West Deer Approves Olympus “Leto” Well Pad, Antis Pledge to Sue
Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. In 2021, Olympus applied to build a new well pad in a rural part of Allegheny County, in West Deer Township. So-called “concerned citizens” got amped up to oppose the project. They succeeded when town supervisors rejected the Dionysus well pad (see West Deer Township Denies Olympus Permit to Build Shale Pad). The “concerned citizens” then attempted to block a second well pad, the Leto pad, proposed by Olympus in another West Deer location (see West Deer Antis Try to Block 2nd Olympus Shale Well Pad). However, West Deer supervisors approved the Leto pad last week, which has set off the antis.
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The weekly rig count for the U.S. has continued to be anemic over the past two months. Baker Hughes, with its venerable rig count, reported last Friday that overall, the U.S. rig count continued to bleed rigs–down another five rigs to 682 in the week ending June 23. That’s the lowest count since April 2022 and the eighth week in a row the U.S. has lost active rigs. The good news for the Marcellus/Utica is that both the Marcellus and the Utica maintained the same rig levels last week. It’s good news they didn’t bleed any more rigs!
MDN recently reported that after eight years, Pennsylvania General Energy gave up on trying to build an environmentally safe wastewater injection well in Grant Township, Indiana County, PA (see 
New shale permits issued for Jun 12-18 in the Marcellus/Utica gained one. There were 21 new permits issued, up from 20 the previous week. Last week’s permit tally included 12 new permits in Pennsylvania, 6 new permits in Ohio, and 3 new permits in West Virginia. Snyder Brothers scored the most new permits, with 9 issued in Armstrong County, PA. INR had the second most new permits, with 4 permits issued in Carroll County, OH.
In the future, when everyone’s favorite groundhog Punxsutawney Phil pokes his head out of his hole in February to tell us whether or not there are another six weeks of winter, he may be looking at shale wastewater trucks coming and going on their way to a new underground injection well just outside of town. Yesterday the federal EPA issued a permit to G2 STEM LLC based in Fairfax, Virginia, to build a Class IID oil and gas wastewater underground injection well in Young Township, Jefferson County, PA. You may know the area by its famous boro, Punxsutawney.
Far-left environmentalist wackos have learned how to abuse the legal system in the U.S. in their attempts to block fossil energy. One of the places they excel in abusing the system is in Pennsylvania. When the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issues a new permit for a project the left opposes, they appeal the decision to a special court established in PA to hear appeals of DEP decisions, called the Environmental Hearing Board (EHB). The left tries to fool the EHB into ruling against a DEP decision by claiming there is “new information” that should be considered, information that has come to light since the original DEP decision. It’s a sleazy legal tactic. Senate Bill (SB) 198, introduced by PA Sen. Camera Bartolotta (R-Washington), closes that loophole in the legal process.
An article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tackles the issues of permit reform, environmental justice, and the intersection of the two. The article asks and attempts to answer the question, “How does one shape the other?” Based on quotes and comments in the story coming from the Shapiro administration, particularly from Acting Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), Rich Negrin, it’s obvious that Shapiro intends to redefine “environmental justice” so broadly that it will become meaningless. The aim seems to be to turn environmental justice into a blunt force instrument the left can use to deny any energy permit they don’t want to issue.
Those part of the environmental left were some of the biggest supporters of electing then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro as Pennsylvania’s next governor. But it seems the wacko environmental movement is not happy with their boy Josh. They have buyer’s remorse. It all started when, shortly after last November’s election, Shapiro announced a deal with Coterra Energy (formerly Cabot Oil & Gas) to settle a criminal case against the company for the decade-old matter of methane migration in Dimock, PA (see 
Even as the Bidenistas at the Dept. of Energy are deciding which regional hydrogen hub proposals to fund, and even though Pennsylvania, with its parochial application that competes against a much better application from West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, the Democrats in the PA House are attempting to force any new hydrogen projects in the Keystone state to NOT use fossil fuels–namely Marcellus Shale gas. Yes, they are insane! PA Dems (led by State Rep. Greg Vitali) are about to screw up PA’s already long shot at grabbing one of the 6 to 8 regional hydrogen hub projects and $1 billion in funding by promoting House Bill (HB) 1215–written by the radicals of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Talk about dumb. Wow!
Business leaders in Pennsylvania are keeping the pressure on Gov. Josh “do nothing” Shapiro–hoping to get him to keep an implied promise to remove the state from the odious carbon tax scheme called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). During the gubernatorial campaign, Shapiro expressed doubts about RGGI, implying he would not support PA’s participation, a campaign lie we warned you about at the time (see