Luzerne County

Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Unbelievable: PA Dems Continue to Push for Severance Tax
October 10, 2016October 10, 2016

Let’s be honest: Pennsylvania already has a severance tax. It’s called an impact fee + corporate income tax. The combination of the two taxes in PA levies a collective “tax” on drillers as high OR HIGHER than other oil and gas states, like Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. To enact a new/extra severance tax on PA drillers, as Democrats like Sen. John Yudichak (Wilkes-Barre area) propose to do, would kill off what little drilling is happening in PA. It would make drilling in PA unprofitable. Yet Yudichak and others in his party see the recent PA Supreme Court decision as an excuse to push, one more time, for a severance tax. What is it about Democrats and their insatiable lust for your money?…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania

Moxie Chooses EthosEnergy to Run NEPA NatGas Electric Plant
September 12, 2016September 12, 2016

In June 2014 MDN broke the news that Moxie Energy was in the hunt to begin a third new Marcellus gas-powered electric plant project in Pennsylvania, near Wilkes-Barre (see Moxie Energy in Hunt for Third Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant?). Indeed, our suspicions were borne out. In November 2015 Moxie selected Gemma Power to build the plant, and construction began a month later (see Moxie Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Breaks Ground in NEPA). The 850-megawatt plant will use local Marcellus Shale gas to power it. Last week came the news that Moxie has contracted with EthosEnergy to run and maintain the plant. EthosEnergy announced it will 20 full-time employees from the area to run the plant. This is great news, signaling the project nears completion and start-up…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Transco | Williams

More Support for Atlantic Sunrise at FERC Hearings in PA
June 17, 2016June 17, 2016

Last night concluded a round of four public hearings held by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regarding approval for Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project. The first hearing, in Lancaster, PA, was largely a circus freak show of anti-drilling babblers (see Lancaster Antis Try to Bully Pipeline Supporters, FERC Reps). A session held in Lebanon County, PA was dominated by supporters of the pipeline (see Supporters Dominate 2nd FERC Hearing for Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline). Last night’s hearing, held in Dallas, PA (near Wilkes-Barre) also saw many supporters. One of the supporters who spoke in favor was MDN friend Kevin Lynn. MDN editor Jim Willis has appeared on Kevin’s weekend talk radio show a few times in the past (“The Shale Gas News,” heard every Saturday at 10 am on 94.3 FM in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area). Here’s how things went down last night in Dallas…
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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Research

Super Secret Study Details Plan to Transform NEPA Using NatGas
March 7, 2016March 7, 2016

Shhhh. It’s a secret. A super secret. Well, sort-of a secret. The Institute of Public Policy and Economic Development, a cooperative between a bunch of colleges located in northeastern PA, researched and compiled a new study–more than a year ago–for how northeastern PA can make the most out of the abundant, cheap and clean-burning natural gas that sits beneath them. The Institute tapped local drillers for $50,000 to research the project–and the findings are being kept secret. Why? Think of it as an NFL playbook. You don’t share your plays with the opposing team. In this case, opposing teams are other economic development agencies in other regions–like southwestern PA, eastern OH and WV. The secret study is very specific in naming names for how the region can attract new businesses that use cheap Marcellus Shale gas. The Institute doesn’t want to give away their best thinking so other regions can use the same strategies and target the same companies. Want to know what we think?…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania

Moxie Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Breaks Ground in NEPA
December 21, 2015December 21, 2015

Groundbreaking! Really great news from Salem Township in Luzerne County, PA. The Moxie Freedom Marcellus gas-powered electric plant broke ground last week. The $800 million, 1050-watt facility was approved by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection in September (see Moxie’s NEPA Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Gets DEP Approval). Just last month Gemma Power announced they were selected to build the plant for Moxie (see Gemma Power Gets Contract to Build Moxie Freedom Electric Plant). Here’s the good news that the first shovel hit the dirt last week…
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Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | UGI Energy Services

NEPA Electric Plant Converted from Coal to NatGas a Huge Success
December 3, 2015December 3, 2015

As MDN has previously chronicled, Chicago-based Invenergy hopes to build what will be the largest (to date) electric generating plant in the state of Pennsylvania powered by natural gas. Invenergy hopes to build the 1300-megawatt plant in the borough of Jessup (Lackawanna County), near Scranton. But there’s been quite a bit of opposition, most of it from anti-fossil fuelers (see our Jessup power plant stories here). The folks in Jessup might want to cast their eyes on another project not far away, in Luzerne County, where a former coal-fired power plant was recently converted to burn natural gas. That plant, owned and operated by UGI, reduced sulfur dioxide emissions by 99%, and reduced nitrogen oxide emissions by 95%. That is, natgas-fired electric plants are one of the lowest polluting ways to generate electricity–and far more reliable than alternatives like solar and wind…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania

