Pennsylvania

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    IMG Midstream: Army of Tiny PA Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants

    MDN first told you about IMG Midstream in August 2014 (see 7 Small Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants Coming to NEPA). At the time, IMG was proposing to build seven “tiny” natural gas-fired electric plants–each plant producing on the order of 20-22 megawatts of electricity (enough to power 13,000 homes). IMG added a couple of more to their plans in November 2014 (see Details on IMG’s “Tiny” Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants in NEPA). The beauty of IMG’s tiny natgas electric plants is that they are really small–about the size of a basketball court; they produce almost no air pollution; and they are quiet. It’s a really cool concept. IMG’s very first tiny electric plant, in Susquehanna County, PA, went online in October 2015. The second plant, in Bradford County, PA, went online this past June (see IMG’s Tiny NatGas-Fired Electric Plants Take Off in the Marcellus). The former 9 planned plants ballooned with plans for 25 plants operating within the next five years! We spotted a recent article about IMG’s activities in southwestern PA and that got us to thinking. How are they doing with their plan to build 25 plants? So far, they’ve built 11 and are on the prowl for more locations. We have the latest update on IMG and their startegy of zigging (building small power plants) when everyone else is zagging (building large plants)…
    Read More “IMG Midstream: Army of Tiny PA Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants”

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    PA Independent Fiscal Office: Wolf Severance Tax Highest in U.S.

    Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) provides revenue projections for use in the state budget process along with impartial and timely analysis of fiscal, economic and budgetary issues to assist Commonwealth residents and the General Assembly in their evaluation of policy decisions. It’s only been around since 2010 and in the past we’ve wondered if it’s populated with liberal Democrats that don’t hew to the state mission of being objective in their analysis. However, our confidence in the organization has grown over the past year or so. Recent IPO predictions about Marcellus Shale impact fee revenues have been pretty accurate (see PA Independent Fiscal Office Predicts Impact Fee Revenue for 2016). And the IPO’s assessment of PA Gov. Wolf’s proposed severance tax last year was not flattering (see IFO: PA Gov. Wolf Proposes Highest Severance Tax in Nation). The IFO is back with another look at Wolf’s proposed budget, including his insistence on including a so-called 6.5% severance tax. The IFO points out in real terms, Wolf’s proposal is actually a 9% severance tax–the highest in the country! The IFO also points out a fact that few Democrats will admit in public–most of the tax will be paid by landowners (coming out of their royalty checks), and consumers using the natural gas extracted. The IFO says it’s a known fact that companies pass along taxes in higher costs to their customers (and in deductions from royalties). So while some poor, demented fools think they’re “soaking big, filthy, rich oil companies” and “making them pay their fair share” by implementing a severance tax, just the opposite happens. The little guy gets screwed. What ends of up happening is that money is taken from one little guy’s pocket and given to another little guy. It’s a con game, a shell game, and it’s time to put an end to it…
    Read More “PA Independent Fiscal Office: Wolf Severance Tax Highest in U.S.”

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    New Analysis Shows Johns Hopkins Asthma “Study” was Junk Science

    Last July anti-frackers at the Johns Hopkins-Bloomberg School of Public Health expelled another bought-and-paid-for (by anti-drillers) “study” that implies the presence of fracking in Pennsylvania leads to causing, or making worse, asthma attacks (see Sham “Study” from Johns Hopkins Says Fracking Makes Athsma Worse). The study, “Association Between Unconventional Natural Gas Development in the Marcellus Shale and Asthma Exacerbations,” evaluated thousands of health records from the Geisinger Clinic in PA, looking for patterns between people showing up with asthmatic symptoms and correlating it to how close they live to shale wells being drilled. As we pointed out at the time, “The incredible thing about this latest run at smearing the miracle of fracking is this: the authors (most of them students) admit in their own study they only have theories, no proof that ties fracking to asthma.” At the time, Energy in Depth noted it seemed a bit odd that the researchers didn’t include a county by county comparison, to illustrate how asthma got worse in counties with drilling as opposed to those without. Now we know why. EID has done its own analysis, using PA Dept. of Health data, that shows asthma episodes in counties with the most shale drilling went DOWN, not up! Which blows the door right off the Johns Hopkins “study”…
    Read More “New Analysis Shows Johns Hopkins Asthma “Study” was Junk Science”

