Pennsylvania

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    SRBC Elects New Officers, NY Becomes Chair on July 1

    Perhaps the proposed legislation by PA Rep. Dan Moul (Republican from Gettysburg) to gut not only the DRBC (Delaware River Basin Commission) of its power to regulate groundwater, but also to gut the SRBC (Susquehanna River Basin Commission), is not so far off the mark after all (see PA House Bill to Neuter SRBC, DRBC Makes It to First Base). We always viewed the SRBC as a good steward of water resources within the river basin it governs, preferring to “stay in its lane” and not presume to regulate shale drilling the way the DRBC has (see SRBC Tells Anti-Drillers “We’ll Stay in Our Lane” on Water Study). Apparently each year (or two or three, we’re not sure) the SRBC rotates the positions of Chair and Vice Chair among its four members (US Army Corps of Engineers, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland). Currently the Chair belongs to the Army Corps, but on July 1st it will change to NY. The problem is that NY’s rep on the Commission is Basil Seggos, NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner and an appointee by Andrew Cuomo. Seggos is a hardened, very politically left anti-fossil fueler–a puppet and tool of Cuomo. Will this change in leadership at the SRBC have an impact on how the organization operates?…
    Read More “SRBC Elects New Officers, NY Becomes Chair on July 1”

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    PA Gov. Wolf Signs On-Time Budget with No Severance Tax

    There is nothing “bipartisan” about Tom Wolf, Governor of Pennsylvania. He’s a hard-left partisan all the way. Yet this year, for the first time since taking office, he signed a “bipartisan” budget on time–before the June 30 deadline. Wolf practically genuflected before the Republicans who control both the House and Senate in PA. This is the first budget Wolf has signed at all. The previous three annual budgets adopted during Wolf’s tenure were done so without his signature. So why did Wolf practically fall over himself to sign a budget that does NOT include a new severance tax, as he has requested each year since taking office? Simple: He’s running for reelection and wants to appear as if he’s actually governing. He’s attempting to smear a little lipstick on the pig of his awful tenure in office. Question is, will it work? Do people have the attention spans of gnats? Or will they remember the pain and suffering he inflicted by dragging out previous budgets for months? Pennsylvanians should understand that Wolf’s nicey-nice with the budget this year will completely evaporate next year (if he’s reelected). Back will be the hard-left partisan who lives under the lipstick…
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    PA Impact Fee/Tax Hauls in $210M in 2017 – Third Highest Ever

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    Each June, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), the agency charged with keeping tabs on impact fee revenue from shale drillers (PA’s version of a severance tax) releases the final numbers of impact fee revenues and disbursements. Yesterday was the appointed day for 2017. The PUC reports impact fees on natural gas producers in 2017 totaled $209,557,300–the third highest yearly amount of revenue generated since the fee/tax was implemented in 2011. That follows the lowest annual revenue generated from the fee to date last year, for 2016 (see PA PUC Impact Fee Report: Revenue Down Again in 2016). However, 2016 was the low point for drillers drilling new wells–the bottom of the valley in the oil and gas industry. Since mid-2016 we’ve been on an upswing in drilling new wells, which is reflected in 2017 impact fee revenues. Below we include the PUC press release, and screenshots for many of the pretty color pie charts showing topline numbers. What was the #1 county receiving impact fee revenue (meaning the #1 county drilled) in 2017? Once again it was Washington County. The driller paying the most in impact fees in 2017? Range Resources. The municipality receiving the most revenue from impact fees (meaning the most drilled municipality)? Center Township, in Greene County. Here’s the 411 on impact fees (i.e. taxes) raised and spent in PA for 2017…
    Read More “PA Impact Fee/Tax Hauls in $210M in 2017 – Third Highest Ever”

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    PUC Says PA Strippers Reduced 2017 Impact Fee by $6.1 Million

