Enviro. Defense Foundation Continues Quest to Gut PA DCNR Funding
Big Green insanity continues at the so-called Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF). The only thing they “defend” is their own twisted philosophy of trying to gouge out the eyes of the oil and gas industry in PA–even at the expense of de-funding their own beloved PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources. Last June, the 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. The Supremes sent the case back down to the lower Commonwealth Court to settle some of the still-unsettled issues. PEDF tried to fleece Commonwealth Court into disallowing lease bonus payments and royalties from being used to pay the operating expenses of the PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). That is, antis want to gut the funding that pays the people in the department to do their jobs! PEDF wants lease and royalty money to be used exclusively for Big Green causes. Last week Commonwealth Court told PEDF: “No” (see PA Court Rejects Request to Block Royalties Funding DCNR Operations). The lower court will NOT address the issue of funding salaries and operating expenses of DCNR. The only decision the lower court will make, per their instructions from the lofty Supremes, is whether or not lease bonus payments must also be used for the same things royalty payments are used for–whatever those “same things” happen to be (operating expenses or not). Last week we said, “If PEDF wants to gut DCNR, they will have to go back to the Supremes to do it.” That’s just what they’ve done. The PEDF radicals have filed with the Supremes yet again, asking the Supremes to either take up the issue again, or force Commonwealth Court to rule the way PEDF wants–to gut the funding of DCNR…
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Unstable people tend to create instability wherever they go–it’s just something we’ve noticed. Other people have noticed it too, at the highest levels of Pennsylvania state government. Business groups in PA are pointing a finger at unstable PA Gov. Tom Wolf. His repeated calls, his maniacal mission to force a severance tax on the Marcellus industry on top of the existing impact tax, is causing “instability” in the industry in PA. That is, companies are pulling back, not willing to drill as much, and investors are not willing to invest, because of the uncertainty of whether or not there will be a severance tax. It’s spooking the industry. These business groups, representing hundreds of thousands of PA residents, are calling on Wolf to end his unstable ways and quit calling for a severance tax. Specifically, they say, “He needs to stop it.” Is that blunt enough? Instead, these groups call on Wolf to reign in out-of-control spending. The less you spend, the less you need to rob from hardworking companies–companies providing tens of thousands of jobs and over a billion dollars of tax revenue for the state so far…
On Wednesday, Dominion Energy filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expand capacity along the existing Dominion Energy Transmission Inc. (DETI) pipeline from Pennsylvania to Ohio. Why? To flow more gas that will be used to generate electricity for the Midwest market. The project, called the Sweden Valley Project, is projected to cost $48 million and add another 120 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of PA Marcellus Shale gas to the existing flow along DETI. Dominion says all 120 MMcf/d are already contracted and spoken for–by an unnamed customer. Notice the headline says “expand” and not “extend.” This project would build a tiny three miles of new pipeline, with the new pipeline lying next to existing pipeline (in Greene County, PA). The only greenfield construction is building a 1.75-mile pipeline to connect with the Tennessee Gas Pipeline in Tuscarawas County, OH. The other main part of the project is updating three units a compressor station in Licking County, OH. In the constellation of pipeline projects that disturb earth and disrupt landowners, this one is pretty minor–yet it will deliver big results by flowing an extra 120 MMcf/d of gas west to a new market…
The dunderhead leaders of Monroeville, PA (Allegheny County, suburb of Pittsburgh) are at it again, acting hostile toward the shale industry, attempting to stymie any kind of shale activity within its borders. In September, Monroeville Council voted to enact a super-restrictive seismic testing ordinance (see 
Last June, radical anti-drillers from the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) won a case at the PA Supreme Court by the skin of their teeth (see 
It’s always a shame–in fact it grieves us–to see once-great Christian denominations succumb to a worldly rather than spiritual purpose and mission. It’s sad to see the modern day version of a golden calf erected in place of God. It’s happened again–this time with the Presbyterian denomination in Pittsburgh. An “umbrella group for 140 Presbyterian churches” in Allegheny County are calling on Shell to stop construction of their $6 billion ethane cracker plant project about 25 miles from Pittsburgh. That’s right–just stop now, throwing thousands of people out of work (not very Christ-like) and throwing away the $1 billion+ Shell has already spent on the fully vetted, fully permitted, fully discussed (for years) project. Why do the Presbyterians want work on the cracker plant stopped? Because the plant will produce “plastic products that have been linked to the death of animals and the diminishment of fragile natural habitats.” Yep. The Presbyterians are now anti-plastic. The very keyboard they typed up their tripe on is, of course, plastic. As was the computer and monitor they used, the chair they sat in, the clothes on their bodies and sneakers on their feet–all come from the plastics the Shell cracker plant will produce. Just for icing on the global warming cake, the Presbyterians are also demanding their denomination divest any of their considerable investments from companies remotely related to the fossil fuel industry. It seems that the golden calf of global warming has now replaced God in the Pittsburgh Presbyterian denomination. And yes, we do grieve over that…
