credit to the oil and gas industry for generating most of the jobs created during his pathetic presidency, he also said he wants to regulate it more. Typical. He persists in calling carbon, the stuff you breathe out with every breath, “pollution” and he’s hellbent on regulating it–even though at the same time he admits we’re producing less of it! Go figure. Below we have the section of Obama’s speech where he talks about energy, including shale gas, along with the response from Sen. Jim Inhofe, the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. We love Inhofe–he doesn’t suffer fools well and he minces no words about Obama’s out-of-control regulatory mandates. We like Inhofe’s take: Americans are resilient. Together we can survive the Obama Administration…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

In His Own Words: Quigley’s Positions on Fracking, NY Ban, Etc.
January 20, 2015January 20, 2015

MDN has done some more digging on Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s choice to run the all-important (for Marcellus Shale drilling) Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), John Quigley. As it turns out, we didn’t have to dig very far. Quigley himself writes a blog site called “John Quigley’s A Green Thing blog.” The name about says it all. We went looking through his previous statements and found more that concerns us about his impending stewardship of the greatest economic miracle to hit PA in more than 100 years. One of the things Quigley repeatedly lobbies for is a rapid transition from water-based fracking to waterless fracking, something that isn’t remotely possible in the next 10 years…
Read More “In His Own Words: Quigley’s Positions on Fracking, NY Ban, Etc.”
Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Statewide PA | Washington County

Strange: DEP Fines Range Resouces $1.75M for Water Withdrawals
January 19, 2015January 19, 2015

A strange announcement from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Friday says that Range Resources has agreed to pay $1.75 million to the state for failure to keep track of water withdrawals made by the company (takes a lot of water to frack, much of which comes from creeks and rivers), and for exceeding the amount of water withdrawn according to the plan they have on file with the DEP. What’s strange about the announcement is that a) you can’t find it on the DEP website itself, b) Range was making withdrawals and not recording/tracking the withdrawals from 2009 to 2014–five years–but apparently the DEP didn’t notice or didn’t care, and c) $950,000 of the $1.75 million “fine” (more than half) will go to fix up and operate the Hamilton Abandoned Mine Treatment System in Findlay Township, Allegheny County…
Read More “Strange: DEP Fines Range Resouces $1.75M for Water Withdrawals”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Quigley Says Opportunity to Get Marcellus Drilling “Right” in PA
January 19, 2015January 19, 2015

Pennsylvania Gov.-Elect Tom Wolf’s intended appointment of John Quigley to become the next Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) continues to trouble us. We’ve heard from MDN subscribers, people we respect, who say that Quigley is a good bloke, lay off on being critical of his appointment. However, we continue to rely on our eyes and ears and what we see and hear bothers us. Quigley once worked for an avowedly anti-drilling organization–PennFuture. That was enough to concern us. But now we have have his own comments to rely on. Last week he answered, on the record, questions from the Harrisburg Patriot-News. Specifically he indicates that so far PA has not “gotten it right” when it comes to Marcellus Shale drilling, and he looks forward to helping the Keystone State get it right. He doesn’t say what, exactly, has been gotten “wrong” with drilling, which is what troubles us…
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Air Quality | Alternative Energy | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Real Reason for EPA Methane Rules: Prop Up Expensive Renewables
January 19, 2015January 19, 2015

One of the keynote speakers at last year’s Shale Insight conference, held in Pittsburgh, was the dynamite Stephen Moore. Steve is the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation–the country’s premier conservative think tank, headquartered in Washington, DC. He’s also a Fox News contributor. Steve not only gave a dynamite speech on the role of shale drilling at Shale Insight, he also came along for the riverboat cruise MDN helped organize. It was great fun to talk with Steve and a number of other industry luminaries who came along for the cruise. Steve is back with a killer editorial in the Washington Times that skewers the latest attempt by the Obama EPA to throttle shale drilling by using the “boogeyman” of fugitive methane. As he points out, Steve says cows farting (our word) contributes more methane to the atmosphere than leakage from oil and gas drilling operations. Be careful farmers–the EPA is coming with corks for the cows next!…
Read More “Real Reason for EPA Methane Rules: Prop Up Expensive Renewables”