Pennsylvania

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    MDN Guide to Finding a Job at the Shell Cracker Plant

    Although Shell’s mighty $6 billion ethane cracker chemical complex won’t be completed until around 2020, Shell is not waiting with respect to recruiting talent to operate the plant. Shell recently launched a page on their main website dedicated to recruiting people for cracker plant jobs (see that page here). Please note these are not jobs building the plant, but instead are jobs working at the plant, after it’s built. The CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, KDKA Channel 2, noticed the Shell jobs page for the cracker project and reports that “there are no job listings yet, those interested can sign up to receive email alerts when job listings are posted to the site.” It’s true folks can now sign up to receive new job postings via email. However, KDKA missed the fact that there are several jobs already posted related to the cracker facility…
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    FERC Clears TGP Orion Expansion to Begin Service to New England

    In October 2015, Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) filed their official, full application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) seeking approval for their Orion Project (see Tennessee Gas Pipeline Files PA Orion Project with FERC). The $109 million project consists of 13 miles of new “looping” pipeline in Pike and Wayne counties, Pennsylvania. The project will boost capacity on the TGP by another 135 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d), allowing TGP to pump more yummy Marcellus Shale gas to Mid-Atlantic and New England states. FERC gave final approval for the project in February of this year (see TGP Orion Project in NEPA Gets Final Approval by FERC). In March, Big Green group THE Delaware Riverkeeper filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District requesting the court overturn a Clean Water Act permit granted to the project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In August, the Third Circuit rejected Riverkeeper’s request in a humiliating defeat (see Dela. Riverkeeper Loses Fed. Court Case Against NEPA Pipeline). According to the original plan, the TGP Orion upgrade will be complete and in-service by June 2018. December 2017 is certainly “by June 2018” and that’s a good thing, because Orion is now done and FERC has just given TGP the green light to start it up…
    Read More “FERC Clears TGP Orion Expansion to Begin Service to New England”

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    Lancaster Farmland Trust Settles Lawsuit Against Atlantic Sunrise

    Lancaster Farmland Trust, a leftist group that seeks to stop all development of land in and around Lancaster County, PA, sued a farmer and Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline after the Lancaster farmer signed an easement on a piddly 1.5 acres of land. The Trust claimed according to the terms of the deed the landowner didn’t have the right to sign the easement (see Atlantic Sunrise Files 13 Eminent Domain Cases in 4 Counties). The previous owners of the property “donated a conservation easement to the trust that specifically stated various man-made activities, and specifically listing pipelines, could not be built on the property.” We think that’s particularly sleazy (and should be illegal)–forever saddling future owners of the property with restrictions. No matter–it’s frequently done, and a lesson to landowners to beware, DON’T buy properties with such restrictions. If enough people refused to buy such properties, property owners would quit doing it because their property is no longer salable. But we digress. Transco Pipeline (of which Atlantic Sunrise is a part) tried to get the case tossed, but a Lancaster County judge refused. So Transco terminated the easement with the property owner, then turned around and filed a eminent domain lawsuit against the property owner and the Trust, which got the Trust’s attention. They’ve just settled the case, fearing (knowing) a judge would rule against them anyway. In the end, it seems to have come down to the Trust wanting money. They got $12,470 for the easement plus another $25,000 to cover their legal fees. The actual landowner got (as near as we can tell), nothing…
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    Antis “Shocked” Philly Approved Marcellus Power Plant for SEPTA

