PA Officials Keep Secret Details of State Hydrogen Hub Application
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 PA Decides to Back Shell/Equinor Application for $1B Hydrogen Hub). The Shell/Equinor project is called DNA H2Hub (Decarbonization Network of Appalachia). Although most applicants vying for one of the 6 to 10 regional hydrogen hubs have released their applications (their “concept papers”), the DNA H2Hub has not. They are keeping it secret–at least for now.
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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
Pennsylvania State Senator Katie Muth’s attempt to block a proposed frack wastewater treatment plant in Dimock (hours away from her own district) has completely bombed out. Muth tried to challenge and block a permit for the plant, an effort which was mostly rejected in court back in June (see 
We have chronicled a number of companies that buy royalty and/or mineral rights from landowners in the Marcellus/Utica over the years (see our previous stories about royalty mineral rights sales
New shale permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica came roaring back during the week of Oct. 31 through Nov. 6. Both Pennsylvania and Ohio issued 13 new permits during that week. But what’s this? West Virginia issued a whopping 17 new permits! The prior week WV issued only a single new permit.
A press release issued yesterday announced the partnership between an Appalachian driller we aren’t familiar with, Oil Well Shares (OWS), and Canada-based OYA Renewables to form a joint venture called Chrysalis Energy. The new company will use OWS’s 1.5 million leased acres across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia to build solar farms, wind farms, and “energy storage infrastructure projects.” We have some thoughts about this partnership and how it may impact landowners.
In our opinion, Pennsylvania voters made a major mistake in electing Attorney General Josh Shaprio as their next governor (see 
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 argued their “religious beliefs” were offended by the pipeline because it flows a nasty, filthy fossil fuel that causes global warming. We’ve lost track of how many lawsuits the sisters have filed, using OPM (other people’s money). The most recent lawsuit, filed in the Philadelphia-based U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, was just shot down by the court.
Anti-fossil fuelers continue to pressure the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (and Pennsylvania itself) over the grievous sin of approving the Shell ethane cracker plant project (see 
