| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

24 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV May 16-22

Just last week MDN told you we will, from now on, bring you new permit data for the previous week on Fridays. Yet here it is Thursday and we’re sharing the permit data for last week. What gives? MDN and its author, Jim Willis, are taking a break Friday (tomorrow) and next Monday for the Memorial Day holiday. Well, we’re taking Monday off for the holiday. We’re taking Friday off because there’s a wedding in Jim’s family this weekend. There are preparations to make, and celebrations to partake in. So we’re bringing you the permit data today, on Thursday. Speaking of which, there were 24 new permits issued last week, with 14 of them going to Pennsylvania, seven to Ohio, and three to West Virginia. We break it down below.
Read More “24 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV May 16-22”

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

35 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV May 9-15

We’re giving Fridays a shot as the day we will release weekly updates for permits issued for the prior one-week period. Today’s report is for the period of May 9-15 (last week, not this week). It seems as if the various state agencies have the data updated by the end of the week following, so that’s how we’ll release it (for now). Last week, Pennsylvania issued 22 new permits with Seneca Resources taking the lion’s share of 12 permits on two different pads (eight in Lycoming County and four in McKean County). Repsol scored four permits in Bradford County.
Read More “35 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV May 9-15”

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

35 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Apr 25-May 1

Last week Pennsylvania issued 16 new shale well permits. EQT led the way with ten permits, all of them for wells in Greene County. You just HAVE to read the names of the wells (below). After getting skunked for two weeks in a row, Ohio finally issued permits once again last week–ten of them. Ascent Resources scored six permits, mostly in Belmont County. Encino Energy had four permits, all in Carroll County. Finally, West Virginia had nine permits. Antero Resources scored seven of the nine (six in Wetzel County), and Southwestern took the remaining two permits (both in Marshall County).
Read More “35 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Apr 25-May 1”

| | | |

PA DCED Invests Another $3.2M in “Last Mile” PIPE Grant Projects

Pennsylvania’s Pipeline Investment Program (or PIPE) issues grants covering part of the cost for building new natural gas pipelines to connect homes and businesses, typically in rural parts of the state, to homegrown Marcellus Shale gas supplies. We’ve written about many of the PIPE grant projects in the past (see our PIPE stories here). Three more PIPE grants were announced yesterday by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Community and Economic Development (DCED), grants totaling $3.2 million.
Read More “PA DCED Invests Another $3.2M in “Last Mile” PIPE Grant Projects”

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

18 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 10-16

Last week 18 permits were issued to drill new shale wells in the Marcellus/Utica, down from 24 the week before. Pennsylvania had the most new permits with 12, mostly in the northeastern part of the state in Lycoming and Susquehanna counties. Ohio had four permits evenly divided between Columbiana and Harrison counties. West Virginia had just two lonely permits, one in Lewis and one in Wetzel counties.
Read More “18 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 10-16”

| | | | | | | | | | |

13 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Nov 22-28

It seems as if Pennsylvania has been on a yo-yo lately. Three weeks ago PA issued just two permits to drill new shale wells. Two weeks ago PA issued 15 permits! And now, for last week (Nov. 22-28), PA flipped back to just two new permits again. What’s going on? Did the DEP take most of last week off for the Thanksgiving holiday? Perhaps. Ohio pulled our region’s bacon out of the fire by issuing 11 new permits last week for Utica shale wells. West Virginia drillers got skunked with zero new permits last week. All totaled there were just 13 new permits issued last week in the M-U, down from 32 the week before.
Read More “13 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Nov 22-28”

| | | | | | |

PA Approves Another $4.4M in Grants for Local NatGas Pipelines

Pennsylvania’s Pipeline Investment Program (or PIPE) issues grants covering part of the cost for building new natural gas pipelines to connect homes and businesses, typically in rural parts of the state, to homegrown Marcellus Shale gas supplies. We’ve written about many of the PIPE grant projects in the past (see our PIPE stories here). Five more PIPE grants totaling $4.4 million have just been awarded–in Adams, Indiana, Lebanon, Lycoming, and Northampton counties. That makes 35 total PIPE grants thus far.
Read More “PA Approves Another $4.4M in Grants for Local NatGas Pipelines”

| | | | |

Are Some PA Repubs Like Rep. Struzzi Warming Up to Carbon Tax?

Danger, Will Robinson! One of the leading lights in the Pennsylvania legislature against Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf’s idiotic (and dangerous) carbon tax plan, called RGGI (Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative), has been Republican House Rep. Jim Struzzi (from Indiana County). Struzzi sponsored House Bill (HB) 2025 last year giving PA residents a say in whether or not the state should join RGGI (see PA Senate Passes Bill Giving Legislators Say in RGGI Carbon Tax). Wolf subsequently vetoed the bill because he doesn’t want the general public to have a say.
Read More “Are Some PA Repubs Like Rep. Struzzi Warming Up to Carbon Tax?”