Pennsylvania State Rep. Brian Ellis (Republican from Butler County) introduced House Bill (HB) 1960 on Jan. 5. The bill, known as the “State Agency Regulatory Compliance Officer Act,” would create a new Regulatory Compliance Officer position in each state agency, including the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). The new Compliance Officer would have the authority “to block an agency from imposing fines and penalties for violations and to rewrite the policies under which fines and penalties are imposed.” The aim of the bill is to force all PA state agencies (including the DEP) to work *with* the people and companies they regulate. It would create a different mindset–instead of “gotcha” enforcement of regulations, it’s aimed at making it easy to comply with regulations. The bill states this in its opening lines: “(1) It is the purpose of this act for agencies to work collaboratively with, instead of acting punitively towards, regulated communities. (2) Agencies should strive to make the regulations which the agencies administer and enforce as clear and easily navigable as possible for regulated communities. (3) In administering a regulation, an agency’s primary goal should be to ensure compliance rather than to exact punishment.” Those who love Big Government don’t like this bill. Will this bill go anywhere? Who knows! What the bill indicates to us is that at least some legislators (Republicans) in Harrisburg are listening and “get it.” What do they get? That PA has developed a reputation for burdensome regulations and if the state wants the Marcellus miracle to continue, and grow, things need to change at the DEP. A $83.7 billion investment by China in neighboring WV’s shale/petrochemical industries should be a bright, red slap across every PA legislator’s face. Wake up! If you don’t fix the DEP, quickly, you’ll lose PA’s Marcellus momentum to someone else…
Last week MDN reported the news that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has suspended all construction work on the Mariner East 2 Pipeline (ME2) project until further notice (see 
We don’t know how many times we have to keep ringing the bell–this is a five-alarm situation! Wake up! A group of Democrats elected to the Jessup, PA Borough Council (Scranton suburb) are actively trying to block the completion of the state’s largest natural gas-fired electric generating plant–the first phase of which will be ready to go online in a little over a month. A bunch of ninny nanny antis didn’t like that they couldn’t stop the project, so they used money and help from Big Green groups last November to launch successful campaigns to defeat incumbent Council members who voted to authorize the Lackawanna Energy Center to be built by Invenergy (see 
Pennsylvania legislators (Democrats and RINOs) who were banking on the federal government to “fix” the problem of the free market are panicking after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected DOE Sec. Rick Perry’s so-called Grid Resiliency Pricing Rule that would tip the scales in favor coal and nuclear energy, keeping unprofitable electric generators in business longer (see 
One of the loudest, most persistent arguments by Democrats (and RINOs) in Pennsylvania in favor of a severance tax is that the existing impact fee (actually, better called an impact “tax”) have decreased over time because of a decrease in the number of new wells drilled due to the downturn in the market. There are two gigantic problems with their argument: (1) the impact tax has turned around, and is rising again (see 
In February 2015, Philadelphia-based economic consulting firm Econsult Solutions released a study looking the potential economic impact of the Mariner East 1 & 2 projects, concluding the two project together would result in $4.2 billion coming to Pennsylvania (see 
One of the companies in the Marcellus industry targeted for extinction by Pennsylvania’s former Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, was Minuteman Environmental Services (see 
In December, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) released “interim final technical guidance” (i.e., new regulations) for drilling Marcellus Shale natural gas wells in areas where there is longwall coal mining. Sometimes drillers want to lease and drill under coal mines. Since coal mines sink large holes in the ground, there are existing guidelines in place for how closely an oil/gas well can be drilled on or under a coal mine–guidelines put in place in 1957. As a result of legislation passed in 2011 called Act 2, a review was conducted to see if the standards for oil/gas drilling near coal mines might be modified, allowing such drilling to happen in conditions not currently allowed. A study was performed and in January 2017 the DEP rejected that study–preferring to keep a default ban on any drilling under coal mines for the time being (see 
Tom Linzey, the attorney who founded and runs the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), has just been sanctioned by Federal Judge Susan Paradise Baxter and ordered to pay $52,000 to Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) for his “bad faith” in continuing to press legal arguments on behalf of Grant Township (Indiana County, PA)–legal arguments that say the people of Grant have rights they actually don’t have. Linzey has continued to claim rights for the citizens of Grant that have no legal basis and have been discredited in court. Not only that, but Judge Baxter also referred the matter to the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court with a request that they review Linzey’s actions with an eye to imposing more punishments against him. We’ve previously reported on the story of two Pennsylvania towns that were either hoodwinked, or perhaps willing led astray, by the radical CELDF into passing (now overturned) bans on fracking and injection wells in their towns–Highland Twp (Elk County) and Grant Twp (Indiana County). The two townships thought they would do an end-run around the state’s authority to issue permits for two injection wells–one in each township, by re-incorporating under so-called home rule charters. The towns essentially declared themselves independent of the state for a variety of matters, including oil and gas permits, which PA state law clearly says is a function of ONLY the state Dept. of Environmental Protection. In March, the DEP issued final permits for the injection wells AND sued each town to get those portions of their home rule charters, dealing with oil and gas, overturned (see 
A new shale wastewater treatment facility that works in tandem with a local sewage treatment plant may be on the way in Coudersport (Potter County), PA. Epiphany Water Solutions, via a subsidiary company called Epiphany Allegheny, filed for a permit to build a centralized water treatment facility in Coudersport in July 2017. The initial application with the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) was deemed “incomplete”–so Epiphany filed again and this time the application was complete. The DEP will hold a Jan. 16 public hearing in Coudersport to gain local resident’s input on the facility. This is not the first we’ve heard of Epiphany. They were one of four winners of the Ben Franklin Institute’s Fifth Annual Shale Gas Innovation Contest in 2016 (see