Republican Candidate for PA Gov. Pledges Repeal of Wolf Carbon Tax
The long, drawn-out (exhausting) failed tenure of Tom Wolf as governor in Pennsylvania will be over at the end of 2022 (limited to two terms, thank God). On Nov. 8, 2022, Pennsylvanians will elect a new governor. We’ve been telling you for years that PA’s corrupt Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, will run for the Democrat nomination. Shapiro is anti-shale energy. What about on the Republican side? We had hoped former PA House Speaker Mike Turzai would run, but he left for greener pastures last year (see Sad Day: PA House Speaker Mike Turzai Quitting Next Monday). An early favorite on the Republican side recently sprang up–Jason Richey, a self-described blue-collar resident of Allegheny County and a Pittsburgh law firm partner. Richey has promised to overturn the RGGI carbon tax on Day One if he’s elected governor.
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A profoundly biased and inaccurate article published by Environmental Health News attempts to paint two proposed shale gas wells as an environmental disaster and existential health threat akin to a nuclear meltdown. The article is so over the top it’s laughable–but instructive nonetheless. Apex Energy has proposed drilling two wells on a pad in a rural part of Trafford, PA township, straddling Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. The location is “within one mile of Level Green Elementary School and within two miles of 12,733 residents in Penn Township and Trafford Borough (about 17 miles east of Pittsburgh).” Are the kiddies at nearby schools and residents of Trafford really in danger?
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee approved a letter to the state’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC), asking the IRRC to oppose the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an obscene carbon tax aimed at closing down coal and natural gas-fired power plants in the state. Democrats on the committee railed against the vote calling it meaningless when they know it’s anything but. If the IRRC turns against RGGI, the left’s carbon tax scheme will die.
The Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held a hearing on Tuesday that investigated the economic benefits of the state’s 1,000-plus miles of gas pipelines. The adults in the room all acknowledged even if there is a transition away from fossil fuels “someday,” pipelines hauling natural gas around the state will need to be kept up and running for *at least* the next 30 years (likely longer). Pipelines are here to stay. A band of radical anti-fossil fuel nutters behaved badly during the hearing, as they so often do, and had to be ejected.
Last week both Pennsylvania and West Virginia issued permits to drill new shale wells. Ohio remained skunked for a fourth week in a row. PA issued 30 new shale permits–one of the highest weekly tallies we’ve seen. PA’s permits were issued for wells on 11 pads, meaning there were a number of multi-well permits issued. WV issued 7 new shale permits, all of them for the same pad being drilled by EQT in Wetzel County.
Although quarter after quarter and year after year natural gas production in the Pennsylvania Marcellus continues to go up (see 
Mariner East 2 (ME2) Pipeline is the gift that keeps on giving…for the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). The DEP keeps assessing fines for alleged construction violations that happened a year or more ago. This time the DEP has fined ME2 for supposed violations happening in early 2020 in four Pennsylvania counties: Blair, Cumberland, Juniata, and Lebanon. The problems were “inadvertent returns” of drilling mud in several swamps (“wetlands”) and creeks. Yes, ME2 is once again up Snitz Creek…
A new report (full copy below) commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has found the oil and natural gas industries directly or indirectly supported over 188,000 jobs in Pennsylvania in 2019, or 6.1% of the total share of commonwealth employment. Furthermore, the oil and gas industries produced $14.2 billion in labor income, which was 7.9% of the state total share, and had a statewide economic impact of $31.9 billion, for 9.7% of the state total share. The percentages for the impact of oil and gas on the West Virginia economy are similar.
Some disturbing news out of Pennsylvania. You may recall that PennEast Pipeline, a 120-mile, primarily 36-inch pipeline that will cost $1 billion to build and run from Dallas, Luzerne County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, and terminate at Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington, Mercer County, New Jersey, won a huge and important victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in June (see 
Yet another fine for Energy Transfer (ET), assessed by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). This time the DEP has fined ET $140,000 for violations that occurred in 2019 and 2020 during the construction of ET’s B15 Well Connect Pipeline construction project located in Beaver County, PA. According to the consent order and agreement (COA), “sections of the pipeline project were not temporarily stabilized, areas of the site showed accelerated erosion and sedimentation, waterbars were not installed properly or not installed in the approved locations, and erosion and sedimentation best management practices (BMP) were inoperable or ineffective.”
The so-called Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) lost a big court case in Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court last Friday, but you won’t have heard about it because no one in mainstream media is talking about it or reporting on it. We couldn’t even find a whisper about the defeat from PA Environmental Digest or StateImpact Pennsylvania. Huh. One would almost think there’s some sort of collusion going on. A wall of censorship and silence. Don’t worry, we’ll tell you about it…
A new bill just introduced in the Pennsylvania House by State Rep. Eric Davanzo (Republican from Westmoreland County), House Bill (HB) 1763, clears up the confusion and bastardization of the term “royalty,” making it easy for everyone to know what can and cannot be deducted from royalties with respect to oil and gas leases. Davanzo got 23 of his fellow House members to co-sponsor the bill. It is a refreshingly simple bill that does not change any existing contracts. It defines the point to establish the value of gas (or oil) as that point when it is sold to an unrelated third-party purchaser. Simple!