    Once again we’re talking about strippers. Uh, stripper *wells* that is. In 2012 Pennsylvania passed the Act 13 drilling law that includes an impact fee on wells targeting shale layers, including the Marcellus. Snyder Brothers, headquartered in PA, drills mostly conventional (vertical only) wells in southwestern PA. In 2011-2012 they drilled 45 vertical-only wells targeting the Marcellus. All 45 of the vertical-only wells were fracked. Initially those wells produced more than 90 thousand cubic feet per day (Mcf/day), but by December of the year in which they were drilled, the wells produced less than 90 Mcf/day. The way the 2012 Act 13 law is written, if a well produces less than 90 Mcf/day during “any” month it is considered a stripper well and exempt from paying the impact fee. The state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) assessed the fee anyway because for 11 months the wells produced more than 90 Mcf/day, arguing the word “any” is not a get-out-tax-jail-free card. Snyder Bros. sued and after an appeal of the case, Snyder Bros. won the case in March 2017, exempting those wells from paying impact fees (see PA Court Says Snyder Bros Wells are Strippers, No Impact Fees Due). That sent the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) into a tizzy with claims the Act 13 impact fees are now in jeopardy. So the PUC appealed the case to the PA Supreme Court. The Supremes heard arguments in the case in April (see PA Supreme Court Takes a Close Look at Strippers…as in Wells). The PUC released its full impact fee revenue generated and disbursed report yesterday (see today’s lead story). The PUC reports that not only are the fees from the Snyder wells missing from the total, but fees for some wells from other drillers as well–some 318 wells in all. Those other drillers cite the Snyder Bros. case as evidence they don’t owe money on what they consider to be stripper wells. In fact, when you total it all up, the PUC says the impact fee revenue for 2017 would have been ~$6.1 million higher if the “missing” fees from those 318 wells were part of the mix…
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    Shell Focused on Single PA County, No New Drilling in Other Areas

    Some big news about Shell’s plans for drilling and fracking in the Marcellus/Utica region came from this week’s DUG East conference in Pittsburgh. The Shell head of unconventional drilling in PA told conference goers that Shell’s shale drilling is currently focused on one county: Tioga County, PA. Shell has leases on 250,000 acres in Tioga and plans to spend $150 million to drill wells on four pads in 2018. That’s the focus for this year. According to MDN’s recently published Marcellus & Utica Shale Upstream Almanac, Shell also has assets (producing wells) in Bradford, Butler, Crawford, Elk, Forest, Lawrence, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, and Potter counties–all in PA. The Shell rep said the company also owns leases in eastern Ohio, in the Utica, but there’s no current plans to drill in Ohio. Instead, they remain laser focused on PA–specifically Tioga County…
    Read More “Shell Focused on Single PA County, No New Drilling in Other Areas”

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    No Severance Tax in This Year’s Massive, Way-Too-High PA Budget

    This year’s Pennsylvania budget deal is different from the previous three such annual budgets. One way it’s not different is that this year’s budget once again hits a new high–a massively bloated, morbidly obese $32.7 billion. Although the budget does not include any new taxes, it does increase spending in a number of areas, including “education” (i.e. teacher’s unions). Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf once again asked for a Marcellus-killing severance tax this year, but he didn’t really mean it. He knew he wouldn’t get one. So Wolf brokered a deal with House and Senate Republicans that leaves out a severance tax. In the previous three budgets Wolf demanded a severance tax and delayed adopting each budget by months, in an act of petulance and temper tantrum. Since this is an election year and Wolf is up for reelection, he decided to forgo the histrionics over a severance tax. So, we’ve dodged the tax bullet once again. However, if Wolf is reelected, expect him to double down and perhaps even shut down state government in order to get a severance tax. The tax battle will be super-nasty next year, you can count on it. Meanwhile, the Senate is due to pass the budget on Friday, and Wolf will sign it soon after…
    Read More “No Severance Tax in This Year’s Massive, Way-Too-High PA Budget”

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    SWPA Gas-fired Elec Plant Next to Pot Farm Nears Final Approval

    Last October MDN told you that a second Marcellus gas-fired electric generating plant is planned for Greene County, PA (see 2nd Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant Proposed for Greene County, PA). Hill Top Energy Center, based in Huntington Bay, N.Y., is planning to build a 620 megawatt plant on 41 acres of land off Thomas Road in Cumberland Township. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) held a public hearing in early November, and in early December the DEP issued an air quality permit for the project (see PA DEP Issues Air Permit for Gas-fired Elec Plant Next to Pot Farm). The plant will be built next door to a “medical marijuana operation”–i.e., a pot growing farm. Here’s an idea: Why not burn pot to generate the electricity instead of natgas? Roughly the same CO2 footprint, with the added benefit of lacing the air in the region with happy smoke. Oh well, back to reality. What’s left to do before construction begins on the Hill Top Energy Center? The facility needs a building permit from Cumberland Township. Plans will be reviewed at the next town meeting on July 2. If the plans are approved, a building permit will follow in short order. However, Hill Top says they don’t plan to begin construction until early 2019…
    Read More “SWPA Gas-fired Elec Plant Next to Pot Farm Nears Final Approval”

