Pennsylvania

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    EQT’s Equitrans Expansion Project Gets PA DEP Water Permit

    EQT’s Equitrans (pipeline) Expansion Project is on track to begin construction by the end of this year–likely sometime in November. We first covered this project in 2015 (see Time to Support EQT Mountain Valley & Equitrans Pipelines @ FERC). The Equitrans Expansion Project will upgrade compressor stations, add approximately eight miles of pipeline connectors to upgrade capacity on the Equitrans Pipeline from southwestern Pennsylvania into West Virginia. The $100 million project, when completed, will expand capacity on the Equitrans pipeline by 600 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d). The project when introduced was slated to be done by the end of 2018. Looks like they will keep that schedule. On Friday, October 13, 2017, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for both the $100 million Equitrans Expansion Project and $3.5 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline. The two projects are connected. On Saturday, the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection issued, via publication in the Pennsylvania Register, federal water crossing permits for the Equitrans Expansion Project. The bulldozers can’t be far behind…
    Read More “EQT’s Equitrans Expansion Project Gets PA DEP Water Permit”

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    New 60-Mile Pipeline Proposed from NW Pa. to NE Ohio

    Correction: Please note the correction below. Opatho Gas Trans LLC is not owned by EmKey Energy, et al. Our understanding was in error. RH energytrans contacted MDN to correct the record. We appreciate it!

    A new 60-mile pipeline is being proposed by a new pipeline company, to connect shale production in northwest Pennsylvania to markets in northeast Ohio. Last week RH energytrans filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build the Risberg Line Project. The route will begin in the Meadville, PA area (Crawford County) and extend in a northwest direction to Ashtabula County, OH. The project will use approximately 32 miles of existing pipeline in an established Right of Way originating in the Meadville, PA area. Approximately 16 miles of new pipeline will be installed in Pennsylvania and approximately 12 miles of new pipeline will be installed in Ohio. According to RH energytrans, there is a need for additional natural gas supplies in the Ashtabula area to enhance future commercial business development and as a backup for residential customers. The pipeline will provide 55 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas to Ashtabula. RH energytrans, with offices in Erie, PA, is owned by Opatho Gas Trans LLC. In a case of Russian matryoshka (nesting) dolls, Opatho is owned by EmKey Energy, Viking Energy Broker and Nucomer Energy. EmKey has pipeline operations in both PA and NY, so you might say (with some justification) that this is a project of EmKey. Corrected: Opatho is owned by three Norwegian companies: Solodden AS, Vicsund AS, and Hellberg Eiendom AS. Opatho has some owners in common with EmKey, Viking Energy Broker and Nucomer Energy. However, it would be incorrect to say that Opatho is owned by EmKey or that the Risberg Line Project is an EmKey project. Below is the official 449-page FERC filing with all the details, along with a summary of the project. We have a handy timeline, and a map of the pipeline route…
    Read More “New 60-Mile Pipeline Proposed from NW Pa. to NE Ohio”

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    6 More Arrested for Blocking Pipe Work at Lancaster Nun Property

    Last Monday 23 radicalized protesters tried to block access to equipment being used to construct the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline in Lancaster County, PA–on property owned by a sect of Catholic nuns whom we call Sisters of the Corn (see Lancaster Pipeline Protesters ‘Do the Hokey Pokey’ & Get Arrested). The protesters began singing the Hokey Pokey as they waited their turn for the handcuffs–including the arrest of a child. Such is the psychological abuse these people perpetrate on children. Over the weekend, on Saturday, another six protesters at the same location were arrested and carted away. One of them was a priest from New York, showing solidarity with the radical Sisters of the Corn. We have the names of the six arrested on Saturday, and a report of their arrest. What remains interesting to MDN is the low, low numbers of protesters who have been arrested. The people in charge of the protest movement, Mark and Malinda Clatterbuck (from Lancaster County) claim to have more than 1,000 people signed up to protest against the pipeline–to engage in illegal actions to block it. Yet so far 29 have been arrested. So much for the big boasts of the Clatterbucks…
    Read More “6 More Arrested for Blocking Pipe Work at Lancaster Nun Property”

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    PA Strippers Back in News, Supremes to Hear Synder Bros Case

