Beaver County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Regulation | Shell
PA DEP Forms Ctte to Dole Out $5M in Shell Cracker Shakedown Cash
Although Shell maintains flaring and accidental emissions from its new multi-billion-dollar ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA, have not violated state and federal air standards, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) says they have–on numerous occasions. Shell didn’t argue the point, and in May, the company agreed to pay nearly $10 million in fines and “contributions” to benefit local communities (see Shell Cracker Agrees to $10M Shakedown from PA, Restarting Now). The DEP announced yesterday that it had appointed a 17-member committee to figure out how to dole out $5 million to fund local community projects near the cracker.
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In the fall of 2021, President Biden signed into law the so-called Infrastructure bill, some $1.2 trillion in pork barrel spending, passed with the help of turncoat Republicans (see 
In April, Williams filed a formal application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to upgrade Transco pipeline’s capacity in Alabama and Georgia. The Alabama Georgia Connector Project involves upgrades to five compressor stations that will increase capacity in the region by an extra 63.8 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d). The mighty Transco pipeline is a 10,200-mile natural gas transportation system that extends from south Texas to New York City. Transco is the nation’s largest-volume natural gas pipeline system, transporting about 15% of the natural gas consumed in the United States. Williams reversed the flow on Transco years ago to flow Marcellus/Utica gas to the south.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally-owned electric utility corporation in the U.S. TVA’s service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. TVA is the sixth-largest power supplier and the largest public utility in the country. In 2021, MDN told you that TVA is spending over $1 billion to replace six coal-fired plants with natgas-fired turbines (see 
The political situation in Pennsylvania is quite fascinating to watch. The PA House has a one-seat Democrat majority, which means all of the committees in the House are now (for the first time in years) run by Democrats. One of them, Rep. Greg Vitali from Delaware County (near Philadelphia), chairs the powerful House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee. Immediately upon seizing power, Vitali tried to ram through a number of radical bills that would greatly harm (or even end) the Marcellus industry in the state. We previously told you members of his own party slapped him down, making him pull back and abandon two bills he really really wanted (see 
When the Bidenistas act outside of their predictable, normal behavior, it raises a red flag, making us wonder what they are up to. Last week a leftist who works in the Biden Department of Interior told a group of rabid leftists (her philosophical kin) the Biden administration will not, as the group demands, “phase down oil and gas production on federal lands and waters.” Which sent the crazies into orbit. The Interior Bidentista told them the administration has “limited resources” and “competing priorities” that prevent it from, at this time, pursuing a phase-down of all oil and gas drilling on federal lands.
Finally! On Monday, Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) builder Equitrans asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to restart all remaining construction to install the final 6% of MVP in West Virginia and Virginia. Yesterday, FERC issued that permission. Ladies and gentlemen, start your bulldozers! Company spokeswoman Natalie Cox said crews will begin work “shortly” on all remaining construction. We don’t know what shortly means, but we hope it means this week.
One of the biggest complaints from drillers and pipeline companies doing business with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), going back for years, is the lack of speed when reviewing and approving new permits. In particular, Chapter 102 (erosion and sediment control) and Chapter 105 (water obstructions and encroachments) permits. At a budget hearing in Harrisburg in March, then-Acting (now confirmed) DEP Sec. Rich Negrin presented a 10-point plan to improve the DEP’s response times in issuing permits (see 
The Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative (VCMI), formed with funding by some of the biggest funders of Big Green causes, has officiously announced the publication of a new “Claims Code of Practice” that private companies WILL adopt–or be forced out of business. The Code of Practice is aimed at forcing companies to stop using anything to do with fossil fuels, on the theory it will Save the Planet. Companies can disregard the Code of Practice (a supposedly voluntary standard) at their own peril. If you don’t hew to VCMI’s standards, you WILL be targeted.
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The Pennsylvania Senate voted yesterday to confirm Rich Negrin as the Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). No more “Acting” in front of his title. The vote was 48 to 1 to confirm, with the lone holdout being Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Adams). As we reported yesterday, Sen. Gene Yaw gave Negrin a grilling about several issues, one of them being the DEP’s apparent support for House Bill (HB) 170 that would end all new Marcellus drilling by using extreme setbacks (see 
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Just two weeks ago, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) told all water users in the basin that have withdrawal permits, including shale drillers, they should review those permits, and if there are restrictions for withdrawals during low streamflow conditions, they need to make alternative plans (see