Allegheny County

The deal by CONSOL Energy to lease 9,000 acres owned by Pittsburgh International Airport for shale gas drilling is a done deal. Yesterday the Allegheny County Council voted to accept the deal. A few nut job protesters turned up in gas masks (as is their way). The vote was 9-4 in favor of the deal. Once County Executive Rich Fitzgerald signs it, the Airport Authority will receive a check for $50 million.

Read More “$50M Check in the Mail: Pittsburgh Airport Lease a Done Deal”

MDN has been following the deal to lease 9,263 acres of Pittsburgh International Airport land for shale gas drilling. As you may recall, there were two bids submitted in December, one by CONSOL with an 18% royalty and signing bonus of $20.8 million, and one from EQT, also with an 18% royalty but a hefty $44 million signing bonus—more than twice that of CONSOL. Logic would dictate that EQT’s bid would be accepted. But it wasn’t. The Airport Authority chose to accept CONSOL’s bid, leading us to theorize that the “fix” was in (see Inside Job? Pittsburgh Airport Leases Land to CONSOL).

A few weeks later word came out that the Airport Authority was negotiating with CONSOL to get them to raise their signing bonus, which seemed strange to us. We’ve never heard of a government agency accepting a bid and then turning around and renegotiating it (see Pittsburgh Airport Wants More $ from CONSOL…After Accepting Bid). It appears that “further negotiation” was successful. The Airport Authority now reports they’ve approved a renegotiated deal with CONSOL with a $50 million signing bonus—nearly 2 1/2 times the original amount offered when the sealed bids were opened in December. Anyone else smell rotten fish?

Read More “CONSOL Increases Bonus Offer to Pgh Airport by 2.4 Times to $50M”

The story of the Pittsburgh International Airport’s acceptance of a bid from natural gas driller CONSOL Energy to drill on and under airport property, a bid that would provide less than half the money that a bid from EQT would have provided, continues to get curiouser and curiouser (see Inside Job? Pittsburgh Airport Leases Land to CONSOL for background and MDN’s original comments).

Apparently MDN isn’t, as we had thought, the only one who noticed this deal smells to high heaven. The latest news: PIA is negotiating with CONSOL to get them to raise the signing bonus, which is now rumored to be somewhere in the neighborhood of “$35 million to $40 million.” That’s certainly better, but still not has high as EQT’s offer of a $44 million bonus payment.

And what’s with “negotiating” after a bid has been accepted? A bid is a bid—you accept or reject it, especially if a public agency is involved. You don’t accept an offer and then promptly start negotiating to change it! Something is still very “off” about all of this…

Read More “Pittsburgh Airport Wants More $ from CONSOL…After Accepting Bid”