    A few weeks ago a group of environmental Nazis pledged to “swarm” and shut down a SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) meeting where a vote would be taken to build a Marcellus gas-powered electric plant that would provide electricity to SEPTA’s northern Regional Rail lines–a win/win for all Pennsylvanians (see Antis Plan to Shut Down Philly Transit Meeting re NatGas Powergen). The reason the enviro bullies wanted to shut down the meeting was to stop the vote because the clean-burning plant being proposed would burn a “fossil fuel.” When they weren’t looking, Philadelphia Air Management Services (AMS) went ahead and issued the permit that allows SEPTA to move forward with the proposed natgas power plant, which will get built in a place called Nicetown. Nice. The AMS vote “came as a surprise” to the antis. It was their “last hope” to stop the plant. So what happens now? Big Green group Clean Water Action says they will litigate, attempting to use a strategy that has worked lately–invoking the Pennsylvania Environmental Rights Amendment…
    Read More “Antis “Shocked” Philly Approved Marcellus Power Plant for SEPTA”

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    Small Marcellus Well Pad Fire in Somerset PA Leads to Evacuations

    This is the second day in a row we’ve had to bring you news of a fire at a Marcellus Shale well site. Yesterday we told you about a fire at an EQT well pad in Marshall County, WV (see Fire at EQT Well Pad in Marshall County, WV). That fire started in gas processing equipment near the well. Like yesterday’s WV news, today’s news of a fire in Pennsylvania also concerns equipment being used at the well pad–NOT a fire in the actual well itself nor anything to do with drilling or fracking. The well pad in question is the first location where Marcellus wells were drilled in Somerset County–a decade ago. Yesterday a fire ignited around 9 am at the Menhorn well pad, owned by Xtreme Energy. The fire “was in a flange next to the cooling tower” at the well pad. The fire was out within an hour. Nobody was injured, although firefighters did evacuate four nearby homes (eight people) just to be safe. The all-clear was given by 10:30 am. The state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is on the site and a preliminary report concludes “the equipment associated with the well failed and caught fire, but the wellhead was not on fire.” Here’s the details as we have them…
    Read More “Small Marcellus Well Pad Fire in Somerset PA Leads to Evacuations”

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    DRBC Drops Permanent Frack Ban Bomb – Public Hearings in January

    We knew it was coming. We told you back in September that the obsequious members of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) will slavishly obey their radical environmental masters by voting to move forward with a permanent ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin (see DRBC Votes Tomorrow on Permanent Frack Ban Resolution). The final ban language/regulation was dropped like a bomb yesterday by the DRBC. In dropping their bomb, the DRBC said (with no proof) that fracking “poses significant, immediate and long-term risks” to the waters in the basin. Then they declared, by fiat, that “High volume hydraulic fracturing in hydrocarbon bearing rock formations is prohibited within the Delaware River Basin.” Of course the Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit may have another take on that (see DRBC Lawyer Nearly Faints 2nd Time When Questioned by Fed Judges). What happens now? Aside from the lawsuit cooking in the background to challenge the DRBC’s jurisdiction over fracking, the bureaucrats will hold a series of four public hearings in two locations–i.e. circus freak shows–where THE Delaware Riverkeeper herself and others will make pompous jerks of themselves and try to drown out landowners who want to express opposition to this injustice. Below we have a copy of the proposed regulation the lawless DRBC intends to adopt by fiat early next year, the list of public hearings (pro-gas needs to show up in force!), and reaction from antis and the industry…
    Read More “DRBC Drops Permanent Frack Ban Bomb – Public Hearings in January”

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    PA DEP Signals Onerous New GP-5 & 5A Methane Regs Coming 1Q18

    Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued “draft final language” for the proposed General Permit 5A (GP-5A) and the revised General Permit 5 (GP-5)–regulations that supposedly will cut down on fugitive methane from escaping from drill pads and pipelines. The onerous regulations were originally prompted by bullying from the Obama Environmental Protection Agency. Even though EPA pressure has disappeared under President Trump, PA Gov. Wolf still intends to push forward with these onerous and unnecessary regulations. Unnecessary? Really Jim? Yes, really. See our companion story today that a new Penn State study has found very small amounts of methane escape from Marcellus well pads and pipelines (see Penn State Study Finds Very Little Methane Leaks from Shale Infra.). Makes no difference. Wolf is set on this course and will attempt to ram it through, to win brownie points with his unhappy enviro left supporters, ahead of next year’s election. The DEP held a webinar yesterday to discuss this latest version of GP-5 & 5A, and lay out a timeline (early next year) for adopting it…
    Read More “PA DEP Signals Onerous New GP-5 & 5A Methane Regs Coming 1Q18”

