THE Delaware Riverkeeper Plans to Pack DRBC Hearing to Oppose PennEast
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), charged with overseeing potential impacts on the Delaware River and the various tributaries that feed it, has stepped outside of its legal bounds with plans to review the PennEast Pipeline, part of which will run through the Delaware River Basin area. In 2014 the DRBC tried to tell PennEast and its sponsors that the pipeline will need their approval before it can be built (see DRBC Tells PennEast They Need DRBC (Not Just FERC) Approval). There’s just one teeny tiny problem with the DRBC’s plan. It’s called the U.S. Constitution. PennEast is permitted solely by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), not any other agency including the quasi-governmental DRBC. PennEast told DRBC as much (see PennEast Tells DRBC Not So Fast, FERC has Final Say on Pipeline). But silly little things like laws don’t stop power-mad liberals like those at the DRBC. FERC, in a bid to be gracious to the libs at DRBC, agreed to hold one joint hearing on the PennEast with the DRBC (see Anti Drillers Demand DRBC Hold 7 Meetings on PennEast Pipeline). But then the DRBC has decided it will take its marbles and go home–telling FERC to blank-off, that DRBC will hold their own hearings (plural) on the PennEast (see DRBC’s Lawless Action to Review PennEast Pipeline Apart from FERC). The time has come. On March 15 the DRBC will proceed with its lawless action in holding a hearing, and DRBC friend and confidant, Maya van Rossum (THE Delaware Riverkeeper) has issued an email to her legion of mind-numbed robots to hound the DRBC about speaking slots at the hearing, so they can create the illusion that most folks are against the project. She’s also planning to pack the meeting room with hippies and ne’er–do–wells in “stop penneast” t-shirts, holding up signs…
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Yesterday MDN editor Jim Willis had the pleasure of attending, and moderating two panel sessions, at the Oil & Gas Awards 2017 Northeast Industry Summit in Pittsburgh. (Jim is back in Binghamton today, very tired!) When the sessions are made available via video, Jim will post them here on MDN. In the meantime a few words about the sessions and presenters, and about what we consider some pretty big news coming out of yesterday’s meeting. The day began with MDN friend George Stark, Director of External Affairs for Cabot Oil & Gas, making an impassioned plea for everyone in the industry to get involved with telling the great story of our beloved industry. Don’t think it’s someone else’s role–it’s the role of every single person in the industry, from janitor to secretary to CEO. George gave a rousing, opening address. George was followed by a panel discussion led by MDN friend Charlie Schliebs, Managing Director of Stone Pier Capital. Charlie’s panel tackled some interesting topics about mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies, and where they see the price of natural gas going over the next several years. After Charlies panel was a panel discussing pipeline projects. The moderator was Fred Lowther, a partner at powerhouse energy law firm Blank Rome. Fred, who once worked on the Iroquois Gas Transmission Pipeline project when it was being built, said over the years since that pipeline was built he’s often joked they failed to do a “celebrity impact statement” when building it. Liked that line! After Fred’s panel was a talk given by Michael Krancer, also with Blank Rome (and former Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection). Mike is always a take-no-prisoners presenter. We’ve always loved the way he thinks and expresses himself. Yesterday was no different. It was during Mike’s talk that we found what we believe was the most important thing said yesterday. It has to do with PA’s proposed General Permit 5A. Mike said if GP-5A is enacted as written, it will result in a 12-18 month moratorium on production in Pennsylvania…
The Allegheny Institute exists to conduct research, education and advocacy work in a mission to defend taxpayers and businesses against burdensome taxation, inefficiency and intrusiveness of an ever expanding government. That’s a pretty tall order because government–at all levels–is always expanding, like a voracious monster. Think of the Allegheny Institute as a mini version of the Heritage Foundation–focused on Pennsylvania. Last week the Institute published a new policy brief dealing with the latest severance tax proposal by PA Gov. Tom Wolf. This is a think piece–but not overly heavy. It is quite readable (within a few minutes) and delivers food for thought. As the author points out, you can change to a severance tax from an impact fee (i.e. tax), but will you really reap all of the revenue claimed? Politicians like Wolf often gloss over the economics. Currently, the impact fee is levied on drillers. A severance tax, if enacted, would (in many/most cases) be deducted as an expense from royalty checks, placing the burden for the tax on landowners–and lowering their income, which means less in the way of state income tax revenues. The severance tax proposed by Wolf, when considered honestly, is nothing short of a disaster…
A fake report recently issued by the anti-drilling, radically left and biased Public Herald (populated with activists masquerading as “journalists”) claims that some 9,400 residents in Pennsylvania have filed complaints that fracking has caused them ill-health in one way or the other. It is, according to anti-drillers, a public health “crisis.” How do we know this so-called report is TOTAL BS? Look at who wrote it, and look at who funded it: community organizers wrote it, the Heinz Foundation funded it. This is another sterling example of Joseph Goebbels-like propaganda. The Harrisburg Patriot-News allowed one such community organizer/anti-fossil fueler to run an article on the opinion-editorial page touting the report as legitimate. You can fool some of the people some of the time…
Cabot Oil & Gas is one of the premier drillers in the Marcellus Shale. They drill in a single Pennsylvania county–Susquehanna County. They consistently have 15 of the top 20 producing shale wells in PA. By our back-of-the-envelope estimation, Cabot, all by itself, drilling in one county, delivers something like 3% of all the natural gas produced in the entire country! It is an amazing story. What’s even more amazing is the big heart the company has. Woven into the Cabot DNA is giving back to the communities where they drill. It would take several posts to recount all of Cabot’s largess. We’ll mention just two cases. In 2012 Cabot donated $2 million and helped raise another $2.2 million (for a total of $4.2 million) to help build a new physicians clinic/hospital in Montrose, PA (see 