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said last week it will accept a case about strippers–stripper wells, that is. In brief, in 2012 Pennsylvania passed the Act 13 drilling law that includes a fee on wells targeting shale layers, including the Marcellus. Snyder Brothers, headquartered in Kittanning, PA, drills mostly conventional (vertical only) wells in southwestern PA. In 2011-2012 they drilled 45 vertical-only wells, but targeting the Marcellus, all of the wells fracked. Initially those wells produced more than 90 Mcf/day, but by December of the year they were drilled, they 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. Snyder Bros. sued and after an appeal of the case, Snyder Bros. won their case in March, 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. The PUC is not letting it alone. They conscripted a sympathetic ally in the PA legislature to introduce a bill to “fix” the “loophole” (see PA Lib Dem Introducing Bill to “Fix” Strippers Once and for All). At the same time the PUC kept pushing on the legal front, and last week the PA Supremes agreed to hear an appeal of the case. Looks like those strippers just won’t go away…
    Read More “PA Strippers Back in News, Supremes to Hear Synder Bros Case”

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    Court Considers if PA Towns Can Regulate ME2 Pipeline Location

    In May six anti-pipeline residents living near where the Mariner East 2 pipeline will pass asked the Middletown (Delaware County, PA) town council to reject the path of the pipeline near their property because it would, supposedly, pass closer than town code allows. The town council told the residents they’re out of luck–the town will not pursue any action to block Mariner East 2. Period. The residents, amped-up, agitated and funded by Big Green groups filed a lawsuit against the pipeline, to force it to conform with Middletown’s ordinance (see 6 Middletown Antis Sue Sunoco LP to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipe). The lawsuit was filed in the the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas. The judge dismissed the case in June, so the antis, again funded by Big Green groups, appealed the case to the next higher court, Commonwealth Court. On Wednesday, an “en banc” panel of Commonwealth Court heard arguments in the case (“en banc” meaning all of the judges heard the case, indicating its high importance). One report of the session indicates the judges expressed skepticism that Sunoco Logstics Partners, the builder, does not have to follow local town ordinances because the pipeline is overseen by the the state and state regulations preempt local ordinances. Needless to say if the case goes against ME2/Sunoco, it will make it harder (but not impossible) to finish work on time…
    Read More “Court Considers if PA Towns Can Regulate ME2 Pipeline Location”

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    PA Frankenstein House Bill Merges Severance Tax & Minimum Royalty

    As predicted earlier this week, yesterday the Pennsylvania House Finance Committee voted to approve a 3.2% severance tax on top of the existing 5%+ impact tax (see RINOsaur DiGirolamo Says Vote on PA Severance Tax Coming Soon). Democrats and mainstream media are nearly orgasmic–this is as far as any severance tax bill has ever gotten in PA. The bill, House Bill (HB) 1401, now goes to the full House for a vote–maybe. It remains to be seen whether or not House Speaker Mike Turzai will allow a vote in the full House. There are procedural ways to tie up the bill. While it’s a crap shoot as to whether or not the full House would pass a Marcellus-killing severance tax, there is a section in HB 1401 that is sure to kill the bill–a guaranteed minimum royalty for landowners of 12.5%. Don’t get us wrong–we think the minimum royalty issue is very important and deserves a vote. PA Rep. Garth Everett has championed the issue, introducing a bill to accomplish that objective three times in the last six years (see PA Rep. Garth Everett Reintroduces Minimum Royalty Bill, 3rd Time). No doubt HB 1401’s chief sponsor Gene DiGirolamo (RINOsaur from the Philadelphia area) is hoping to gain support from landowners for the severance tax by grafting on the minimum royalty provision–in the style of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster. Take a body part here (severance tax) and a body part there (guaranteed minimum royalty), sew it together (HB 1401) and shock it into life with a vote. Landowners should beware of this ruse. The minimum royalty issue needs to be addressed separately, on it’s own, and not part of a severance tax bill…
    Read More “PA Frankenstein House Bill Merges Severance Tax & Minimum Royalty”

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    PA Supreme Court Hears Arguments on DEP Request to Unblock Regs