Gemma Power Gets Contract to Build Moxie Freedom Electric Plant
November 11, 2015September 12, 2016

Over a year ago MDN broke the news that Moxie Energy was in the hunt to begin a third new Marcellus gas-powered electric plant project in Pennsylvania (see Moxie Energy in Hunt for Third Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant?). Indeed, our suspicions were borne out and Moxie pursued a project to build a plant in Luzerne County. Moxie is calling it the Freedom project and in November they received approval from Salem Township to proceed (see Moxie’s NEPA Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Gets 1st Approval). In September Moxie received the all-important approval–permission from the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (see Moxie’s NEPA Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Gets DEP Approval). We were convinced that like the previous two such projects, Moxie Liberty and Moxie Patriot were sold to Panda Power Funds, the company that is right now building them. However, a press release was just issued by Gemma Power Systems that says Gemma has been selected by Moxie to build the $800 million project. Here’s the details from Gemma on what technology they will use to build the 1,000-megawatt plant near Scranton…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation

NEPA Democrat Congressman Targets FERC in Effort to Stop Pipelines
September 29, 2015September 29, 2015

Congressman Matt Cartwright – Democrat

An anti-drilling Democrat Congressman from Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District (Wilkes-Barre area), U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, continues a campaign targeting the Marcellus Shale industry for extinction–an industry that employs many of his constituents and benefits all of his constituents with lower natural gas and electricity prices. Cartwright and other anti-drilling members of Congress have recently changed strategies and are now attacking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) hoping to slow down and stop new pipeline construction. Cartwright sent a letter to the Inspector General for the Dept. of Energy (under which FERC sits) asking the IG to instigate a witch hunt against FERC with the aim of getting FERC to slow down its already molasses-slow permitting process for new pipelines. Cartwright and other members of Congress (from New England) hope they can bully FERC into abandoning its stated charter to dispassionately and without political influence evaluate pipeline projects based solely on their environmental impact to the local communities through which they run…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Regulation

Moxie’s NEPA Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Gets DEP Approval
September 21, 2015September 21, 2015

Over a year ago MDN broke the news that Moxie Energy was in the hunt to begin a third new Marcellus gas-powered electric plant project in Pennsylvania (see Moxie Energy in Hunt for Third Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant?). Indeed, our suspicions were borne out and Moxie pursued a project to build a plant in Luzerne County. Moxie is calling it the Freedom project and in November they received approval from Salem Township to proceed (see Moxie’s NEPA Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Gets 1st Approval). However, last week they received the all-important approval–permission from the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

PennEast Pipeline Offers Spirited Defense, Counters False Claims
July 24, 2015July 24, 2015

How do you break through the ongoing misinformation pumped out by mainstream media and lying environmental organizations like the Sierra Club and THE Delaware Riverkeeper when it comes to the necessity, wholesomeness and righteousness of pipeline projects like the PennEast Pipeline planned to run from the Wilkes-Barre, PA area to the Trenton, NJ area? Peter Terranova, chairman of the PennEast Pipeline Board of Managers, is taking his message about the PennEast directly to the citizens by publishing a guest viewpoint in Wilkes-Barre’s The Citizens’ Voice newspaper. In his column Terranova lays out the case for the PennEast–and addresses some of the lies being spread by ne’er-do-well “environmental” organizations…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pike County | Pipelines | Susquehanna County | Tennessee Gas Pipeline | Wayne County

Kinder Morgan Hops on the Pipeline Payola Bandwagon in NEPA
April 17, 2015April 17, 2015

Look–we’ve written about this before and we’re not going to belabor the point–about pipeline companies using payola to buy support for the pipelines they plan to build through communities. The Constitution Pipeline did it last March in New York (see Constitution Pipeline Payments to Groups – Donations or Payola?). PennEast recently did it this March in southeast Pennsylvania and New Jersey (see PennEast Payola? Buying Support One Community at a Time). Now it’s Kinder Morgan’s turn. KM handed out checks this week in Wayne, Susquehanna, Pike and Luzerne counties in northeastern PA. It’s amazing how much good press, and good will, a $10,000 donation can buy you–especially when you give it to a school…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Dela. Riverkeeper Loses Bid to Stop Transco Expansion in PA
March 23, 2015March 23, 2015