In July 2014, MDN told you the water wells for two of three families living near a WPX recycled frack wastewater impoundment (i.e. “pond”), near Ligonier (Westmoreland County), PA, were determined to have been contaminated by that impoundment. That is, the Kalp impoundment leaked into the ground, according to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), and that caused a long-term problem with those wells (see 
Across the Keystone State (i.e. Pennsylvania), the shale revolution is “boosting agriculture,” says a farm expert. How? By providing new sources of capital (cash) to buy new equipment, more livestock, fix buildings, etc. Shale is also lowering the cost of fuel and fertilizer for farmers. And it provides jobs for members of farming families–bringing in an important new income stream. It is not an overstatement to say that shale is literally saving the family farm in PA…
One of the big success stories about Marcellus drilling in Pennsylvania is the money generated from state land leased for oil and gas drilling. You may recall two governors ago Democrat Gov. Ed Rendell was hell bent for leather in leasing state-owned land for drilling ON said land. After his voracious appetite for money was sated and his Democrat cronies in the legislature spent (“blew”) all $444 million of it, Rendell tried to pretend that he’s an environmentalist by slapping an executive order–a moratorium–on any more leasing of state-owned land. Hypocrite. The next Governor, Tom Corbett, lifted that moratorium with an executive order of his own so that another $75 million of badly needed revenue could be raised by leases for drilling under (not on) state land. Then along came the disastrous Tom Wolf. He immediately signed a new executive order banning any new leases on state-owned land (see 
Several southwest Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers (and a Democrat lawmaker) addressed the League of [Liberal Democrat] Women Voters at the group’s annual question-and-answer session with area legislators in Washington, PA on Friday. The Lib Dems attending likely got more than what they bargained for, as the legislators who addressed them stuck up for fossil fuels. The moderator asked a question about so-called clean energy jobs and investing, and promptly got schooled about REAL clean energy–i.e., fossil fuels!…
Clearlake Capital Group, a private investment firm with gobs of money ($3 billion of assets under management) has purchased a Texas oilfield services company, Globe Energy Services, and a Texas-based industrial equipment rental company, Light Tower Rentals (LTR) and has merged them together into a new company called GlobeLTR. Details of the transaction (how much Clearlake paid) were not disclosed. What does this M&A story have to do with the Marcellus? According to its website, LTR has a meaningful operation in the Marcellus Shale (in Oakdale, PA, not far from Pittsburgh), and while the combined new OFS company will mainly target business in the expanding Permian Basin in Texas, it will also continue operations in other areas, including the Marcellus. Does that mean drilling and fracking (i.e. “pressure pumping”) services will be added to the existing equipment rental business in the Marcellus? We don’t know–but it’s certainly something to keep an eye on…
An interesting article in the Harrisburg Patriot-News looks (favorably) at a trouble-making anti from Lancaster County, PA who participated in the illegal activities at Standing Rock, ND. He earnestly hopes he can attract that kind of disruption and mayhem to peaceful Amish Country in an attempt to stop the Transco Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project from getting built. But just like Standing Rock, this effort will fail. What we found interesting is that this is an open admission of something we’ve been reporting (warning about) for months–that some of the miscreants from North Dakota are targeting the Marcellus/Utica for their next round of anarchy. There’s nothing “peaceful” about what these people do…
Anti-drilling zealots are sometimes maddening, sometimes funny, and often just plain bizarre. As they are with their latest publicity attack (aided and abetted by PBS reporters) by claiming a couple of townships along the pipeline’s proposed route have ordinances in place that would potentially stop the pipeline in those locations “if only” those lazy, corrupt townships would just enforce the ordinances. That’s the upshot of the argument. One of the towns, Thornbury (Delaware County, a Philly suburb) has a requirement that the subdivision where the pipeline will run must maintain at least 40% of the land in the subdivision as “open space.” The antis claim the pipeline will use enough acreage to reduce the “open space” to below 40%. Ah, Mr. & Ms. Anti, did you know that the pipeline will run underground? And that pipelines lead to MORE permanent open spaces? Nice green fairways that are well-maintained? Lawyers from the usual radical suspects are getting ready to file lawsuits for “force” the townships to pay money defending against this latest inanity…
In December 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 
Rice Energy turned in it’s 2016 update this week, along with a look at what’s coming in 2017. As for top line financial numbers, Rice lost about the same in 2016 as they did in 2015: A loss off $298 million in 2016 vs. a loss of $291 million in 2015. Although Rice owns and drills on a small acreage position in the Texas Barnett Shale, the vast majority of their focus continues to be in the Marcellus/Utica. The company plans to spend $1.5 billion in 2017, broken out as follows: $1.035 billion for drilling and completion activity in the Marcellus/Utica shale plays; $225 million for land purchases; and $315 million spent by Rice Midstream ($255 million for gas gathering and compression and $60 million on water services). With that money, Rice expects to drill 75 new wells and complete another 55 wells in the Marcellus in 2017. In the Utica, Rice plans to drill 20 new wells and complete 20 wells in 2017. Land acquisition will happen in three counties: Greene and Washington Counties (in PA), and Belmont County (in OH). How much will they pay, on average, to lease new acreage? We have an answer for that…
As we reported earlier this week, Sunoco Logistics Partners has begun active construction activities related to building the twin Mariner East 2 pipelines (see