PA Legislators Must Update Laws & Regs to Attract Hydrogen Hub
On Monday, the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources & Energy Committee heard from the leaders of state agencies as well as industry experts on carbon capture and storage. The Senators got an earful. If PA wants to lure billions of federal dollars for a hydrogen hub to the commonwealth, the General Assembly will need to reform the legal and permitting process to make it happen.
Read More “PA Legislators Must Update Laws & Regs to Attract Hydrogen Hub”
Anti-fossil fuelers at Penn State are trying their hardest to spin the results of a recent study by university researchers to say it shows a link between “elevated levels of chloride in groundwater” and fracking in Pennsylvania. As we read a summary of the study appearing on Penn State News, it was obvious the study proves just the opposite–that THERE IS NO LINK between the two!
Never believe that the government can do anything quickly–except destroy an economy. Nearly a year ago, President Biden signed into law the so-called Infrastructure bill, some $1.2 trillion in pork barrel spending, passed with the help of turncoat Republicans (see 
In early August, MDN reported that Marcellus driller Coterra Energy had made $1.2 billion in profit during the second quarter of 2022 (see 
A Democrat-led, partisan nonprofit calling itself Energy Future PA was launched yesterday. The anti-drilling former PA Auditor General, Eugene DePasquale (Democrat), is co-chair. The new group is also co-chaired by a RINO (Republican in Name Only)–former State Rep. Marguerite Quinn. Don’t get snookered by the fluffy platitudes from this organization. Make no mistake, Energy Future PA is partisan with a bent against shale energy.
A group of roughly 60 landowners located in Fayette County, PA, have received a $5.5 million settlement from what was Chief Exploration and Development (now called Cyprus Exploration and Development) to compensate the landowners for leases signed in 2008. The landowners filed a class action lawsuit in 2011, claiming bonus and rent payments were not made.
In a brilliant move aimed at boxing in the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), two northeastern Pennsylvania State Senators–Gene Yaw and Lisa Baker–along with members of the PA Senate Republican Caucus (27 Senators in all), filed a lawsuit in January 2021 against the DRBC accusing the quasi-governmental agency of “taking” the property rights of PA residents without just compensation under the law over the DRBC’s ban on fracking (see 
EnergyNet
The Catholic nuns of Lancaster County’s Adorers of the Blood of Christ are still, all these years later, trying to shake down Williams for more money because of a pipeline that runs underneath a cornfield owned by the sisters (hence our nickname for them). Using lawyers from Big Green groups, the nuns are arguing their “religious beliefs” were offended by the pipeline because it flows a nasty, filthy fossil fuel that causes global warming. Even though the sisters own and operate a home heated by natural gas at the same location! Williams should be suing the nuns, not the other way around.
Last week the three states with active Marcellus/Utica drilling, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, issued a collective 30 new drilling permits, down from the 40 permits issued the week before. PA roared back to life by issuing 21 of the 30 permits, with OH issuing just three and WV issuing six.
Pennsylvania is stubbornly continuing to pursue a $2 billion hydrogen hub (part of the Biden infrastructure bill) on its own, without partnering with other Marcellus/Utica states. As we continue to point out, doing the application process alone jeopardizes attracting the project to our region. Yesterday the Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held a public hearing on hydrogen’s potential as an energy source. The opening presenter, Richard DiClaudio, president and CEO of the Energy Innovation Center Institute in Pittsburgh, made the case that hydrogen and the hydrogen hub is important to the future of southwestern PA.
Pat McDonnell, who was Tom Wolf’s Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) until July 2nd, has just become the President and CEO of a major PA anti-shale environmental group–PennFuture. McDonnell’s appointment at PennFuture raises disturbing questions about some of the decisions he made during his tenure at DEP. That McDonnell immediately became employed by one of the biggest detractors of and litigators against the DEP indicates McDonnell may have had an anti-drilling agenda and deep conflicts of interest while he served at the DEP. Was McDonnell a wolf in sheep’s clothing (no pun intended)? Was McDonnell Big Green’s inside man at DEP? Will there be an investigation of McDonnell and the decisions he made as head of the DEP? We certainly hope so.
Olympus Energy wants to drill six wells on a single pad in rural Elizabeth Township, a borough in Allegheny County on the east bank of the Monongahela River. The pad would sit about 1,700 feet (one-third of a mile) away from Elizabeth Forward High School. Some of the parents of students, and some of the administration, are pushing back against Olympus’ drilling plan, using the kiddies as an excuse (see