Radical PA Green Group Sues State to Block State Land Drilling
In June 2017, the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) won a case at the PA Supreme Court by the skin of their teeth (see PA Supreme Court Hands Antis Partial Victory re State Land Drilling). The case dealt with the narrow issue of how PA can spend revenue raised from drilling for oil and gas under state-owned land. A divided court ruled that money from royalties (not lease signing bonuses) must be used only for “environmental” purposes. Certain aspects of that case were referred back to the lower Commonwealth Court where it’s still being litigated. Not happy with that victory, the radicals at the PEDF have just filed a new lawsuit that aims to permanently block all drilling on state-owned land by (ab)using the state Environmental Rights Amendment (ERA).
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This is a rarity here on MDN. We’re awarding an MDN “attaboy” to northeastern Pennsylvania State Sen. John Yudichak–a Democrat! Yudichak has just stuck his neck waaaaay out by (a) voicing strong support for the Marcellus Shale gas industry, and (b) bashing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his stance in blocking new gas pipelines.
Yesterday MDN brought you the news the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging whether or not the state Attorney General’s office has the right to use a consumer protection law to prosecute companies like Chesapeake Energy and Anadarko over royalty payment shenanigans (see 
In December 2015, Pennsylvania’s felony-indicted Attorney General, Kathleen Kane (who later was convicted and did jail time) brought a lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy and Anadarko accusing them of royalty fraud (see 
Equitrans (nee EQT Midstream) owns a natural gas storage field in Greene County, PA, in the southwest corner of the state, called Swarts Field. Natural gas storage fields are an important, but often overlooked, part of the natgas ecosystem. Last December the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) threatened to shut down Swarts Field because of coal mining in the area, saying Equitrans had not properly mapped old/abandonded conventional gas wells in the area (see 
Opposition to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to have PA join with northeastern states in the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) continues. Big opposition. Earlier this month Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf went completely off his rocker with a power-grab to force PA into a regional alliance to tax natural gas-fired electric plants out of existence (see 
President Trump was in rare form as he addressed several thousand people at the 2019 Shale Insight event. He was the closing keynote speaker of the first day of the conference. MDN editor Jim Willis was there to capture the speech for our readers. After acknowledging and praising three cabinet officials who came along with Trump–Dept. of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, Dept. of Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler (all of whom Trump had high praise for)–Trump opened his remarks this way: “I was here three years ago and you’re much happier now. You’re much wealthier now.” Trademark Trump!
We snapped a number of pictures of President Trump’s speech yesterday. Unfortunately the camera on our phone isn’t the greatest, and we were sitting far back, so the shots are a bit blurry. We snapped quite a few of the big monitor to improve the images. We’re not sure it helped. At any rate, come along to virtually attend the rally!
Yesterday the Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee “reported out” (i.e. approved) Senate Bill (SB) 694, which is the Senate version of what was House Bill (HB) 247, a bill which allows fully leased parcels that are part of one drilling “unit” to be combined with parcels in a different unit–“cross unit drilling.” The full Senate voted to approve the bill on September 25 by a vote of 49-0 in favor. Yes, a unanimous vote, with both Republicans and Democrats voting to approve it in the Senate. We’re now one vote away from final passage–the full House. There’s little doubt it will pass.
Earlier this month Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf went completely off his rocker with a power-grab to force PA into a regional alliance to tax natural gas-fired electric plants out of existence (see