    PA Supreme Court Justices

    In October 2016, after five years in the making, Pennsylvania adopted new shale drilling regulations (see PA’s New Chapter 78a Drilling Regs Go into Effect Oct 8). Although the regs were ready at the end of the Gov. Tom Corbett Administration, Corbett fumbled the ball and the regs didn’t get adopted, which left them vulnerable to the incoming left-leaning Tom Wolf Administration. Wolf’s people mangled the regulations under the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Dictator/Secretary John Quigley, who got fired over unethical collusion with Big Green groups. Some of the good stuff remained, but onerous new elements were introduced. The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), which represents PA’s biggest shale drillers, filed an appeal in Commonwealth Court to block the most onerous aspects of the new regulations (see Marc. Shale Coalition Files Lawsuit to Block PA Chapter 78a Regs). The judge agreed to “temporarily” block some of the items in the MSC list (see PA Judge Temporarily Blocks Some DEP Chapter 78a Drilling Regs). In December, the DEP escalated the case by asking the PA Supreme Court to undo the block on those regulations imposed by the lower Commonwealth Court (see PA DEP Asks Supreme Court to Overturn Stay on New Regs). Yesterday the Supremes heard oral arguments in the case. Although one activist justice (Sallie Updyke Mundy) seems to want to grant the DEP’s request to allow the stopped rules from going into effect, several other justices appear to want to let the issue play out in the lower Commonwealth Court, preferring to goose the lower court into speedier action…
    Read More “PA Supreme Court Hears Arguments on DEP Request to Unblock Regs”

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    PA DEP Public Hearing on Japanese Gas-Fired Elec Plant in SEPA

    EmberClear Corp. (and its parent Ember Partners) is a Canadian-based company that builds and operates natural gas-fired electric generation plants in North America. In 2015, EmberClear filed an application to build a new 488-megawatt natural gas-fired electric plant in Birdsboro, in Berks County, near Philadelphia (see New NatGas-Fired Electric Plant Coming Near Philadelphia). In April of this year, two different Japanese companies, Sojitz Corporation and Tokyo Gas, each purchased a one-third share ownership of the project (see Japanese Now Own 2/3 of Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant in SEPA). We call the Birdsboro project a “Japanese-owned” project, which it is, but in reality EmberClear is still the company building and operating it. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has just announced they will hold a public hearing on the project, to consider issuing both a water permit and an erosion/sediment control permit for the project. The hearing will be on Nov. 2 in Birdsboro…
    Read More “PA DEP Public Hearing on Japanese Gas-Fired Elec Plant in SEPA”

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    American Energy Closes on “Tier I” Assets – Exclusive Details

    Last week MDN brought you news about a relatively new company called American Energy Partners, Inc., based in Allentown, PA, and their subsidiary company Gilbert Oil & Gas (see American Energy Partners Invests in “Tier I” Marcellus Assets). AEP and subsidiary Gilbert said last week they had cut a deal to buy some “Tier I” assets in the Marcellus. However, there were no specifics. Yesterday AEP and Gilbert issued a new press release (below) to say the deal is now completed and they now own those Tier I assets. Again, no specifics. So MDN reached out to AEP to ask for further details. We got a response–which still does not name the seller, but does tell us how many Marcellus wells they bought, how much acreage is part of the deal, and in which Marcellus Shale county the assets are located. As far as we know, this is exclusive–nobody else has this information. We also have a thought on who the seller may be…
    Read More “American Energy Closes on “Tier I” Assets – Exclusive Details”

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    PA House Passes New Budget Bill w/No Sev. Tax, Wolf Demands Tax

    Yesterday the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed House Bill (HB) 542 to try and finalize the three month plus late PA budget. This latest bill (see the summary below) uses mostly borrowing, against tobacco settlement money and small tax increases on online businesses and fireworks distributors to balance this year’s budget. The bill does NOT include a severance tax. Sounding like Johnny One-Note, PA Gov. Wolf immediately said any final deal must include a Marcellus-killing severance tax, or he won’t sign it. Some of the traitorous Republicans in the Senate still want to see a severance tax too (see Traitorous PA Senate Republicans Pass Severance Tax Bill). As we reported yesterday, RINOsaur Sen. Gene DiGirolamo believes a Senate committee will today report out his horrible 3.2% severance tax bill (see RINOsaur DiGirolamo Says Vote on PA Severance Tax Coming Soon). Talk of a 3.2% severance tax is false, because it would be added on top of the existing impact fee (i.e. tax) which is already the equivalent of a 5%+ severance tax. DiGirolamo’s bill, if passed, would vault PA into the position of having the highest effective tax on oil and gas in the country–killing any new Marcellus drilling in the state. Existing wells deplete over time, so in essence it would be a moderately slow death to the industry (and tax revenues from it)–dissipating to nothing in 5-10 years. Which is just fine for “Republicans” like DiGirolamo. At any rate, here’s the details on the House plan passed last night, with NO severance tax, and Johnny One-Note’s insistence on a tax…
    Read More “PA House Passes New Budget Bill w/No Sev. Tax, Wolf Demands Tax”