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    Penn State Study Finds Very Little Methane Leaks from Shale Ops

    Methane (i.e. natural gas) is often made out to be a bogeyman by radical environmentalists. They’d have you believe a single molecule wafting into the air will cause global warming and make Mom Earth fry. It’s bunkum. However, the fairy tales we grow up with exert a strong control over us later in life. The hew and cry of so-called environmentalists is that extracting natural gas leads to fugitive methane in the atmosphere–and fugitive methane diminishes the benefits of using natural gas. Some quacks like Cornell professors Tony Ingraffea and Robert Howarth actually say burning dirty coal is better than extracting and using clean-burning natural gas (see Geriatric Duo Howarth & Ingraffea Want NY to Stop Using NatGas). So how much methane actually escapes during the process of drilling and extracting and pipelining the gas? Take a wild guess. Maybe 5% wafts into the stratosphere? Or perhaps 2-3%? What about 1%? If only 1% of the gas extracted was lost in the extraction/transportation process, that would be pretty darned good in our book. Penn State researchers, using a grant by the federal Dept. of Energy, set out to answer the question of how much methane is escaping. They did a study in northeast PA, using data from stationary towers and airplanes flying over gas operations. The study, titled “Quantifying methane emissions from natural gas production in north-eastern Pennsylvania” (full copy below) found that methane leakage rates from natural gas wells and other infrastructure in the Northeast Marcellus Shale are roughly 0.4 percent of production. You read that right! A measly four-tenths of one percent of all production is lost. Statistically speaking–zero…
    Read More “Penn State Study Finds Very Little Methane Leaks from Shale Ops”

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    Philly Dems Claim Shale Industry “Pollution” Targets Blacks

    This is truly outrageous and disgusting. We feel filthy just having to read and report on this news–filthy because of the outright falsehood of the preposterous allegation. Did you know that pollution can now target people based on their race? That’s what the idiotic State Rep. Donna Bullock (Democrat from Philadelphia), along with the radical Moms Clean Air Force and Defend Our Future groups said at a presser yesterday. They claim that “toxins from the oil and gas industry disproportionately impact African-American families throughout Pennsylvania.” They cite a faux report from the National Association for the Advancement of [Liberal] Colored People (NAACP) that claims “African-Americans are exposed to 38 percent more polluted air than their white counterparts” because of the oil and gas industry. Utter rubbish. “Hey, I’m a pollution molecule floating around and if I see a black person, I’ll just zoom right into that person’s nostrils–but I’ll leave the white folk alone.” You see how absurd this is? The NAACP claims more black people live near oil and gas operations than white people–although they offer no data to back up the claim. And because they live closer, that means they’re “polluted” more than others. Again, rubbish. When will someone stand up to such insane claims and demand these people resign and slink away in shame?…
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    New System Allows 100% Reuse of Frack Wastewater in Marcellus Test

    Researchers with Halliburton and EQT have created a new friction reducer, testing it in three Marcellus wells. What’s a friction reducer? It is a chemical substance used to reduce the amount of friction water (or other liquids) encounters in a pipe. Lots of water (and recycled wastewater) is pumped down the bore hole to frack a Marcellus well–upward of 5 million gallons. About 20% of that water comes back out of the hole and is recycled and used again for more fracking. The problem is, the wastewater has a lot of minerals in it, i.e. it’s super “salty.” In order to keep recycling and using the wastewater to frack more wells, typically fresh water has to be added because as the wastewater gets more salty, it encounters more friction along the pipe. So a friction reducer is needed to keep the liquid flowing fast along the pipe. The innovation–the breakthrough that Halliburton has pioneered–means that drillers won’t have to add fresh water to recycled wastewater for fracking. They can now use 100% recycled wastewater with no fresh water added. Even as the wastewater is reused again and again, getting more salty, it can still be used without mixing in fresh water…
    Read More “New System Allows 100% Reuse of Frack Wastewater in Marcellus Test”