| | | | | |

Grant Twp, PA Sued 2nd Time for Illegal Law Banning Injection Well

Unfortunately, Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) had to file a second federal lawsuit against Grant Township, PA (located in Indiana County) to overturn the town’s patently illegal regulations that prevent PGE from establishing and using a safe wastewater injection well in a rural part of the town.
Read More “Grant Twp, PA Sued 2nd Time for Illegal Law Banning Injection Well”

| | | | | |

Grant Twp, PA Files to Dismiss Lawsuit re Injection Well Ban

Unrepentant. That’s the best single word we can think of describing the attitude of “leaders” in Grant Township (Indiana County, PA) who illegally passed their own set of environmental laws, violating the PA state constitution, in a bid to prevent a safe saltwater injection well from being built in a rural location in the town. Grant continues to use radicalized lawyers in their lawbreaking bid to prevent the well.
Read More “Grant Twp, PA Files to Dismiss Lawsuit re Injection Well Ban”

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

EQT Provides More Details on DGO Asset Sale, 1.4 Bcf/d Curtailment

EQT announced yesterday it has closed on a deal to sell “certain non-strategic assets” to Diversified Gas & Oil (DGO) for $125 million, plus another potential $20 million later on. MDN first told you about this deal on May 13 (see Diversified Buys 900 EQT Wells (67 Shale Wells) for $125M). This is the first time EQT has commented publicly on the DGO deal. EQT’s statement differs from previous news accounts about the deal.
Read More “EQT Provides More Details on DGO Asset Sale, 1.4 Bcf/d Curtailment”

| | | | |

PA DEP Caves to Radicals, Revokes PGE Injection Well Permit

This is truly disappointing. A few weeks ago we told you that Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled a long-running lawsuit involving Grant Township (Indiana County, PA) will continue on through the court system (see Grant Lawsuit Using ERA Threatens PA Injection Wells & Fracking). Grant, a town that passed an ordinance cooked up by the extreme radical Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) to try and block a state-approved injection well, is attempting to use the state’s so-called Environmental Rights Act to justify its illegal ordinance. The court gave its blessing to that effort. And because the court is sending the signal it’s OK to invoke the ERA to justify just about anything, the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is now going along by revoking a permit issued to Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) to build an injection well in Grant.
Read More “PA DEP Caves to Radicals, Revokes PGE Injection Well Permit”

| | | | | | |

Grant Lawsuit Using ERA Threatens PA Injection Wells & Fracking

In a disappointing decision, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court recently ruled a long-running lawsuit filed against Grant Township (Indiana County, PA) will continue on through the court system. For the past several years we’ve reported on the case of Grant Township, a town that passed an ordinance cooked up by the radical Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) to try and block a state-approved injection well. Part of the ordinance was tossed. However, Commonwealth Court has decided the town can continue to try and make a case that it should be able to override state law with its home-cooked regulations because by doing so they will somehow protect citizens’ health, which the town says is allowed under PA’s poorly-written Environmental Rights Amendment (ERA).
Read More “Grant Lawsuit Using ERA Threatens PA Injection Wells & Fracking”

| | | | | |

The Real Costs of PA Gov. Wolf’s Carbon Tax by Joining RGGI

Opposition to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to have PA join with northeastern states in the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) continues. Big opposition. Earlier this month Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf went completely off his rocker with a power-grab to force PA into a regional alliance to tax natural gas-fired electric plants out of existence (see Gov. Wolf Goes Bonkers: EO Destroying Gas-Fired Elec, Carbon Tax). The reaction was swift–on both sides of the issue (see Reaction to Gov. Wolf’s Bonkers Plan to Strangle NatGas Elec Plants). Reaction against the plan continues. The Indiana County, PA Board of Commissioners recently adopted a unanimous resolution against Wolf’s foolish plan, laying out in dollars and cents the very high cost such a plan will have on the county (in lost taxes and lost jobs).
Read More “The Real Costs of PA Gov. Wolf’s Carbon Tax by Joining RGGI”

| | | | | | |

Grant Twp, PA Continues Legal Battle Against PGE Injection Well

For the past several years we’ve reported on the case of Grant Township, PA, a town that passed an ordinance cooked up by the radical Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) to try and block a state-approved injection well. Part of the ordinance was tossed, and earlier this year a judge ordered the town to pay $102,000 in legal fees incurred by the operator the town has harmed by its action (see Judge Orders Grant Twp to Pay PGE $102K in Legal Fees). Grant appealed the fine to federal court. In the meantime, Grant Twp continues to burn through taxpayer money by appealing the poorly-written ordinance that bans injection wells. Grant was in court again on Friday paying lawyers to defend the indefensible.
Read More “Grant Twp, PA Continues Legal Battle Against PGE Injection Well”

| | | | | |

Judge Orders Grant Twp to Pay PGE $102K in Legal Fees

Pennsylvania towns that pass sketchy local ordinances that skirt state laws are on notice: It’s going to cost you. Big. For the past several years we’ve reported on the case of Grant Township, PA that passed an ordinance cooked up by the radical Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) to try and block a state-approved injection well. The ordinance was tossed by a judge, and now the town will have to pay $102,000 in legal fees incurred by the operator.
Read More “Judge Orders Grant Twp to Pay PGE $102K in Legal Fees”