Penn State Suggests Reusing Old O&G Wells for Geothermal Energy
Here’s a novel idea. What if you take some of the hundreds of thousands of abandoned oil and natural gas wells dotting the countryside in Pennsylvania and run tubing into those wells, circulating water through the tubing, and transfer Mom Earth’s natural heat to the water and then use the heated water heat homes and farms and businesses that are located nearby? In other words, instead of capping the wells (plugging them with cement), cover them to prevent methane leaks and use the wells as a geothermal heat source. At least some of them. Penn State has looked at it and published a paper to say it’s feasible.
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The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced that CNX Resources has paid two civil penalty assessments totaling $200,000 for violations at two different well sites in Richhill Township, Greene County. According to the civil penalty assessment paperwork, CNX spilled “production fluids” (wastewater, drilling mud, etc.) and didn’t clean it up quickly enough. Tallying all of the spills, CNX inadvertently spilled 2,170 gallons of production fluid at two sites, and ended up removing roughly 3,400 tons of “contaminated” soil.
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) voted to approve the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and its Environmental Quality Board’s (EQB) rammed-through (in a rush) regulation to control volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and by extension methane, for conventional drilling sites throughout the state (see 
Equitrans Midstream (formerly EQT Midstream) owns the Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County, in Pennsylvania. Beginning Nov. 6th, one of the wells at the Rager Mountain area (a depleted conventional well drilled in 1965) began leaking methane around the well casing (see 
Earlier this week, Shell announced its mighty ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA (near Pittsburgh) is finally, ten years after first announcing, fully operational and producing plastic pellets (see 
Permits issued to drill new Marcellus/Utica wells slipped last week, for the week of Nov. 7-13. Last week saw a total of 26 new permits issued, falling from 43 permits the week before. Pennsylvania received the most permits, just barely, with 13 new permits. Ohio received 12 new permits, and West Virginia a single new permit.
Two separate but related cases concerning Pennsylvania’s entrance into the interstate carbon cap-and-trade program known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which we call a carbon tax, had their day in court yesterday. Judges from PA’s typically conservative Commonwealth Court heard oral arguments and, according to leftists, zeroed in on the issue of whether the so-called RGGI “fee” assessed by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is really a fee, or instead is really a tax. It makes a difference. The DEP can, constitutionally, assess a fee, but it cannot unilaterally slap a new tax on coal- and natural gas-fired power plants (as it is trying to do).
The leftist members of the Allegheny, PA County Council have proven just how leftward they have lurched (and how unhinged they have become). In July, the Council voted to overturn the veto of a ban on drilling for natural gas under (never on top of) county parks (see 
Yeah, well, that didn’t take long, did it? Pennsylvania Governor-elect Josh Shapiro, just a few days after he won the election, has vowed to further restrict fracking with huge new setback regulations. He’s also promising new regulations for gathering pipelines. In other words, he’s about to screw over the Marcellus industry and pretty much stop new drilling in the state. Still glad you voted for Shapiro?
Several lawsuits have been filed against the Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf administration in its attempt to force the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax program, including a lawsuit by the state legislature. In July, three gas-fired power plant operators–Calpine Corporation, Tenaska Westmoreland Management, and Fairless Energy–filed a lawsuit against the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and its Environmental Quality Board (EQB) opposing its attempt (under orders from Wolf) to force the state into RGGI carbon tax auctions. That lawsuit has some rather illuminating charges–like the claim that moving to RGGI will result in HIGHER, not lower, emissions from power plants.
On Friday, MDN told you that the state of Pennsylvania has decided to endorse a private industry application (by Shell and Equinor) instead of doing the hard work of submitting its own official application to attract a $1 billion hydrogen hub (see 
Abarta Energy (aka Abarta Oil & Gas Co.) was a privately-owned company based in Pittsburgh with assets including wells and pipeline systems located in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky. In November 2021, Abarta filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reporting liabilities of $25.4 million and assets of $4.2 million (see 
Earlier this year, Equitrans Midstream announced it had filed a new pipeline expansion project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see