Accidents | Bradford County | Energy Services | Eureka Resources | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Wastewater
Worker Dies After Accident at Eureka Resources Plant in Wysox, PA
Some sad news to share with you that had escaped our notice until today. A 39-year-old man from Sayre, PA, Jeremy Lanzo, died from burns that he received in an accident at Eureka Resources’ shale wastewater treatment plant in Wysox Township (Bradford County, PA) on Tuesday morning, Sept. 13. Initial media accounts report there was an explosion at the plant. However, Eureka CEO Dan Ertel says flatly, “There was no explosion.” Eureka treats and recycles wastewater (brine) from Marcellus Shale wells.
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As we mention in today’s lead article, the Dept. of Energy (DOE) has launched the official application process for states (and coalitions and even private companies) to petition the DOE for a share in a $7 billion jackpot to build a hydrogen hub (see DOE Hydrogen Hub Funding Goes from $2B to Less Than $1B Each). On Friday, the day the DOE made its big public announcement in Pittsburgh, the partisans at Team Pennsylvania Foundation (TeamPA), co-chaired by PA Gov. Tom Wolf, announced the publication of a new report, “Successful Deployment of Carbon Management and Hydrogen Economies in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” (full copy below). The report has some interesting things to say about how PA can attract one of the hydrogen hub projects.
Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate have, since April 2021, refused to appoint new members to the five-member Public Utility Commission in response to Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf’s unilateral push to force the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme (see 
The natural gas industry is apparently not satisfied with being in the natural gas business anymore. Increasingly, local distribution companies (LDCs, or utilities) are investigating, and in some cases experimenting with, introducing highly explosive hydrogen into the natural gas stream they flow to homes and businesses. Peoples Gas in Pittsburgh is teaming up with the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) to figure out how to mix hydrogen with the natural gas it serves to its customers in Pennsylvania and beyond.
Last week the three states with active Marcellus/Utica drilling, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, issued a collective 21 new drilling permits, down from the 30 permits issued the week before, and down from the 40 permits issued the week before that. The trend is not our friend right now. PA issued 13 permits, and OH and WV issued four permits each.
Pennsylvania State Senator Katie Muth’s attempt to block a proposed frack wastewater treatment plant in Dimock (hours away from her own district) is failing spectacularly. Muth tried to challenge and block a permit for the plant, an effort which was mostly rejected in court back in June (see 
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 
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