PA DEP Still Hasn’t Cleared 33% of Permit Backlog (640 Permits)
Permitting in Pennsylvania overseen by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been a hot mess for years. A Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit sometimes takes two, three, or even six months for approval — instead of the law-mandated 14 days. It got so bad that in the fall of 2019, PA State Sen. Gene Yaw introduced a bill to allow third-party reviews of these permits to speed up approvals (see PA Sen. Yaw Intros Bill to Allow 3rd Party Review of Erosion Permits). In March of this year, the DEP said it was making progress in reducing turnaround times for permits, including Chapter 102 permits (see PA DEP Claims Progress in Reducing Out-of-Control Permit Backlog). In April, the DEP launched yet another initiative to reduce the time required to issue new Chapter 102 permits (see PA DEP Makes Effort to Speed Up Approvals for Erosion Permits). In July, the DEP claimed it had reduced its massive backlog of permit applications by 56% since the end of last year (see PA DEP Claims it Reduced Permits Backlog by Half Since 2023). The agency is back to tout that the backlog has now been whittled down by 67% (another 11% beyond July). What that means is that 33% of the backlog remains. Read More “PA DEP Still Hasn’t Cleared 33% of Permit Backlog (640 Permits)”
Last week, National Center for Energy Analytics (NCEA) Senior Fellow Tristan Abbey published a report examining the politicization of liquid natural gas (LNG) exports and recommending three pathways to ensure the United States maintains and expands the economic and geopolitical benefits from its dominant position in the global LNG market. In “A Generational Opportunity: Achieving U.S. Dominance in Global LNG” (full copy below), Abbey explores the history of LNG exports, the mechanisms by which the U.S. ascended to primacy, and the urgency in pursuing reform to capture a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity. 
In September, the Executive Director of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) renewed 20 water-use permits for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Bradford, Clearfield, Lycoming, Sullivan, and Susquehanna counties. We’re just learning of the action via an official notice published in the Oct. 26 edition of the Pennsylvania Bulletin. The approvals, which are NOT subject to public review according to SRBC regulations, are general water permits. Each site will be required to receive a specific water withdrawal approval at a later date. 
Yesterday, the radicalized Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project filed a rulemaking petition with the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) asking the EQB to increase minimum setback distances from fracked wells. Setbacks, also referred to as protective buffers and no-drill zones in the context of fracking, are mandatory distances that fracked wells must abide by to keep them away from homes, schools, hospitals, drinking water wells, and surface water. PA already has a safe and sufficient setback of 500 feet. The groups want that increased by 650% to 3,281 feet. It would ban approximately 95% of all new shale wells in the state. 
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) asked a panel of lawmakers called the Ohio Controlling Board to waive the need for competitive bidding for $11.2 million in contracts to plug orphaned oil and gas wells around the state. Yesterday, the Controlling Board approved the request. The contracts were awarded to two companies: Next LVL Energy (owned by Diversified Energy) will receive $7 million, and CSR Services will receive $4.2 million. 
Under the Clean Air Act, legal challenges to “nationally applicable” EPA rules must be tried in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit). Unfortunately, that court is loaded with Constitution-ignoring liberals. The U.S. Supreme Court has just agreed to hear arguments in a set of cases that seek to move legal battles over certain EPA rules that aren’t “nationally applicable” from the D.C. Circuit to other appeals courts around the country. Is this the beginning of real justice, at least for some issues related to the out-of-control EPA? 
Kentucky has seen unprecedented economic growth in recent years like other southern states. Data centers are looking to Kentucky for future expansion. Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU), both part of PPL Corporation, are forecasting in their Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) the need for additional power generation due to the expected influx of data centers and economic development across their service territories. The companies want to build two new natural gas combined-cycle generation units—one in 2030 and another in 2031. 
It is just coming to light for us now that back in August, Hope Gas, a large local utility company that provides gas service to more than 131,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-seven West Virginia counties, filed a rate case with the state Public Service Commission (PSC) looking to convert customers who use a “farm tap” gas system to either propane fuel or electric heat for their homes. The change would affect around 600 customers, removing them from the ability to use local natural gas. 
Just two days ago, MDN brought you a story about a developing issue of who, ultimately, should pay to build out new electricity sources for data centers (and AI) that increasingly use huge amounts of power (see 
The environmental left continues to try and co-opt the term “Evangelical Christian,” defined as protestants who tend to be pro-life and conservative in their political views. We’re talking about the so-called Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN) and its political lobbying arm, EEN Action. The group continues to pressure Pennsylvania’s political leaders to adopt unreliable renewable energy (by government fiat) and to force residents to dump their use of fossil energy. We previously exposed them for who they really are (see 
In August, some two dozen states asked the U.S. Supreme Court to place a temporary block on new EPA regulations that will put all coal plants out of business and block most (if not all) new gas-fired power plants from getting built (see 
In November 2022, PA’s then-Governor, Tom Wolf, signed into law a bill providing $142 million annually in state tax credits for several purposes, including clean hydrogen hubs, natural gas use, semiconductor manufacturing, and milk processors (see 
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (6th Circuit) slammed the brakes on a pipeline project in Tennessee on Friday. In January, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a certificate of public convenience for Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) subsidiary to build the Cumberland Project, a 32-mile, 30-inch pipeline to feed 245 MMcf/d of natural gas (from the Marcellus/Utica) to the Tennessee Valey Authority’s (TVA) proposed Cumberland gas-fired power plant. 
It’s good to revisit the basics from time to time. When drilling a shale oil or gas well, each well produces “brine,” a super-salty (minerally) water from the depths that keeps flowing long after the well is drilled and is online. This is not surface water; fresh water found down to about 300 feet. This is another layer of water thousands of feet below the surface. Disposing of brine can be a problem given the minerals in it. A lot of brine is recycled and used again for new drilling and fracking. But what happens when drilling slows down? The water continues to flow out of existing wells and needs proper disposal. Researchers at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, may have a new solution.