OH Legislators Will Miss Promised Oct 1 Frack Tax Deadline
Last week MDN told you that Ohio’s RINO legislators continue to work on raising the Utica Shale severance tax in the state “behind closed doors” (see Ohio Legislators Continue Dalliance with Kasich Severance Tax). Those same legislators had previously said that a “study committee” working on a compromise proposal would have that proposal done by October 1. They’re now saying they won’t meet that deadline. We suppose any deadline on raising taxes that slips is good–but the fact remains they’re still hard at work trying to raise taxes on an industry reeling from low prices and laying down rigs left and right. An update on the latest coming from the frack tax hacks…
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Gulfport Energy recently announced they have awarded $35,000 in grants for 10 projects in four Ohio counties, including projects benefiting local citizens in Guernsey and Belmont counties (Utica Shale country). The grants in varying amounts were given to schools, labor unions and colleges–for educational programs. One of the grants, for $5,000, will be used to purchase Google Chromebooks for 150 middle school students. Google’s Chrome OS is the official operating system for MDN (we LOVE it). Nice to see Gulfport blessing local schools and organizations in the regions where they operate…
In December 2013 MDN told you about the Cornerstone Pipeline project–a pipeline that will stretch nearly 50 miles from the MarkWest cryogenic processing plant in Cadiz, OH northwest connecting to M3’s fractionator plant in Scio and M3’s cryogenic processing plant in Leesville along the way as it terminates and connects to Marathon Oil’s refinery in Canton, OH (see 
This is disappointing. For over a year utility and electric generating giant NRG had planned to convert a coal-fired electric generating plan in Avon Lake (Lorain County), OH to burn Utica Shale gas instead. NRG’s plan includes building a $40 million, 20-mile pipeline to feed the Avon plant. That pipeline was finally approved in June (see 
A truck driver hauling coiled tubing (pipe) used for fracking had an unfortunate run-in with a railroad overpass in Columbiana County, OH. The railroad bridge running over State Route 558 in Fairfield Township is just 13 feet high. The coiled tubing on the back of the truck was higher, and the driver didn’t realize it. So when he went under the overpass, it literally pulled it off and dumped it across the highway. Oops…
In April 2014, MDN told you about a proposal from Clean Energy Future to build an $800 million electric generation plant in Lordstown (Trumbull County), OH. The plant will be fired by natural gas from the Utica and Marcellus (see 
Last Thursday the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission issued its first order addressing the issue of forced pooling. The Commission upheld a forced pooling order against Ohio landowner Gary Teeter Trust (Ronald Roudeush is the trustee of the trust) by reaffirming that Ohio’s pooling and unitization provisions work to protect landowners–even those landowners like Roudeush who prefer not to be part of a drilling unit–by fairly compensating them. Rex Energy has leased land around the Teeter Trust (in Carroll County, OH) and sought to include 71 acres of the Teeter Trust property in a drilling unit, which Roudeush objected to and appealed. We have a copy of the decision below along with a further explanation of the case from the legal beagles at the Vorys law firm (the firm representing Rex Energy in the case)…
Only in America, and only in Ohio (slowly shaking our heads). Last Thursday, the Ohio Supreme Court voted 7-0 to force an anti-fracking ballot measure that has been on the ballot in Youngstown, Ohio four times previously to be added to the ballot once again in November–for a fifth time. Even though (as the justices acknowledge) the ballot measure itself “may be” unconstitutional, as their own court recently found (see 
Good news for the citizens of Ohio. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released a report on Ohio’s Class II Underground Injection Control (UIC) program–that is, wastewater injection wells–and found that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ (ODNR) regulatory program is of “good quality” and continues to provide strong protections for Ohio’s underground sources of drinking water (USDW). The federal EPA just gave Ohio a big, fat, sloppy kiss right on the mouth along with a big two thumbs up that the state is doing it right when it comes to wastewater injection wells…
On June 28, 2014 a fire at Statoil’s Eisenbarth eight-well pad in Monroe County, OH quickly spread and engulfed some 20 trucks on the pad site, along with other equipment, chemicals and supplies stored at the site. It was a devastating fire (see 
We previously told you about anti-fossil fuel groups in three Ohio counties–Athens, Fulton and Medina–who are being used by Big Green groups to attempt an illegal “community bill of rights” routine after the Ohio Supreme Court had already found local communities can’t ban fracking. They tried again and Ohio’s Secretary of State John Husted tossed the ballot measures (see 
ET Rover is a 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will serve mostly U.S. customers and will cost $3.7 billion to build and run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada (see 
Once again Ohio Republicans are starting to lose their cool and are considering a dalliance with a high Utica Shale severance tax proposed by RINO Gov. John Kasich (who’s running for president, but then nobody knows since he’s at 0% in the polls). Perhaps state Republicans think by giving Kasich what he wants in a high severance tax it will enhance his presidential prospects with conservatives? (NOT!) Whatever the reason, Ohio’s left-leaning PBS outlet at Kent State is reporting legislators are meeting “behind closed doors” with members of the oil and gas industry to beg and plead for an increase in the severance tax…
Just a few weeks ago Dominion announced they will hand out $1 million in grants for housing, food and health care in the regions in which they operate (see 
While two, possibly three, major ethane cracker plant projects are being considered for the Marcellus/Utica region, there are six ethane crackers currently being built in the Gulf Coast region. The kicker? Marcellus and Utica Shale ethane will feed some of, perhaps portions for all of, those six cracker plants. It’s a shame, really. We could be reaping the rewards of a massive influx of jobs and investment not only by building an ethane cracker, but with the satellite businesses that will locate around it. Instead, much of that investment and those jobs are slipping away to the Gulf via NGL pipelines…
You really can’t make this stuff up. CORN–the Ohio-based Coalition to Reroute Nexus (as in the NEXUS pipeline)–is holding a CORN maze for a fund-raiser. Could anything be CORNier? Of course, CORN is not really about re-routing the NEXUS pipeline to another area–it’s about stopping it altogether. Antis have a hard time telling the truth. It seems to be a congenital flaw. We’ve previously written about CORN on a number of occasions (see our