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    Presbyterians Vote to Divest from Fossil Fuels – Yet Keep Using Them

    Liberal Presbyterians in Pittsburgh, along with their comrades from New York, have succeeded in pressuring a once-great denomination, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), into adopting a proposal that forces the denomination to divest from all investments in fossil fuel companies, and instead invest in so-called renewable energy companies. The measure says divestment is “the beginning of a faithful response to the devastating and urgent reality of climate change.” The leaders of the divestment movement within the denomination say investing in fossil fuels is the moral equivalent of investing in tobacco, alcohol and gambling. And yet the very same people and the very same denomination refuse to lead by example. They don’t force their churches to quit using “devastating fossil fuels” to heat and cool their buildings. They don’t demand parishioners quit driving fossil-fuel powered automobiles to church. And they certainly don’t refuse tithes and offerings from those who work at evil fossil fuel companies (nor do they prohibit contributions from fossil fuel companies). Just a tad hypocritical?…
    Read More “Presbyterians Vote to Divest from Fossil Fuels – Yet Keep Using Them”

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    Dela. Riverkeeper Pressures DRBC to Revoke ME2 Pipe Permit

    Here’s the latest strategy in THE Delaware Riverkeeper’s ongoing war against fossil fuels, and against natural gas pipelines in particular: Pressure the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to revoke a permit granted by the agency to the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project on the flimsy basis that ME2 has “violated” the conditions of the permit. Frankly, we didn’t even know the DRBC had issued a permit for ME2. After all, ME2 is a state-permitted project and does not come under federal authority. We doubt the DRBC has legal authority to issue a permit for the project–but if no one challenges them, their authority stands. ME2 probably thought it easier to just get the permit and not squabble over it. According to Big Green mouthpiece PBS StateImpact Pennsylvania, the DRBC is actually considering Riverkeeper’s request. The problem with this latest strategy by Riverkeeper is that DRBC’s executive director, Steve Tambini, is so weak, he may fold like a cheap deck of cards and actually do it. Tambini, who has been a major disappointment since taking over from the ultra-leftist Carol Collier, seems happy to take his marching orders from Riverkeeper. We have to wonder if this latest strategy will bear fruit. A scary proposition. But Riverkeeper isn’t content to try and scuttle ME2 by pressuring the weak DRBC as its only strategy. Last week the DRBC filed a “groundbreaking” lawsuit against the ME2 project in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, meant to stop the project by court order…
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    Shell Says Falcon Ethane Pipeline to Get Built in 2019

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    Shell delivered some good news at the Northeast U.S. Petrochemical conference held earlier this week in Pittsburgh: The Falcon ethane pipeline will get built next year. It won’t actually flow ethane to the Shell cracker in Monaca until 2020 at the earliest–because the cracker plant itself won’t go online until 2020 at the earliest. The Falcon pipeline project is interesting for a number of reasons, the chief reason (for us) being: Shell didn’t use eminent domain for a single foot of the 97-mile, two-legged pipeline system. Shell negotiated with every landowner and got them to sign on the dotted line. Judging by the articles we’ve highlighted in the past, Shell paid landowners between $40-$75 per linear foot for a permanent easement (see Landowners Who Negotiate with Shell Ethane Pipeline Get More $). The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection conducted three public hearings on the project earlier this year, in preparation for issuing permits. Antis came out in force and behaved badly, as they typically do (see More of the Same at Final DEP Hearing for Shell Ethane Pipeline). Using no eminent domain, and in the face of Big Green opposition, the big news is that Shell says they will build the pipeline next year, right on schedule, which is good news indeed…
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    New Yale U Study Finds Fracking Does Not Affect PA Water Wells