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    Antis Rally in PA to Stop Construction on ME2, Other Pipelines

    A group of anti-fossil/anti-pipeline radicals held a rally yesterday to spread lies and innuendo about the safety of pipelines in general, with a focus on stopping construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project in particular. Supposedly 150 people turned up (including Democrat lawmakers) to bash pipeline projects in the Keystone State. What mainstream media reports don’t tell you is that it was a staged event, organized by the loathsome Food & Water Watch–a Big Green group that lobbies against all fossil fuel projects. Media reports tell you a bunch of moms and dads and kids “negatively impacted” by pipelines showed up to plead their case. Bunkum. It was a publicity stunt, and the calls by these radicals to suspend pipeline construction are a pipe dream (pun intended). Here’s how it was reported, followed by the real story…
    Read More “Antis Rally in PA to Stop Construction on ME2, Other Pipelines”

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    H&H Drilling Plan for Upper Burrell Still on Pause, Some Progress

    Huntley & Huntley has plans to drill shale wells in Upper Burrell Township (Westmoreland County), PA. As MDN reported in June, a landowner in Upper Burrell filed an appeal against Upper Burrell’s zoning ordinance that allows drilling in rural, agricultural districts (see Westmoreland Zoning Challenge Heads to Court, Delays H&H Drilling). H&H plans to drill a well near where the woman lives, and she’s arguing such drilling will violate the state’s environmental rights clause and “devalue her property.” The case was supposed to go to township’s Zoning Hearing Board, but all of the (many) lawyers involved agreed to instead move it to county court, making the process faster and less expensive. The same woman then sued the town claiming the town’s very right to issue conditional use permits in agricultural-residential districts is unconstitutional (see Frivolous Lawsuit Delays H&H Drilling in Westmoreland County, PA). Even though legal wrangling may prevent a final outcome any time soon, the town is moving forward anyway. The Upper Burrell Planning Commission voted yesterday to approve H&H’s drilling plans, passing it back to the board of supervisors for a final sign-off…
    Read More “H&H Drilling Plan for Upper Burrell Still on Pause, Some Progress”

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    Shell Gives Shout-Out to Center for Responsible Shale Development

    Greg Guidry is the executive vice president of Shell’s unconventionals business. That is, he’s in charge of shale drilling for the company. Talking to a reporter at the Energy Dialogues LLC’s North American Gas Forum earlier this month, Guidry said shale is “a future growth opportunity because of its long-term growth potential.” Guidry is interested in promoting shale as “a lower-carbon energy source.” He believes the way to properly promote shale gas is by partnerships between the oil and gas industry and non-governmental organizations (NGO). Guidry then used the Center for Responsible Shale Development (CRSD), a group headquartered in Pittsburgh, as the model for how such a partnership can and should be done. In March 2013, the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) burst onto the scene. It had been a closely guarded secret, the creation of a few hand-picked people from both industry and the environmental movement working together to see if there is any common ground on which both sides can agree that shale development would be safe, sustainable AND affordable. They worked hard for over a year and finally hammered out a set of 15 standards that if a driller (or midstream company or contractor) would meet, it would get a stamp of approval from both the industry and environmental groups as being a good goobie–a safe driller. In January of this year the CSSD changed its name to CRSD–the Center for Responsible Shale Development (see Chevron Recertified as Safe Driller; CSSD Changes Name to CRSD). So far only four drillers have gone through the process of certification: Shell, Chevron, EQT and CONSOL Energy. Guidry wants to see more operators sign up…
    Read More “Shell Gives Shout-Out to Center for Responsible Shale Development”

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    2 Marcellus-Fired Electric Turbines Coming to Downtown Pittsburgh

    Two (2) Capstone C65 Microturbines provide Combined Cooling, Heating & Power (CCHP) to the Energy Innovation Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