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    Lancaster Hospital Produces Its Own Electricity Using Marcellus Gas

    Hey Lancaster Against Pipelines–you might want to rethink your opposition to the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline that flows fracked Marcellus gas from northeast PA to places like Lancaster. Why? Because you’re own hospital is powered by a new electric plant that uses Marcellus gas to generate electricity. Hospitals are known as “critical infrastructure” in PA–facilities that “deliver essential services and functions during natural disasters, emergency events, or grid outages.” Lancaster General Hospital, critical infrastructure in the Lancaster area, now produces almost all of its own electricity from a new 6.6 megawatt power plant it built right on the hospital campus (gasp!). Lancaster General uses a “combined heat and power” (CHP) system. Here’s the cool part: There are a dozen other hospitals across the Keystone State that already use natgas-powered CHP systems to generate their own electricity too. So tell us again, Lancaster Against Pipelines, how filthy fracked gas is destroying Mom Earth and poisoning the air. Quite the contrary: Natgas and the pipelines that deliver it are saving lives in hospitals across the state, including Lancaster County…
    Read More “Lancaster Hospital Produces Its Own Electricity Using Marcellus Gas”

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    PA DEP Makes Another Run at Onerous New GP-5 & 5A Methane Regs

    In December 2016, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) unveiled new regulations to clamp down on methane emissions and other other air pollution that allegedly comes from shale drilling sites (see PA DEP Releases New Regs re Methane & Air Pollution at Drill Sites). The onerous new regulations, not in effect yet, were originally prompted by bullying from the Obama Environmental Protection Agency. Even though EPA pressure has disappeared under President Trump, PA Gov. Wolf still intends to push forward with these onerous (frankly, disastrous) regulations. According to the DEP, the proposed General Permit 5A (GP-5A) and the revised General Permit 5 (GP-5), will “establish updated Best Available Technology (BAT) requirements for the industry regarding air emission limits, source testing, leak detection and repair, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements for the applicable air pollution sources.” After some final tweaks, the DEP released draft versions of the new permits (i.e. regulations) in February (see PA DEP Seeks Public Comment on Regs for Methane, Compressor Stns). The Marcellus Shale Coalition, among others, strongly pushed back on these unnecessary and costly regulations (see MSC Tells PA DEP What it Thinks of Onerous New Methane Regs). Following the pushback, there was a lull in activity. The lull is now over. Out of the blue, the DEP announced it would conduct a webinar tomorrow, Thursday. The announcement (below) indicates the DEP will provide “details of the updated GP-5 and new GP-5A general permits.” Is this yet another set of revisions to try and make these onerous regs more palatable? Or just an elaborate snow job to resell the same old onerous regs they already tried to foist on the industry?…
    Read More “PA DEP Makes Another Run at Onerous New GP-5 & 5A Methane Regs”

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    PA Supreme Court Hears Arguments in EQT Wastewater Leak Case