Question for THE Delaware Riverkeeper: What address should Williams send you the $1,125,000 bill because you blocked their tree cutting for a FERC-approved pipeline extension in Luzerne County? That’s how much it ended up costing Williams after THE Delaware Riverkeeper found a judge in Washington, DC who stopped Williams from clearing trees along the path of the pipeline expansion starting March 11 (see Dela. Riverkeeper Halts Transco Pipeline Upgrade with Lawsuit). Riverkeeper was hoping they could run the clock out because Williams can’t cut those trees from April through October, just in case an endangered Indiana bat decides to roost in a tree. Riverkeeper knows that and wanted to screw with the tree cutting schedule, hoping to buy an additional seven months to mount more legal challenges. The Riverkeeper legal shenanigan cost Williams real money (see Dela. Riverkeeper Leidy Lawsuit Costing Williams $125K per Day). It ended up being 9 days total, until a judge ruled last Thursday that Williams could resume their tree cutting (as we knew they would). Nine days at $125K per day is $1,125,000. Since Riverkeeper lost their case, we think they should pay the bill…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Transco | Williams

Dela. Riverkeeper Halts Transco Pipeline Upgrade with Lawsuit
March 16, 2015March 16, 2015

Someone needs to sue THE Delaware Riverkeeper (Maya van Rossum) the way that organization is suing legitimate and legal companies to block legitimate and legal activity in the Marcellus Shale. Delaware Riverkeeper apparently has endless bags of money, made available to them by the Park Foundation, Heinz Endowments and other anti-drilling “non-profit” groups, to file endless frivolous lawsuits. The latest is particularly insidious. Williams has just received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build a few loops–extra lengths of pipeline immediately next to existing pipeline–for the Transco Pipeline in northeast PA and in NJ (see FERC Approves Williams Leidy Southeast Project in PA/NJ). Part of the requirement by FERC is that Williams cannot cut down trees between April and October–a full seven months–to avoid “harming” the endangered Indiana bat that may (or may not) roost in those trees…
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Carrizo Oil & Gas | Columbia County | Encana Energy | Energy Companies | EXCO Resources | Lackawanna County | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Southwestern Energy | WPX Energy

Lights Out for Marcellus Drilling in Lackawanna/Luzerne Counties
February 23, 2015February 23, 2015

It’s lights out for Marcellus drilling in both Lackawanna and Luzerne counties in northeastern Pennsylvania. Lackawanna and Luzerne are otherwise known and Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, respectively. But it’s not because of the two large cities located in those counties that Marcellus drilling will not be done (there are plenty of rural locations in each). It’s because there’s no gas in the shale layer to be had in those counties–at least not in quantities that are commercially profitable. Over the past five years seven different wells have been drilled in both counties (or very close by in neighboring Columbia County). The seventh and final well, drilled by WPX Energy, has just been plugged and abandoned…
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Carbon County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation

More Silly Antics from Antis at FERC PennEast Pipeline Hearing
February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

We’ve been to a number of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) scoping hearings, as well as hearings by the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation. Whether it’s a hearing on pipelines, compressor stations or shale drilling, anti-fossil fuel nutters always show up and it seems as if they read from the same script every time. The latest example of that comes from Carbon County, PA where the silly antics of antis was on full display once again, this time at a FERC hearing on the PennEast Pipeline. Example: One anti-pipeline nutter used part of her 3 minutes of talk time to read the lyrics from a Disney movie (boggles the mind)…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania

NEPA Anti-Drilling Group Holds Press Conf to Celebrate Court Settlement
January 23, 2015January 23, 2015

On Monday, MDN told you about the resolution of a case in involving a northeast Pennsylvania anti-drilling group, Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, or GDAC (see NEPA Anti Group Wins Lawsuit, Dropped from Terrorist Watch List). GDAC was placed on a state terrorist watch list in 2010. GDAC says they are peaceful and have never broken any laws in their efforts to stop Marcellus Shale drilling in the Keystone State. GDAC sued the PA Dept. of Homeland Security over the matter and last week the two sides settled the federal lawsuit. Terms of the settlement are private and not disclosed by request of the state, which says to us GDAC probably got money out of it. If taxpayer money has gone to settle the case, why don’t we have the right to know how much? Yesterday GDAC and their attorney held a press conference to discuss the settlement of the case…
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