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    More Details on Marcellus Power Plant Coming to Greene County, PA

    In March MDN brought you the news that APV Renaissance Partners (a subsidiary of American Power Ventures) will submit a permit to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) “within the next month” for a combined-cycle power plant at the old Hatfield’s Ferry site in Greene County, PA–to be powered with Marcellus Shale gas (see Marcellus Gas-Fired Power Plant Coming to Greene County, PA). That story generated a LOT of interest. At a meeting yesterday, APV officially unveiled their plans for the old Hatfield’s Ferry site. Also, coordinated to hit at the same time, FirstEnergy issued a press release outlining the deal, updating us on the fate of the rest of the site (APV will only use a small portion of the old coal-fired site). In what seems to be another bit of coordinated timing, the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection recently visited the old coal plant site and issued violations of environmental codes that exist at the site. (Somebody always has to rain on the parade.) Below is updated information on the exciting news that a new 1,000-megawatt combined cycle Marcellus gas facility, “one of the cleanest burning plants in the world,” will get built on 33 acres at the former coal plant site in Greene County…
    Read More “More Details on Marcellus Power Plant Coming to Greene County, PA”

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    5 Big & Small Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants Coming in SWPA

    It’s hard to keep track of all the Marcellus and Utica Shale-fired electric plants being planned, built and going online. We recently highlighted a list of 11 such projects getting built in Ohio (see List of 11 Utica Shale Electric Plants Coming Soon to Ohio). We’ve covered many projects in Pennsylvania, and in other states like Michigan, Indiana, and West Virginia (see our list of powergen stories here). We spotted an article on the Pittsburgh Business Times website that focuses on a company we’ve written about before: IMG Midstream. They zig when everyone else zags. Most gas-fired power generation projects are big–700, 800, 900 megawatts or more. In fact, we highlight a project announced for Greene County in a companion story today that will be 1,000 megawatts (see More Details on Marcellus Power Plant Coming to Greene County, PA). At some point we’ll tackle a roundup of all the projects in PA, but for now, let’s take a look at five powergen projects in southwestern PA that are either under construction, or are permitted and soon will be under construction. They range in size from 20 megawatts (tiny!) to 950 megawatts (big!)…
    Read More “5 Big & Small Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants Coming in SWPA”

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    Japanese Co Buys 1/3 of Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant in SEPA

    Birdsboro Power Plant concept drawing

    Speaking of Pennsylvania Marcellus gas-fired projects, here’s an update on a power plant we first told you about last October, coming to the Philadelphia area (see New NatGas-Fired Electric Plant Coming Near Philadelphia). In 2015, EmberClear filed an application to build a new 488-megawatt natural gas-fired electric plant in Birdsboro (Berks County). The new plant is called Birdsboro Power and requires various approvals before it can be built. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is involved. PJM Interconnection is involved. And the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection is involved. All three have issued various permits and edicts in connection with the project. EmberClear plans to begin construction in 2018, with an in-service date of June 2019. As often happens with these projects, which cost big bucks to build, the Birdsboro plant has just taken on a major investor/joint owner, from Japan. Sojitz Corporation has just purchased one-third of the project for an undisclosed sum. Below is a bit more about Sojitz, and the latest details about the Birdsboro project…
    Read More “Japanese Co Buys 1/3 of Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant in SEPA”

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    PA House Passes “Sane” Budget Plan with NO Severance Tax