    Buckle up while we explain the background for this story. In October 2014, the DEP fined EQT a whopping $4.53 million for a leaky wastewater impoundment in Tioga County, PA (see PA DEP Levies Biggest Fine Ever, $4.5M Against EQT). While EQT did not say there wasn’t a problem with leaks at the site, they did say the way the DEP calculated the fine is unreasonable and arbitrary. In fact, EQT says the DEP levied the fine and took EQT to court because a few weeks prior EQT had sued the DEP over a different matter–that is, sour grapes. EQT appealed the fine and the case all the way to the PA Supreme Court. In December 2015, the high court handed EQT a “procedural victory” by saying EQT has a point about the manner in which the DEP is calculating the fine (see PA Supreme Court Gives EQT “Procedural Victory” in $4.5M Fine Case). The Supreme Court sent the case back to a lower court, PA Commonwealth Court, for follow up work, and in January 2017, a three-judge panel ruled that the method the DEP currently uses to assess fines–by how many days pollution lingers, instead of by how many days the initial release of pollution lasted–is not legal nor common sense (see EQT Wins Court Case Against PA DEP re $4.5M Wastewater Leak Fine). The judges said such a method in fining, “would result in potentially limitless continuing violations.” Under the old way of calculating fines, the DEP was considering upping the fine on EQT to an insane $157 million. Calculating it under the new way will mean a fine of around $120,000. Not long after that ruling, the Environmental Hearing Board, a special “court” set up to hear appeals of DEP decisions, decided to reduce the original $4.5 million fine down to $1.1 million (see PA Hearing Board Reduces EQT Fine from $4.5M to $1.1M). We thought that would be the end of it. But no! Both the DEP and EQT appealed the matter back up to the PA Supreme Court and yesterday the Supremes heard the case once again…
    Read More “PA Supreme Court Hears Arguments in EQT Wastewater Leak Case”

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    How Low Will They Go? RINOs/Dems Decrease PA Sev Tax Bill to 1.5%

    We’re not sure when this happened, but the dreadful severance tax bill in the Pennsylvania House, House Bill (HB) 1401 went from being a 3.2% tax to now a 1.5% tax on Marcellus production. Even with the lower rate, as we pointed out in a post yesterday, liberal Democrats are already voicing disgust and laying blame in anticipation that the bill will not pass (see Ray of Hope in PA Severance Tax Debate: Lib Dems Attack M-U). We have yet more evidence along those lines. An editorial by John Baer, a lib Dem “columnist” for the Philadelphia Daily News says he smells something “fishy” about the current debate over HB 1401. Baer thinks the bill is going nowhere fast and is nothing more than a fundraiser, to get both sides of the debate charged up and flooding Harrisburg with big bucks to fund political campaigns…
    Read More “How Low Will They Go? RINOs/Dems Decrease PA Sev Tax Bill to 1.5%”

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    Survey Indicates O&G Investing in WV More Attractive than PA or OH

    Each year (for the 11th year running) the Canadian-based Fraser Institute surveys petroleum industry executives and managers (333 of them for 2017) asking them their opinions on the barriers to investing in exploration and production in various geographies across the globe. That is, what makes them more likely or less likely to spend money drilling in a particular location? The Global Petroleum Survey (full copy below), tallies the survey responses and ranks each geography from most desirable place to invest, to least desirable. The rankings for this year are interesting and illustrative that politicians’ words and regulatory environment have a direct bearing on where, and how much, drilling companies are willing to spend. No money spent, no drilling. The barriers to spending in a given geography include: high tax rates, costly regulatory schemes, uncertainty over environmental regulations and the interpretation and administration of regulations governing the petroleum industry, and security threats. Only one state in the Marcellus/Utica ranked in the Top 10 “most attractive” jurisdictions for oil and gas investment–West Virginia…
    Read More “Survey Indicates O&G Investing in WV More Attractive than PA or OH”

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    ME2 Construction Plan Near Philly Changed, Antis Still Not Happy

    Why are we not surprised that antis are NEVER happy. EVER. Sunoco Logistics Partners has, after experiencing problems using underground horizontal direction drilling (HDD) at a couple of locations near Philadelphia while building the Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline, decided to abandon HDD and instead switch to another method to get the pipeline installed. Even with the change in methodology, antis are still fussing and moaning. The only outcome that will make them “happy” is for Sunoco to abandon building the pipeline, which isn’t going to happen. Even if Sunoco did quit building ME2, we doubt the antis would really be happy. Have you ever noticed they’re perpetual sourpusses?…
    Read More “ME2 Construction Plan Near Philly Changed, Antis Still Not Happy”