    This story has delicious irony. Pittsburgh proper, like most large cities, is mostly populated with lefties, including anti-drilling zealots. There has been some shale drilling in outlying areas of Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located (MDN’s forthcoming Marcellus & Utica Shale Almanac shows 65 producing shale wells in 2016 in Allegheny County). Pittsburgh prides itself on its green/sustainable energy initiatives. So when we saw the news that two microturbines using natural gas (i.e. Marcellus Shale gas) to generate heat and electricity are coming to downtown Pittsburgh, well, we just knew we had to spread the good news. Do Pittsburgh antis realize that shale gas will produce electricity in *downtown* Pittsburgh? Capstone Turbine Corporation, a California company that manufactures small electric-generating plants that run on natural gas, announced two of their microturbines will power the Energy Innovation Center (EIC) in downtown Pittsburgh. The two units will provide cooling, heat and power for the downtown EIC building, using natural gas to do so. This isn’t the first time we’ve written about Capstone. In February, Capstone sold three of their microturbines to midstreamers in the Marcellus Shale play (see Calif. Microturbine Company Sells More Units in the Marcellus). In August, Capstone sold a microturbine to a driller operating in Monroe County, OH, in the Utica Shale (see Calif. Microturbine Company Sells First Unit in Utica Shale). And now they’ve sold two units to power a building in downtown Pittsburgh. Love it!…
    Read More “2 Marcellus-Fired Electric Turbines Coming to Downtown Pittsburgh”

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    Lancaster Pipeline Protesters ‘Do the Hokey Pokey’ & Get Arrested

    Although the anti-fossil fuel group Lancaster Against Pipelines claims “over 1,000 people” have pledged to protest the pipeline in the county, only 26 (or 23, depending on the news source) showed up to get themselves arrested for attempting to stop the pipeline. We’ve previously written about the hypocritical Catholic nuns who operate a retirement home that uses fracked natural gas to heat it, yet oppose a pipeline to flow the same fracked gas under their property. The nuns, called Adorers of the Blood of Christ, have tried several strategies to derail the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. One of stunts they pulled, in league with the radicals from Lancaster Against Pipelines, is to stick a few wooden park benches in the middle of a corn field that they own (leased to a local farmer), and call it a “chapel”–which is why MDN dubbed them Sisters of the Corn. The sisters sued to stop the pipeline on religious grounds, claiming it violates a core religious belief in preserving Mom Earth. A judge saw through that sham and threw out the case (see Fed Judge Tosses Lancaster Nuns’ Freedom of Religion Lawsuit re ASP). So Lancaster Against Pipelines pledged to show up and attempt to block machinery when it begins construction on the sisters’ property. That happened yesterday. As they always do, the antis put on a circus freak show–singing the song “Hokey Pokey” as they were arrested and removed. But it wasn’t 1,000 people–it was just 26 (or 23) from the same small, core group of leftists. Everybody sing along: “Put your right wrist in…Put your left wrist in…Put both wrists in as the officer clicks the handcuffs…You do the hokey pokey…And get yourself arrested…That’s what it’s all about!”…
    Read More “Lancaster Pipeline Protesters ‘Do the Hokey Pokey’ & Get Arrested”

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    RINOsaur DiGirolamo Says Vote on PA Severance Tax Coming Soon

    RINOsaur /ri-no-sor/ (noun) – 1. a very old (fossil-worthy) Republican-In-Name-Only, someone who, if he were truly honest, would have registered as a Democrat decades ago. 2. so-called moderate Republican whom voters should have been put out to pasture decades ago. 3. Gene DiGirolamo. Pennsylvania State Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, a Republican-in-Name-Only (RINO) from the Philadelphia area, has been trying to punish the Marcellus industry in the state since 2011 when he first introduced legislation to impose a Marcellus-killing severance tax. And pretty much every year since then he has re-introduced a severance tax bill. Sometimes it’s for 3.2%. Other times 4.9% (see our DiGirolamo stories here). It appears DiGirolamo just plucks a number out the air at random and goes with it. He plucked another one in May, introducing House Bill (HB) 1401, which would slap a 3.2% severance tax on all shale gas production, on top of the existing impact tax (see Tiresome: Philly RINO Rep Gene DiGirolamo Intros Severance Tax Again). At a rally to support the new bill, DiGirolamo was the only Republican. All the rest were socialists or Democrats. You have to hand it to old Gene–he is determined. Yesterday DiGirolamo said he thinks he now has enough fellow RINOs who will support his severance tax bill to report it out of committee and to the House floor for a full vote…
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