    On Monday Pennsylvania House Republicans released their version of a state budget, and yesterday (Tuesday) they voted to pass it. Ba-boom! The budget is noteworthy for many reasons. Of prime interest to MDN is that the budget does NOT include PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s insane 6.5% severance tax (see PA Gov Wolf’s 6.5% Severance Tax Proposal a Hot, Stinking Mess). As a matter of fact, after passing the bill yesterday, Republicans are quoted as saying the bill’s overall aim is to inject “sanity, predictability and affordability” into state spending. Wait. Did House Republicans just call Wolf and the Democrats “insane,” with respect to spending and taxing? We believe they did. PA House Majority Leader Dave Reed said he understands the final version will get changed, quite a bit: “We understand it’s a negotiation, a beginning, not an end.” Let’s hope the Republicans hold the line once again against an insane severance tax proposal from Gov. Wolf…
    Read More “PA House Passes “Sane” Budget Plan with NO Severance Tax”

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    NEPA Anti Newspaper Supports Eminent Domain for Pipelines

    Luuucy! You have some ‘splainin’ to do! Somebody at the Scranton Times-Tribune, a reliably anti-drilling rag in the heart of Marcellus country, will have some explaining to do about an editorial that just ran in the Times-Tribune’s sister publication the Wilkes-Barre Citizens’ Voice. We can’t remember the last time we read a positive editorial about the drilling industry in either the Times-Tribune or the Citizens’ Voice, but yesterday it happened. A editorial in the Citizens’ Voice deals with eminent domain being used for pipeline projects, including Atlantic Sunrise. You may recall we recently highlighted the news that Williams has (regrettably) had to file eminent domain cases against 27 holdout landowners in northeast PA (see Atlantic Sunrise Uses Eminent Domain in Northeast & Central PA). Spring-boarding from that news, the Citizens’ Voice editorial concludes that as distasteful as it is, there is precedence and the U.S. Constitution, allowing for it, and that eminent domain for pipelines actually accomplishes the “public good”…
    Read More “NEPA Anti Newspaper Supports Eminent Domain for Pipelines”

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    Fed Court Overturns $4.2M Dimock Judgement Against Cabot O&G

    Big news broke Friday afternoon. Short history lesson for those who are new to MDN: There were 14 families along the Carter Road area of Dimock Township, PA (Susquehanna County) that reportedly experienced turbidity in their water from methane migrating, supposedly from Cabot’s drilling operations nearby. The state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) investigated in 2010 and declared Cabot guilty and imposed stiff fines and requirements, including a requirement to install permanent water treatment systems at each home and even an offer to each of the families to pay twice what their property was worth at the time (see PA DEP Takes Aggressive Action Against Cabot Oil & Gas over Dimock Township Methane Contamination). We won’t recount all of the twists and turns we documented over the years, including research that showed Cabot wasn’t responsible for the methane migration. All of the 14 properties either sold to Cabot or got their water systems repaired–except for two holdout families who were riding the horse of hope that they could sue Cabot for big money and retire millionaires. For a time, it appeared their plan worked. Last year, in March 2016, a trial took place in Scranton. It was a sham trial, with the lawyer for the two families engaging in borderline unethical practices in the courtroom in her attempt to influence the jury. One of the two families admitted, under oath on the witness stand, that their water had too much methane in it BEFORE Cabot Oil & Gas began to drill nearby. The same family, the Elys, later built a 22-room, $1 million mansion on the same property AFTER they admit there was trouble with the water. And yet the jury found Cabot at fault and awarded the Elys $2.75 million. The other family suing Cabot got $1.49 million. As we said at the time: “That’s called brain-dead. A total miscarriage of justice–stupidity on the same level as the OJ Simpson jury” (see Dimock Jury Levies $4.24M Judgement Against Cabot in Dimock Case). Indeed it was brain-dead, as we now see from a federal court which heard Cabot’s appeal. On Friday a federal judge tossed out the $4.24 million verdict against Cabot, calling the evidence against Cabot “spare, sometimes contradictory, frequently rebutted by other scientific expert testimony, and relied in some measure upon tenuous inferences” (full copy of the ruling below). Unfortunately the judge did not find for Cabot and dismiss the case, but instead ordered a new/second trial. However, the new trial will not happen in state court amateur hour–instead it will happen in federal court–IF it happens…
    Read More “Fed Court Overturns $4.2M Dimock Judgement Against Cabot O&G”