    Here’s what happens when the Heinz Endowments, William Penn Foundation, National Resources Defense Council and other far-left “environmental” funders don’t fund a study: real science gets done. We’ve knocked Yale University in the past when so-called studies (junk science) were released about fracking in the Marcellus/Utica (example from March 2018: Yale Study Claims Ohio Utica Fracking Causes STDs). Those studies are almost always funded by Big Green groups and the results conform to Big Green’s predetermined outcomes. This time, a group of Yale students and professors conducted a field experiment where they drilled a number of water wells in an area where there would soon be (and subsequently was) Marcellus wells drilled–in Susquehanna County, PA. A controlled experiment to find out if drilling shale wells leads to water contamination via methane migration. The results are in. According to the Yale researchers, there was NO (zero, nada) impact on the water wells from nearby shale well drilling. Case closed. The study (full copy below) was published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It’s the third such study in the past few months to be released showing the same thing: NO impact from Marcellus/Utica drilling on groundwater supplies. The funny thing is how biased mainstream media, like (Dis)Associated Press, is reporting it. They can’t paper over the results of these studies, so they spin the story and the headline instead. Try this headline out from an AP article running in dozens (maybe hundreds) of newspapers: “Studies show groundwater holding own against drilling boom.” The truth is there is no impact from Marcellus Shale drilling on groundwater. But AP simply can’t present the bold, honest truth. Instead, they spin it to imply “Water has to hold it’s own and fight off fracking. That water is brave. It’s courageous. Even though those nasty frackers WANT to pollute our precious groundwater, that old water just hangs in there and holds its own.” That’s the impression left by AP’s headline and the accompanying story…
    Read More “New Yale U Study Finds Fracking Does Not Affect PA Water Wells”

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    PA PUC Overrules Lib Judge – Mariner East 1 Returns to Service

    As MDN predicted, yesterday the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) voted to overturn a previous action by liberal administrative law judge, Elizabeth Barnes, to shut down the Mariner East 1 (ME1) pipeline (see Antis Get Lib Judge to Shut Down All Mariner East Pipes, Dems Rejoice). ME1 is back up and running. All five PUC members supported returning ME1 back to service. However, three of the five PUC members agreed with Judge Barnes’ decision to temporarily shut down work on the Mariner East 2 pipeline project in West Whiteland Township (Chester County). Two of the five PUC members wanted all of Barnes’ ruling to be overturned. The reporting on this is somewhat confusing. PUC Chairwoman Gladys Brown put forward a motion to (a) turn ME1 back on, and (b) keep ME2 in West Whiteland stopped, for now, pending more information from Sunoco Logistics. The vote was 3-2 in favor of Brown’s motion. The 2 voting against it did so because it didn’t go far enough (they wanted ME2 construction to resume). So although the vote was 3-2, all 5 of the members wanted ME1 back on. That’s the real nub of the news–the subtlety that’s missed in most media reports. The 3-2 “split decision” that’s being reported is the decision to overrule Barnes on ME1, but keep her ruling intact (for now) on ME2. The PUC has ordered Sunoco to provide more information in the next 20 days: inspection and testing protocols, emergency response plans, and copies of safety training curriculum for employees and contractors. The PUC will then reconsider whether or not to allow ME2 work to resume in West Whiteland. But here’s the thing: Work on the rest of the 300+ mile pipeline continues everywhere else in the state–everywhere but West Whiteland. Overall, yesterday’s PUC action was a crushing defeat for PA State Sen. Andy “Tony Soprano” Dinniman (Democrat) and his Big Green cronies who want to assassinate the entire ME1 & ME2 projects by focusing on one small area…
    Read More “PA PUC Overrules Lib Judge – Mariner East 1 Returns to Service”

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    Lycoming County Residents Oppose Loyalsock Creek Gathering Pipe

    Pennsylvania General Energy drills in several PA counties, including Lycoming County in the north central of the state. According to the just-published Marcellus & Utica Shale Upstream Almanac 2018, PA General Energy is the fourth-largest producing driller in Lycoming County, with 103 producing wells and 42.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas production in 2017. PA General Energy wants to drill more wells. Those wells will need a gathering pipeline connected to them. Current plans for a pipeline have it running along a portion of the Loyalsock Creek, and that has some folks in the area up in arms. Yesterday at a county commissioners’ meeting, residents voiced their opposition to PA General Energy’s pipeline plans. A company rep at the meeting tried to assuage concerns. The Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper has offered to be an “unbiased party” to “facilitate discussions between the company and those who reside along the creek.” You know what we think of so-called Riverkeepers who claim to be THE voice of a river…
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    Westmoreland Co. Pays Big Bucks for Reservoir Testing 8 Yrs Later