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    Atlantic Sunrise Uses Eminent Domain in Northeast & Central PA

    As sometimes happens, Williams has had to file 27 eminent domain lawsuits against landowners in northeastern and central Pennsylvania–landowners who have refused to negotiate with the company to allow the now FERC-approved Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline to cross their property. We understand the reluctance of some landowners who would rather not have the pipeline cross their property. But we also understand the necessity of the project–and the need to be reasonable. Some landowners are not reasonable. And so eminent domain is a rare, option-of-last-resort necessity in those cases. But don’t shed too many tears for landowners now being sued. One PA landowner in Luzerne County (Wilkes-Barre area) was originally offered $260,000 for an easement on 7.6 acres of land ($34,211/acre!). He refused. The price has now dropped to $225,000. Guess he should have signed before eminent domain was on the table…
    Read More “Atlantic Sunrise Uses Eminent Domain in Northeast & Central PA”

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    New Bill Would Goose PA DEP to Approve Drilling Permits Faster

    Pennsylvania State Rep. Jason Ortitay, Republican who represents of Washington and Allegheny counties in southwestern PA, last week introduced PA House Bill (HB) 1003 which would require the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to compile, organize and list all permits related to oil and gas drilling in two places: in one location in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, and on the DEP website. At first blush this seemed a bit odd to us. In the past MDN published a research report called the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook. In producing that work, MDN editor Jim Willis would regularly (3x per year) access DEP permit data–which is available from the DEP website. Granted, the information is not the easiest to find, and when you locate it, you must download it and suck it into a database to get any meaningful value out of it. However, on a basic level, permit data IS available to the public from the DEP website–right now. We read a copy of the proposed bill (see it below). MDN’s takeaway after reading the bill: This bill has more to do with “encouraging” the DEP to speed up permit approvals than it does with making information publicly available…
    Read More “New Bill Would Goose PA DEP to Approve Drilling Permits Faster”

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    Big New Housing Complex Planned Near Shell Ethane Cracker

    Positive economic signs continue to pop up with respect to Shell’s multi-billion dollar ethane cracker project in Beaver County, PA. Here’s the latest major economic impact from the project. A local developer has filed for a state grant to build a massive new housing project 2.5 miles from the cracker site. The new project calls for 450 housing units, retail space, a golf course, swimming pool and parking garage. What’s that? What happens after the cracker is built and the “temporary” workers, who would be living in this new complex for the next 5-10 years, leave? Great question! Answer: Turn it into a retirement community…
    Read More “Big New Housing Complex Planned Near Shell Ethane Cracker”

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    Marcus Hook Propane Exports Heat Up

    Marcus Hook

    Over the past five years the U.S. has flipped from being a net importer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, or propane and butane), to being a net exporter. Why? Yep–shale drilling. Most of the LPG getting exported goes from the Gulf Coast. However, Sunoco Logistics’ Marcus Hook terminal near Philadelphia is now online and has, over the past 12 months, begun to make a big impact on the LPG export market. RBN Energy, with some of the best analysts in the business, recently turned their analytic eye on LPG in the northeast and provided a very interesting update on what’s happening at Marcus Hook. How much LPG is being exported–and where is it going?…
    Read More “Marcus Hook Propane Exports Heat Up”

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    Williams Closes Deal to Increase Ownership in NEPA Pipeline System