    In 2011, the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, PA began a new water testing and monitoring program for the Beaver Run Reservoir which supplies water to about 150,000 residents (see Westmoreland County, PA Municipal Authority Initiates New Water Testing for Reservoir Located Near Marcellus Drilling). CONSOL Energy (now CNX Resources) had 100 shallow gas wells on municipal property near the Reservoir, and at the time had started to drill Marcellus Shale wells. The Authority also leased land near the reservoir to Dominion Resources, which ended up drilling more than a dozen shale wells on the property. The water testing program was precautionary, to ensure water is not being affected by nearby drilling activity. The Municipal Authority contracted with Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) to do the monitoring and testing. The early results showed no impact from testing (see Water Tests at PA Reservoir Show No Affects from Gas Drilling). Over the years, the Authority continued to award contracts year after year to IUP–starting at $55,000 and going as high as $100,000 (see Pricetag to Test Water at Reservoir Near CONSOL Drilling Goes Up). The Authority renewed their contract with IUP in 2016 for $85,000 (see Beaver Run Reservoir Tests Since 2011 Show No Harm from Drilling). And they’ve just done it again, paying IUP $99,000 to test water quality, and another for $24,700 to test the air at the reservoir. Our point: Since the first tests began more than eight years ago, there have been a number of shale wells drilled on the property next to the reservoir–and there has been NO negative impacts from shale drilling in all that time…
    Read More “Westmoreland Co. Pays Big Bucks for Reservoir Testing 8 Yrs Later”

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    Wackos Gather in Harrisburg to Push for 100% Solar/Wind in PA

    This past Tuesday, hundreds of Pennsylvanians gathered in Harrisburg to “rally for a new vision for the Commonwealth powered by 100 percent renewable energy.” Among those attending including representatives from businesses, various religious leaders, local mayors, and nurses and doctors to advocate for “bipartisan” legislation to force PA to dump fossil fuels and adopt 100% renewable energy. There is no polite way to say this, but say it we must: This so-called “bipartisan” gathering to push House and Senate bills demanding the state dump the use of fossil fuels (like natural gas) and instead stick solar panels on every rooftop and windmills on every hilltop to power the Keystone state’s electricity (and other) power needs is stark….raving….mad. It’s lunatic. Forcing the state to adopt 100% renewables is not “nice” or a “gentle, blessed future that will arrive someday.” Adopting 100% renewables is a deluded fantasy. To pretend otherwise is unkind. We must call this nuttery out for what it is: irrational hatred of fossil fuels. We have nothing against any form of energy. They all have their pluses and minuses. You like a solar panel on your house–good for you! An ugly windmill with it’s whump whump whump sound nearby? Whatever floats your boat. But ending the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity any time within the next 75-100 years is the end of human life as we know it. What was presented at the rally as some benign gathering of average citizens was nothing of the sort. Big Green (radical) groups, including PennFuture, were behind this flummery…
    Read More “Wackos Gather in Harrisburg to Push for 100% Solar/Wind in PA”

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    Wolf Caves on Severance Tax – Admits He Won’t Get It Passed

    Yesterday Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf spoke at a Harrisburg Regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon, where Wolf tried to fleece business owners and managers into thinking he’s on their side. (Nice try, but no cigar.) Wolf said he thinks the state will have an on-time budget this year, because he doesn’t plan to drag it out for months and months as he has in the past. Wolf did not mention the severance tax during his talk before the Chamber, but in discussions following his talk, Wolf “acknowledged…that he is unlikely to secure it [a severance tax] in his first term amid resistance by House Republican leaders.” This is huge! Wolf is admitting defeat, throwing in the towel–that he won’t get the tax, at least not this year. However, before we jump up and down to rejoice, know this: Wolf believes he’s going to win reelection, and then he intends to go after the severance tax again–with a vengeance. Which is why it’s so important that he not win a second term. But if he does win (perish the thought!), a Republican-controlled House remains our only firewall against a Marcellus-killing severance tax intended to raise billions for Philadelphia teachers’ unions…
    Read More “Wolf Caves on Severance Tax – Admits He Won’t Get It Passed”