    Click for larger version

    In 2014 Williams bought out Access Midstream, the renamed and former division of Chesapeake Energy called Chesapeake Midstream (see Big News: Williams Partners Buying Access Midstream for $6B). When Williams bought Access, one of the regional pipeline gathering systems it got as part of that deal is what Williams calls the Bradford Supply Hub (named after Bradford County, PA). In February, Williams announced a deal with a part-owner for portions of the Bradford Supply Hub, Western Gas, to buy out Western’s portion (see Williams Cuts Deal to Increase Ownership in NEPA Pipeline System). Through an elaborate deal, Williams gets Western’s 33.75% ownership stake in what is called the Rome and Liberty natural gas gathering systems (part of the Bradford Supply Hub), along with a check for $155 million. In return, Williams is transferring to Western its 50% ownership stake in the Delaware Basin JV Gathering pipeline system, located along the New Mexico/Texas border. That deal, first announced in February, is now done…
    Read More “Williams Closes Deal to Increase Ownership in NEPA Pipeline System”

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    PA Court Says Snyder Bros Wells are Strippers, No Impact Fees Due

    In 2014 MDN brought you the interesting story of strippers in the Marcellus–stripper wells, that is (see High-Priced Strippers in PA: Semantic Gymnastics with Impact Fee). Synder Brothers is an oil/gas producer in Pennsylvania. Most of the wells they drill are vertical-only wells. Among them are 24 wells from 2011 and 21 wells from 2012 that are vertical only–but all targeting the Marcellus. According to the definition of a stripper well under the Act 13 law passed in 2012, a well qualifies as a stripper well if it doesn’t produce over 90 thousand cubic feet (Mcf) of natural gas per day for at least one month. Synder Bros. says although their wells may have produced over 90 Mcf in some months, they didn’t produce that much in at least one month during the years in question. Ergo, their wells qualify as stripper wells and not liable to pay an impact fee. The PA Public Utility Commission (PUC), charged with evaluating what does and does not qualify, said nope–your wells target the Marcellus formation and produced above 90 Mcf for “at least” one month out of the year, therefore must pay the impact fee. So the PUC sued Snyder Bros., intending to collect $500,000 in unpaid fees PLUS a $50,000 fine for inconveniencing the PUC (see PA PUC Sues Snyder Bros to Collect $500K in Unpaid Impact Fees). In January of this year, more than a year after first hearing the case, PA Commonwealth Court wanted to hear it all over again (see High-Priced PA Strippers Go Back to Court, Impact Fee Semantics). The court has finally ruled: the law clearly means if production is less than 90 Mcf in any single month, that well is a stripper. Snyder Bros. doesn’t have to pay the $500K impact fee on those wells…
    Read More “PA Court Says Snyder Bros Wells are Strippers, No Impact Fees Due”

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    Wayne Co. Landowner Welcomes Decision in Dismissed DRBC Lawsuit

    As MDN reported, last week U.S. District Judge Robert Mariani ruled against a Wayne County landowner in a lawsuit that challenged the right of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to stop fracking in the Delaware River Basin (see Judge Tosses Wayne County, PA Landowner Lawsuit Against DRBC). At first blush this may see like a setback for landowners in Wayne and Pike Counties who have been denied the right to lease and allow drilling under their land for the past 10 years. But looks can be deceiving. As we pointed out in our article, if you read the judge’s decision, he harpoons all of the DRBC’s legal arguments, but in the end rules against the landowner. Why? Because that judge wanted to send this case to a higher court for an ultimate decision–the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. In fact, Judge Mariani set up the appeal of the case perfectly, we’d say intentionally, and that has the DRBC and their cohorts at THE Delaware Riverkeeper really nervous. It also has the Wayne Land and Minerals Group, the plaintiff in the case, really happy. MDN friend Tom Shepstone (Natural Gas Now) does a superb job of analyzing Mariani’s decision, and in predicting where things will (rapidly) go from here…
    Read More “Wayne Co. Landowner Welcomes Decision in Dismissed DRBC Lawsuit”